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The Mirador Basin is a natural geographical basin of low-land mountains that contains a group of the most important archaeological sites in Mesoamerica. The Danta and Tigre Pyramids at the site of El Mirador, for example, are the two largest in the Americas and pre-date the famous Maya city of Tikal by 500-1000 years, making the sites of Mirador and Nakbe the oldest centers of civilization known. The Mirador Basin has been documented in over 320 scientific publications, and is believed by many scholars to be the Cradle of Mayan Civilization.

Until recently, scholars believed the Olmecs of Mexico to have been the "mother culture" of Mesoamerican civilizations, including the Maya. Mirador Basin settlements have now been dated to as early as 1000-300 BC, predating most ancient Maya cities, and demonstrating a contemporaneous Maya occupation at the same time as nearby Olmec societies.

From an environmental research and archaeological perspective, Mirador Basin's origins as the Cradle of Maya Civilization with extensive ancient pyramids and monument complexes provide a still undamaged archaeological record, and offers an unparalleled resource for understanding the origins of early civilization in the Americas. Mirador Basin is also one of the most important wildlife habitats and tropical rainforest ecosystems for Central America in the coming centuries.

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© GHF/FARES/NASA

The site of El Mirador itself covers over 10 square kilometers and has the greatest concentration of civic and religious buildings in the Maya world, far larger and over 500-1000 years older than nearby Tikal. The Danta Pyramid, rising 230 feet, is the greatest structure the Maya ever built, and both it and the slightly smaller Tigre Pyramid dwarf even the largest structures in Mexico or anywhere else in the Mayan world. More importantly, the Pre-Classic Maya cities of the Mirador Basin were abandoned shortly after the time of Christ, largely preserving their unique history intact, without major destruction from subsequent occupations.

Large building complexes, platforms, monumental art, stone monuments, and sophisticated agricultural systems found at El Mirador, Wakna, Xulnal, and Nakbe demonstrate a sophisticated civilization linked by an intricate system of causeways joining the major cities in the Basin as early as 600 to 400 BC. From 300 BC to AD 200, the area was dominated by a superstate society and El Mirador was a major center for early Maya civilization.

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