For those who come to Guatemala to see some Mayan ruins, that experience typically starts and ends at the largest and best excavated of the Mayan cities: Tikal. That is how I spent my first trip to this part of Guatemala back in 2019. And while those prioritizing Tikal are entirely correct to do so (click here to read about Tikal), there are quite literally hundreds of Mayan sites in the northern Guatemalan jungle. Some are small, some are larger. None is remotely as well traveled as is Tikal.

So when it came time to plan this iteration of Guatemalan travel, I knew I had to go back to Tikal. But I wanted to see something else and have a second Mayan experience. After looking up tour options, I chose the city of Yaxha.

After spending the night in Flores following my Tikal visit, I was picked up to begin this second Mayan chapter. Yaxha is to the east of Flores, and to the southeast of Tikal, nearly to the border with Belize. The road was decent, mostly, until the last several miles, for which road is a generous term. I might describe it as one large pothole with occasional flat segments. But our small group (five plus a guide) was expertly driven, and we arrived to the site entrance around 9am. And here is where things got interesting.

You see, while I knew I was going to another Mayan city, that was basically all I knew. Expectations were literally zero. So when, after a brief orientation around a model of what the city would possibly have looked like in its glory days, we were told to hop into a boat for the remainder of the journey, I was a bit surprised.

Yaxha (pronounced Yash-hah) literally means “blue-green water,” and the city was built on a ridge overlooking a large lagoon. (That lagoon is currently overflowing its natural boundaries, and the bottom of the visitors center is now under water.) As with Tikal, Yaxha was founded in the pre-classical period, probably around 350 BCE, but grew into one of the largest cities in the region during the Mayan early classical age, from 200 to 600 CE or so. It was likely allied with Tikal, the dominant city, with evidence of a marriage alliance between the city-states as well as architectural influences from its larger neighbor.

Yaxha is significantly smaller than Tikal, with a peak population estimated to be perhaps 50-75,000 or so. And like its larger neighbor, it was abandoned at the end of the classical age, for reasons still unknown.

I didn’t know any of that as I sat in the boat watching Laguna Yaxha go by. Our guide pointed off to the right hand side. “That is Yaxha,” he said. We kept going. It turns out, Yaxha isn’t the only Mayan site here on the lake, and we arrived at a small island called Topoxte. Here, we were told we would see post-classical Mayan ruins, a single plaza that has been uncovered to this point. (Funding is an issue for continued excavation, a similar story as in everywhere else in the world.)

The Mayan ruins on Topoxte post-date the abandonment of the city of Yaxha. Those who built Yaxha (and Tikal and most of the rest of the large Mayan cities in the region) mainly abandoned the Guatemalan lowland jungles by roughly 900 CE. Reasons for this are unknown, but theories include major drought, unproductive soil, overpopulation, or most likely, a combination of the three. Those Mayans ultimately moved to the Guatemalan highlands, and were conquered by the Spanish. Those Mayans who lived here at Topoxte came from the Yucatán Peninsula, roughly around 1100 CE.

(These later arriving lowland Mayans again mainly abandoned their cities by roughly 1450 CE, with only the island of Flores having a sustained community by the time of Spanish contact.)

The few excavated buildings in Topoxte are smaller in scale, and definitely of a different style than the more classical Mayan construction found elsewhere. The easiest difference to notice is the main stairs to the structures, which are fairly plain compared to classical having adornments.

After about fifteen minutes exploring this small plaza, the group headed back to the boat, this time destined for Yaxha proper.

Our first stop wasn’t a stop at all, but the remains of a causeway from classical times (though the stairs are more modern) that led from the city to the lagoon. It’s a fairly steep climb, but as our group stopped frequently for sightings of howler and spider monkeys, that didn’t seem so bad. (Note: there seem to be more monkeys per acre here than at Tikal, which is pretty awesome if you like such things, though the howlers are definitely deserving of their name.)

Yaxha offers a totally different tourist experience than Tikal. For one thing, it hosts very few visitors. At almost no point did our group have anyone else in our immediate vicinity. (I can’t speak to whether an afternoon visit would be more crowded.) For another, Yaxha is still relatively unexcavated. The vast majority of the buildings are still covered by sediment and jungle, appearing merely as hills. An occasional stone sticking out is all that would give them away. And finally, the walkways and staircases are a bit more primitive here, meaning you’ll need to navigate some uneven surfaces, and even some walkways and staircases in a bit of disrepair.

Over the course of about two hours, our group meandered around the majority of the excavated portions of the city. And while it was all cool, I will break it down into four highlights.

First, the stelae, intricate carvings on stone, here are amazing. While those left standing are largely replicas, the originals are nearby, lying sheltered. They are an incredible chance to see both Mayan imagery as well as the hieroglyphic written language developed here. I believe there are about 40 of them, though I only saw a half dozen or so.

Second, Yaxha hosts a fully excavated Mayan ball court. While the rules aren’t totally known, it is thought to be sort of like quidditch, whereby teams tried to get a ball through a ring. This particular ball court has a grandstand built overlooking it from a residential area, which is said to be the royal box.

Third, a large temple, called the Red Hands Temple for the red handprints found there, that can be climbed via a fairly decent set of stairs boasts a commanding view over the lagoon. While it doesn’t have the “temples sticking out over the canopy” wow factor of the Great Pyramid in Tikal, the vista is still worth the workout to reach the top.

Finally, and absolutely most significantly, the focal point of Yaxha as it is currently excavated is the North Acropolis. This plays home to a triadic temple cluster, with temples on three sides of a plaza, all of which have been fully excavated. The central temple can be climbed via its original Mayan staircase. At 32m, it is the tallest excavated structure in the city, though there are others that would be taller if they were uncovered.

The feeling standing in the North Acropolis was unlike anything else. Here, I had the central plaza of a Mayan city basically to myself. I walked slowly from one temple to the next, climbed the central one without much difficulty, and listened to the ever-present howler monkeys. And I smiled.

Yaxha may not have the prestige of Tikal, or its size, or its importance. But a visit is a truly spectacular touristic experience. Here, it is possible to explore a Mayan city basically without others present, to see it in a more jungle-ish setting, and to get up close to some features you otherwise wouldn’t.

So would I recommend seeing Yaxha? Absolutely. See as many Mayan cities as your time, budget, and interest allow.

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