El Mirador

El Mirador ('The Lookout') is a large pre-Columbian Maya settlement of the Middle and Late Preclassic period in the north of the department of El Petén, Guatemala. It flourished from about the 6th century BCE to the 1st century CE; its La Danta temple, about 72 metres tall and 2,800,000 cubic metres in volume, is one of the largest pyramids in the world. Raised causeways (sacbeob) 20 to 50 metres wide linked it with Nakbe, El Tintal and other cities of the Mirador Basin. The site was abandoned by about 150 CE, perhaps partly through soil erosion caused by deforestation, was reoccupied on a smaller scale around 700 CE and was nearly completely abandoned again by about 900 CE.