A vast civilization, the Mayans, expanded across South America for centuries. Specifically, impressive Mayan artifacts and sites exist in southern Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. One of those sites is Guatemala’s El Mirador which people call the Holy City.

El Mirador, or the Window/the Balcony, is close to a much more famous Mayan site Tikal. Due to Tikal’s popularity, the city was an obscure and remote place for a long time. So much so that archeologists could not discover it until 1926.

Although the initial discovery was in 1926, for more than 30 years, El Mirador remained a mystery because of the terrain and heavy forests. When the true extent of El Mirador came to the surface, it changed the entire basic knowledge of the history of Mayans.