El Pilar is an ancient Mayan city center covering more than 120 acres in the border area of Belize and Guatemala. The site has been dated at around 800 BC. It is an elaborate collection of mysterious structures, like pyramids, plazas and causeways.
Archaeologists intend to keep the stuctures at El Pilar as they are, covered by dense tropical forest, while mapping the area through remote sensing techniques. This method has already delivered new insights – and questions – about the ways of life of the ancient Maya.
One can only wonder how big the area will turn out to be. And here is another question: can mysterious structures like El Pilar actually be much older than we know? Who did all this, and what were the structures for? Were these really “just” early civilizations, with some religious and some economic structures?
Maybe the new archaeological methods will reveal more than we expect ..