Quirigua

I visited this WHS in Spring 2024 as a detour from Antigua Guatemala before heading to Copan, Honduras. It is rightly famous for its superbly carved and preserved sandstone stelae, 9 of which are protected only by thatched roofs. There are small information boards in front of each stele with hieroglyphic texts and sculpted calendars. The huge trees full of birds surrounding the current site of Quirigua are a mere reminder of the jungle which used to cover these stelae. Old photos of the site can be seen in the small on-site museum, together with photos of the recent flooding. The wooden UNESCO WHS plaque has been changed with another carved one recently.

Stelae A and C are nicknamed as the Creation Stones as they describe the Mayan Creation Myth in about 4 metres of sandstone. Stela K features Quiriguá's last ruler dressed in full regalia, while Stele D depicts Cauac Sky with his unusual beard, who was the most prolific and powerful ruler in Quirigua's history. Stela E is the largest monolithic monument ever erected in the New World and is 10.6 metres tall, with 3 metres of it sunk beneath the ground to hold it upright. Stela I is incredibly ornate and remarkably different from the other stelae in almost every respect. It is of little surprise that it was created by one of the last rulers, Jade Sky. Stela H is most unusual with diagonal date glyphs in groups of four. Another highlight is the Zoomorph …

I visited Quirigua during my trip to Guatemala in November and December 2021. I visited the site on my way from the town of Chiquimula (base for visiting Copán) to my waterfront hostel in Rio Dulce (Castillo de San Felipe de Lara is nearby). The bus from Chiquimula left me directly at the intersection of the main road and the path to the ruins, where I was able to catch a tuk-tuk to the site. I left my luggage at the reception and set off to explore the ruins.

Quirigua is rather small and can be visited quickly (I spent just over an hour there, taking my time and stopping frequently to try to identify the birds singing in the forest). Nevertheless, it contains treasures of Mayan art and culture. If their architecture and grandiose urbanism can be admired elsewhere, there is no better place than Quirigua and Copán to appreciate their stelae, sculptures and statues. The works in Quirigua are all protected by thatched roofs. This is wonderful for their preservation, but it creates shadows and backlighting that are difficult to manage for photos when the sun is shining.

Stela E (photo) rises 8 meters above the ground, weighs 60 tons and is the largest stela in the Maya world. The dozen other stelae are not to be missed, however, as are the gigantic zoomorphic sculptures. A monumental ceiba, the sacred tree of the Maya, stands in the middle of the Gran Plaza. At the …

This site hasn’t been reviewed for 13 years, so I think Quiriguá deserves to be put into the spotlights. With this visit, I also completed the list of 9 WHS connected to Mayan culture. And every time you think: “I’ve seen so many Maya sites already, what can this one possibly add?” But they all have different qualities. Quiriguá has the best-preserved sculptures.

The Quiriguá archaeological park has suffered severe hurricane damage from Eta and Iota in 2020 and has only reopened in June 2021. They had to remove 12 swimming pools full of mud and water, which left certain areas flooded up to 1.8m. 

During my visit in February 2022, nothing of that damage was visible anymore and the site looked very well cared for. At the entrance, you get a site-specific ticket and a booklet in English (both rare in Mexico or Central America). Signage is in both Spanish and English. There is a (new?) boardwalk that takes you along the monuments, so you don’t have to walk on the grass. It had been raining for 2 hours before my visit, and the ground had turned soggy again.

The site comprises a plaza where the sculptures have been resurrected and an acropolis with a few ruined buildings and a ball court. Parts of the site are also unexcavated, you can see unnatural hills where something must be hidden underneath. The sculptures often had fallen down or were broken when they were rediscovered in the …

I appreciate the way the various organizations that could have ruined Quirigua have preserved and beautified the site. It was a thrill for me to climb the large stone temple building and look back at those magnificent, tall, twisted trees surrounding the large carvings. I have been interested in the Mayan mystery ever since teaching 7th and 8th grade history in the 1980's. I am increasingly convinced that the people who built these incredible stone cities came from Egypt, probably on the reed boats. The building technique is so similar to the early Egyptian "step" pyramids.

I was in Bananera in, I think 1970, looking into the construction of worker housing. We were taken on hand-driven rail cars to the Quirigua site. One entered via a long tunnel through the jungle and suddenly exited onto the site. A breathless experience going from the dense jungle canopy unto this field of giant stelae. The field was quite well maintained. Some other excavations seemed to be in progress, but by whom? The United Fruit Company maintained the entrance and the grassy area where the stelae were, but were not involved with the excavations. The descriptions elsewhere on this site conform to mine. We went two or three times, but we met but one American backpacker. It is not Tikal, but the stelae are wonderful, indeed.

As an archaeologist, I found Quirigua interesting, but I do not recommend it to tourists. Stop if you happen to be passing by, and check out the tallest of all the Maya stelae and some cool zoomorphic sculptures. However, don't expect much else - the site is tiny, the environment is extremely muggy, and the artwork is a lower-quality knock-off of that at nearby Copan, Honduras. Definitely, definitely, definitely visit Copan! Copan and Tikal are the two Maya sites everyone should visit, in my opinion.

The ruins of Quirigua in Guatemala do not in any way compare with those of the “nearby” Mayan cities of Tikal and Copan or of those in Yucatan such as Palenque, Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Its main advantage is its relatively easy access from Guatemala City 220 kms away on the main highway to Puerto Barrios. If you have the time or are passing relatively near by on your way to Copan (with which Quirugia was closely associated culturally) or the coast then it is certainly worth the slight detour to take in this WHS.

Its main “glory” lies in the collection of “stelae”, 9 of which are laid out around a “football field sized” central grass plaza. The remainder of the city, which dates from 8th century is largely un-restored, so you will not see the profusion of ball courts and pyramids of other Mayan cities. The stelae are however considered the finest examples of Mayan carving anywhere and, because of the hardness of the local sandstone (elsewhere the Mayans tended to use limestone), have been preserved in amazing detail