Calakmul Archaeological Zone

Calakmul was the seat of the Kaan or Snake Kingdom, the superpower whose long rivalry with Tikal for supremacy over the Maya lowlands shaped the political history of the Classic period across the Peten basin. Through alliances, marriages and warfare recorded on its monuments, Calakmul's rulers extended influence over a network of vassal cities stretching well beyond the immediate site, making it one of the two largest and most powerful Maya states of its era. More than 120 carved stelae survive across the site, recording the deeds and lineage of its kings, and excavated royal tombs have yielded jade funerary masks and rich burial goods now displayed partly at the Museo de Arqueologia Maya in Campeche city. The site's central monument, Structure II, is among the largest pyramids in the Maya world by volume, rising in stepped terraces over a base covering several hectares and still partly shrouded in the surrounding rainforest canopy. UNESCO inscribed Calakmul as a World Heritage Site in 2002 for its cultural remains and extended the designation in 2014 to recognise the surrounding Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, making it Mexico's only mixed cultural-and-natural World Heritage property. Excavation has focused on the core plazas and major structures, leaving much of the roughly 6,000 identified structures across the wider urban area unexcavated within the forest.