January 28, 2011 (Exploring El Pilar: "The Watering Basin")

On the morning of Friday, January 28 I awoke at the stroke of six o'clock AM to loud sounds coming from the street (our hotel room was just feet from Burns Avenue-- the "main drag" of San Ignacio Town). I had been having a bad dream about my old job-- and happily rolled over for a couple more hours of sleep. Today my Canadian roommate had decided to spend the three-day weekend visiting Flores in Guatemala-- which is only about an hour by bus and taxi from San Ignacio-- with his friend Susan from England. I wanted to see the nearby Maya site called "El Pilar" so I "held down the fort" at the Tropicool Hotel. We talked about possibly meeting at "Tikal" in Guatemala on Saturday. As Kirby left I told him I would try to be at the main entrance to Tikal about 10:00 AM on Saturday. My mission today was to try to arrange for a good deal on transportation to El Pilar for today and Tikal for Saturday.

My good friend Manny ("the mayor of San Ignacio") had lined me up with a private driver named “Leon” for my trip to El Pilar. Leon had agreed drive me to the site and back -- and even wait for me for a couple hours while I explored -- for the extremely reasonable fee of US$45.00. This was a particularly good deal because the seven + miles of gravel road from the nearby town of Bullet Tree Falls was brutally rough and had to be terrible for Leon’s tires and taxi cab. Leon picked me up at the Tropicool about 9:30 AM and we headed out to the site (approximately 12 miles northwest of San Ignacio Town).

Leon and His Taxi Cab after Arriving at El Pilar

Just getting to El Pilar is part of the adventure, traversing through the range of environments present in the Maya forest along the El Pilar road. Starting from the valley farmland of Bullet Tree Falls, the gravel road rises uphill through a patchwork of dense jungle, limestone cliffs, and freshly cleared farmland before finally encountering the site. The caretaker house and its cheerful flower garden welcome visitors. El Pilar recreates the experience of the first archaeologists who explored and mapped the site. For the most part, the monuments have been left shrouded under the protective carpet of nature. Trees have been allowed to shade the main plazas, providing a cool refuge in the otherwise hot and sunny tropics. This emphasis on the ecosystem creates a magical atmosphere of a lost city in the jungle, full of exotic flora and fauna that are fast becoming scarce.

Many of the Structures at El Pilar Have Either Not Been Excavated or Have Been Covered Back Up

A big part of the reason archaeologists have left the El Pilar in virtually un-touched condition is that the deterioration of the limestone structures accelerates rapidly when the structures are excavated and exposed to the elements. These sites and artefacts are seldom discovered in well-preserved state, and they are among the most vulnerable of human cultural heritage that have suffered extensive damage. Archaeological excavation is destructive, and the removal of artefacts from sites has often caused abrupt changes to their ambient preserving conditions. As most archaeological sites and artefacts are already in the advanced state of deterioration, exposure to high temperature and high relative humidity, especially in Central American and Asian countries-- causes further damage to our cultural heritage. Other factors such as air pollution, chemical action of light and bio-degradation caused by fungus and insect attack have also brought about the deterioration of these materials. When we arrived at the park-- approximately 12 miles northwest of San Ignacio Town - I was amazed to see that I was El Pilar's only visitor! I did not see any other visitors for the 2 1/2 hours I was at the site! The entry fee to the park was only US$5.00! In contrast to the other Maya sites I had visited -- and Tikal that I would be visiting tomorrow - El Pilar was totally unique. There were no vendors or any commercial offerings anywhere to be seen, and the vast majority of the site appeared to be totally unexcavated. Throughout the day I felt like I had just "discovered" the site and was the first person from the "New World" to see the remnants of a civilization that had thrived on this site over 1000 years ago! I felt like "Indiana Jones"!!

One of the Numerous Beautiful Plazas at El Pilar

If you were flying overhead in an airplane, and the plane dipped its wings toward the jungle canopies of Belize, there would not be much to tell the lay person about what lies beneath the towering trees. There is little sign of what archaeologists have been surveying for almost 30 years. Neither is there any sign of political boundaries from the air. But it is under this canopy that the Maya monuments of El Pilar lie, stretching over an area of 100 acres. This site is very different from the sites that most tour groups visit. It is not uncovered to the extent of Xunantunich or Caracol, for example. Actually, almost nothing at El Pilar is uncovered, except a few places where archaeologists are currently working. When work is complete, they cover the area back up again. The cost of excavation is high, but the cost to maintain uncovered sites is way beyond the budget for the El Pilar project. This place is fascinating for those with knowledge or familiarity with other sites and the ability to imagine this site based off that experience and knowledge. The El Pilar model has focused on aspects at the site rarely displayed within the realm of the Mundo Maya and in so doing has created a new niche for those looking for a genuine Maya forest experience off the beaten track. Tours of the Maya monuments have drawn increasingly more visitors and have always focused on aspects that provide the best examples of a facet of the ancient Maya life. Tikal is popular for its massive size, Palenque for its abundance of inscriptions, Copan for its elegance. When it comes to sites that offer a view of monuments in the natural surroundings of the Maya forest, El Pilar is in a class by itself.

In order to recover and in some cases to save these sites and artefacts, conservation treatment may be required in the field as well as in the laboratory. Given that an archaeological site is often discovered in an advanced state of deterioration, its protection and preservation becomes a challenging task. In many countries, archaeological sites have been subjected to the constant threat of destruction due to the rapid pace of development in the country. Sites have been uncovered and damaged during and as a result of excavation as well as such projects as the construction of highways, roads, opening of farmlands, building of dams, and housing projects. Cave sites that often contained important archaeological evidence have been destroyed in many countries.

Some of the Ruins at El Pilar Have Been Excavated as Shown here

Today, the ruins of El Pilar show that it was once the primary administrative center for the Belize River area, filled with Maya plazas, temples, and palaces that were built over a course of 15 centuries (from 500 BC to 1000 AD). In 1972, Dr. Joseph Palacio and Harriet Topsey first recorded the ancient Maya site for the Belize Department of Archaeology. But El Pilar’s full size and extent would not be fully realized for another decade. In 1983, Anabel Ford of the University of California at Santa Barbara made a trip to El Pilar. The trip led to the establishment of an initial survey and mapping project named the Belize River Archaeological Settlement Survey (BRASS)/El Pilar Program.

My Favorite Memory of El Pilar Was the View of Guatamala from the Top of "the Lookout"

The primary objective of the BRASS program is to explore the ways this ancient society developed its relationship to the resources and environment of the Maya forest around it. “It is the past that will illuminate the present and prepare a path for the future”. The original plan for preserving El Pilar in Belize has grown into an unprecedented multi-national program. Encompassing the remains of the ancient Maya community of El Pilar, this program is complete with plans to develop further research, preserve and cultivate the native resources of the jungle surrounding the center, and participate in improving living standards for Belizeans in the vicinity. The program has already attracted professionals from a wide variety of fields, from archaeology to zoology. Plans for the future development of the El Pilar Archaeological Reserve call for the park to encompass Pilar Poniente, the western sector of greater El Pilar located across the border in Guatemala and connected via an ancient Maya causeway. Just as political boundaries are invisible from the air, the BRASS Program believes that the needs and desires of people transcend politics. There has already been a great deal of interest shown from both Belize and Guatemala, and from neighboring Mexico as well.

The name for the site comes from the Spanish word for a watering basin - "pilar". The site lies in the middle of the Belize River area and was famous among the Maya as the place which provided precious water to the surrounding area. The strategic keys to the prominence of El Pilar included three factors: First, the soil in the area was very fertile. Second, El Pilar is located on the river that links Tikal with the Caribbean Sea. Finally, the plentiful water supplied by the nearby Macal and Mopan Rivers (which merge just two miles from the site to form the Belize River) insured the success of El Pilar's agricultural-based economy. Hidden beneath a gorgeous jungle canopy, the ruins of El Pilar straddle the Belize/Guatemalan border and spread across an area of over 100 acres. El Pilar is over four times the size of any of the other nearby Maya sites, and it is the largest site in the entire Belize River area. El Pilar encompasses more than 25 "plazas" and includes a network of five marked trails. Several of the trails provide long and beautiful hikes through an incredible jungle canopy with monkeys overhead and a remarkable sense of peace and serenity. The site has three primary sectors: The north (called "Xaman"); the south (called "Nohol"); and the west (called "Poniente"). At present, virtually all of the excavation and development-- and there has not very much excavation at this point-- is focused on the north and south sectors. The west sector (located in Guatemala) is virtually untouched. It is also "off limits" to visitors. El Pilar is one of the most recently "discovered" Maya sites. In the 1970s, El Pilar was first recorded with the Belize Department of Archaeology, but full scale investigation of El Pilar did not begin until 1993. The BRASS/El Pilar Program was started by Dr. Anabele Ford of the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1992. In 1997, El Pilar became Belize’s newest national park.

Historians believe that construction at El Pilar took place from 500 BC to 1000 AD. At its height, El Pilar included over a dozen large pyramids. Excavation has uncovered a broad variety of residential structures in addition to civic and ceremonial structures as well as housing compounds for the elite residents. Rooms with beautiful masonry, corbel vaults and monumental stairways have been uncovered. High quality, locally-quarried limestone was used for the structures.