ESCÁRCEGA, CAMPECHE.- Hidden beneath the dense tropical forest of Mexico’s Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve, the ancient Maya city of El Yesal is beginning to reveal its scale and history following the first detailed archaeological survey ever conducted at the site.
Although researchers have known about El Yesal for years, the settlement had previously received only brief visits. Its remote location in a heavily forested and largely unexplored region of Campeche had prevented archaeologists from carrying out a systematic investigation.
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That changed during a recent field season led by Ivan Šprajc of the Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. The project, authorized by Mexico’s Ministry of Culture through the Archaeology Council of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, is examining an area of the Maya Lowlands that remains poorly understood.
The team traveled to El Yesal after completing an initial phase of work that resulted in the discovery of another archaeological site, Minanbé.
“A detailed exploration had never been carried out,” Šprajc said, noting that the monumental center alone extends across more than one square kilometer.
“It is clearly one of the largest Maya cities in the Central Lowlands.”
Before entering the forest, researchers had already gained a sense of the city’s size through digital elevation models created from airborne laser scanning, commonly known as LiDAR. The technology allows archaeologists to see architectural remains and changes in the landscape beneath dense vegetation.
The survey was coordinated with the Silvituc ejido authorities and officials from the Balam Kú Biosphere Reserve. Reserve director Rodolfo Pineda Pérez said the archaeological work is especially significant because the protected area forms part of the Great Maya Forest Biocultural Corridor, established in 2025 to connect conservation areas across Mexico, Belize and Guatemala.
The project highlights the close relationship between the region’s natural and cultural heritage, bringing archaeological research into an area primarily known for its biodiversity.
Among the team’s most notable discoveries was the documentation of a badly eroded carved stela using photogrammetry. By combining large numbers of photographs, researchers created a detailed three-dimensional model of the monument.
Despite its damaged condition, the digital model revealed traces of a ruler holding what appears to be a staff. The figure also wears a headdress associated with Yopaat, the Maya storm god.
According to epigrapher Octavio Esparza Olguín of the National Autonomous University of Mexico’s Center for Maya Studies, the headdress may have formed part of the ruler’s name or royal identity.
The team also surveyed El Yesal’s monumental core and several architectural groups on the outskirts of the city.
At the southern end of the central zone stands a massive acropolis built on a square platform measuring approximately 150 meters on each side. The platform rises as much as 15 meters above the natural terrain and supports four pyramidal structures.
The tallest pyramid rises another 27 meters above the platform.
Archaeologist Atasta Flores Esquivel said the Great Acropolis shares architectural and spatial similarities with other Maya centers, including Edzná during its Petén-style phase. Some of its features may date to the Early Classic period or even earlier phases of Maya civilization.
Test excavations in the Great Acropolis and the nearby North Acropolis produced ceramic fragments associated with the Mamom and Chicanel traditions.
Although the pottery is still awaiting detailed analysis, the finds suggest that El Yesal may have been founded around 2,500 years ago, during the Middle or Late Preclassic periods.
The settlement continued to grow over many centuries. In the northern sector, researchers identified extensive construction dating to the Late Classic period, between approximately A.D. 600 and 900.
During that time, the city expanded through the construction of large terraces, plazas, courtyards and monumental buildings. Some peripheral groups were built on hills and include embankments and terraces that may have served defensive purposes.
Another intriguing discovery was made beside the Great Acropolis, where archaeologists identified a series of low, narrow and elongated buildings arranged in concentric circles or rectangles.
The researchers have described them as “nested complexes.” Their arrangement resembles the Chiik Nahb complex at Calakmul and suggests that they may once have functioned as markets.
If that interpretation is confirmed, the structures could provide valuable evidence about trade, economic organization and daily life at El Yesal.
The new survey marks only the beginning of research at the site, but it has already established El Yesal as an important regional center with a long history stretching from the Preclassic into the Classic period.
Šprajc said future investigation may help clarify the city’s political and economic relationships with other major centers in the region, including Calakmul, Balamkú and Uitzilná.
For now, the first detailed exploration of El Yesal is offering archaeologists a rare opportunity to study one of the largest and least-known ancient cities hidden within the forests of the central Maya Lowlands.
