In the swampy Petén karst the Maya built their first great city, El Mirador, crowning it with La Danta — among the largest pyramids on Earth by volume — linked to neighbors by raised limestone causeways.
El Mirador and the Mirador Basin cities collapsed and were largely abandoned around 150 AD, centuries before the Classic-era florescence shifted south to Tikal.
The atlas holds 2 border frames for Preclassic Maya (El Mirador) — the shape you scrub through changes in 600 BC · 200 BC.
The standard introduction to Maya civilization, including Preclassic El Mirador and the Petén.
A broad synthesis of lowland Maya history from Preclassic origins (broad regional context).