page_title: Maya Biosphere Reserve
section_title: Archaeology
hierarchical_section_title: Maya Biosphere Reserve / Archaeology
caption_attribution_description: English: Temple I on The Great Plaza and North Acropolis seen from Temple II in Tikal, Guatemala, just after noon during the Mayan mid-winter/winter solstice/new year celebrations
context_page_description: The Maya Biosphere Reserve is a nature reserve in Guatemala managed by Guatemala's National Council of Protected Areas. The Maya Biosphere Reserve covers an area of 21,602 km, one-fifth of the country's total land area.
  The park is home to a large number of species of fauna including Morelet's crocodile and the ocellated turkey. It is also rich in flora including breadnut, mahogany, Swietenia humilis, Bloma prisca, Vitex gaumeri, cedar, Bucida buceras, Haematoxylum campechianum, Rhizophora mangle, and Pimenta dioica. The area ranges from wetlands, to low mountain ranges, and has several bodies of water, including lakes, rivers, streams and cenotes.
  The Reserve was created in 1990 to protect the largest area of American tropical forest remaining north of the Amazon. The biosphere reserve model, implemented by UNESCO, seeks to promote a balance between human activities and the biosphere by including sustainable economic development in conservation planning.
context_section_description: The Maya Biosphere Reserve is home to a large concentration of ancient Maya cities, many of which are under excavation. Tikal is the most famous of these, attracting about 120,000 to 180,000 visitors per year.
  The Mirador Basin, in the northern part of the Reserve, contains numerous interconnected Maya cities. The project is directed by Richard Hansen, an archaeologist at El Mirador, the largest of the sites, dating from the preclassic Maya period. Other cities in the region include El Tintal, Nakbe, and Wakna.
  In 2018, 60.000 uncharted structures were revealed by archaeologists with help of the revolutionary technology lasers called 'lidar' in the northern Guatemala. The project was mapped near the Maya Biosphere Reserve. Unlike previous assumptions, thanks to the new findings, archaeologists believe that 7-11 million Maya people inhabited in the northern Guatemala during the late classical period from 650 to 800 A.D. Lidar technology digitally removed the tree canopy to reveal ancient remains and showed that Maya cities like Tikal were bigger than previously thought. Houses, palaces, elevated highways, and defensive fortifications were unearthed because of the Lidar. According to the archaeologist Stephen Houston, it is overwhelming finding in over 150 years of Maya archaeology.
caption: The Tikal plaza in December 2010
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