Major highland Maya center in the Valley of Guatemala, occupied continuously from the Middle Preclassic through the Early Postclassic; one of the most influential Preclassic-through-Classic Maya polities, distinct from the lowland Petén centers.
Declined through the Postclassic and was gradually abandoned by c. 1200 CE; the site was later swallowed up by the expansion of modern Guatemala City, with only a fraction of the original ~5 sq km ruin field preserved as a park.
Foundational excavation report from the Carnegie Institution project that first defined the site's chronology.