Landmark North America
Quiriguá
Quiriguá is an old Maya city in Guatemala. It is famous for its big carved stones covered in pictures and writing!
Quiriguá is the ruin of a Maya city in eastern Guatemala, near the Motagua River. People lived there from about 200 to 900 CE. It is known for its tall carved stones, called stelae, and large carved boulders, most of them made in the 8th century.
Quiriguá, in Guatemala's Department of Izabal, was inhabited from about 200 CE and, under the ruler Cauac Sky (723–784), became the capital of an autonomous and prosperous state that controlled jade and obsidian from the upper Motagua valley. UNESCO calls its sandstone stelae and zoomorphic sculptures, carved between 426 and 810 CE, the largest corpus of Maya art masterpieces. It has been a World Heritage Site since 1981.
Photo: S2RD2, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Discover Quiriguá
Quiriguá is in Guatemala, a country in Central America.
Long ago, the Maya people built a city here. They carved big stones with pictures and writing.
Quiriguá lies in the Department of Izabal, in eastern Guatemala, close to the Motagua River. It was a Maya city, and people lived there from about 200 CE to about 900 CE.
Today it is an archaeological park of 34 hectares. It protects the old buildings and seventeen great carved stone monuments.
The Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua covers 34 hectares in the Department of Izabal, set aside, UNESCO says, for the conservation of the ancient architecture and the seventeen monuments carved between 426 and 810 CE.
ICOMOS calls Quiriguá, together with Copán in Honduras, one of the major testimonies to the Maya civilization. Traces of people living there go back to about 200 CE, and the city reached its height in the Late Classic period, about 600 to 900 CE.
- Where
- Department of Izabal, Guatemala
- Lived in
- about 200 – 900 CE
- Carved monuments
- 17, carved 426 – 810 CE
- Protected area
- 34 hectares
A city rich from jade
Long ago, a ruler named Cauac Sky made Quiriguá a strong and rich city.
People dug up green jade nearby and traded it.
In the 700s, during the reign of a ruler called Cauac Sky (723 to 784), Quiriguá became the capital of its own rich state.
People took jade and obsidian, a black volcanic glass, from the upper valley of the Motagua River, and traded them with ports on the Caribbean coast. Later, for reasons that are not clear, the city declined.
ICOMOS describes Cauac Sky (723–784) as the first ruler of Quiriguá's historic period to be identified with certainty. Under him it became the capital of an autonomous and prosperous state: jade and obsidian were extracted in the upper valley of the Río Motagua, under tight control, and fed a profitable trade with the Caribbean ports, a monopoly that lasted into the 9th century.
For reasons that are not clear, Quiriguá then declined. By the time European conquerors arrived, control of the jade route had passed to Nito, a city closer to the Caribbean coast.
Plazas, pyramids and terraces
The Maya built big open squares called plazas, with steps and platforms around them.
They changed the shape of the land to make their city.
Most of Quiriguá's famous monuments were made in the 8th century, when the city was rebuilt as a royal home and a center of government.
At its heart is the Great Plaza, which UNESCO calls the largest known public space in the whole Maya area. Pyramids, terraces and staircases around the plazas reshaped the natural ground.
UNESCO notes that, although remains of homes span 200 to 900 CE, most of the monuments that make Quiriguá known date from the 8th century, when the city was entirely remodeled as a royal residence and administrative center.
Around the Great Plaza, which UNESCO calls the largest known public space in the entire Maya area, and two other plazas, the monumental complexes form a highly elaborate system of pyramids, terraces and staircases that completely remodels the natural relief, as at Copán.
Stelae and carved boulders
The tall carved stones are called stelae. Some carvings are on large round boulders.
The carvers did not use metal tools!
Quiriguá's monuments are tall stone slabs called stelae, altars and big boulders carved into animal shapes, called zoomorphs. They were carved from sandstone without metal tools, and they show the city's rulers.
Their writing, in Maya hieroglyphs, records dates, eclipses and events in the city's history from 426 to 810 CE.
The stelae, altars and zoomorphic (animal-shaped) sculptures were carved in sandstone, without metal tools, to honor Quiriguá's rulers; each shows a ruler's image with hieroglyphic texts. UNESCO says the texts record calendar dates, celestial events such as eclipses and political and historical events, letting scholars reconstruct parts of Maya history from 426 to 810 CE.
They are carved in high relief in the style called the School of Motagua, which flourished from 700 to 850 CE and influenced art at Copán and in Belize. UNESCO adds that Quiriguá was one of only two cities to regularly erect monuments marking the end of five-year periods.
- Stone
- sandstone
- Art style
- the School of Motagua (700 – 850 CE)
- Cauac Sky's reign
- 723 – 784
Protecting the stones
In this photo, a big carved stone sits under a roof, with a wooden fence around it.
The roof shelters it.
This photo, taken in January 2008, shows one of Quiriguá's carved boulders, known as Zoomorph P. It stands under a roof on posts, with a low wooden fence around it and grassy stone steps behind.
Quiriguá is in an area with many earthquakes, near the Motagua fault, and the wet tropical weather wears the stone away. Some monuments have been sheltered to protect them.
The photograph (January 2008, by S2RD2, a Flickr user) shows Zoomorph P, its surface covered with carved relief and glyphs, beneath a protective roof and inside a wooden fence, with mossy stone steps behind.
ICOMOS noted in 1981 that Quiriguá lies in a zone of high seismic risk and that several monuments had suffered accelerated erosion in the tropical climate. UNESCO adds that the nearby Motagua River and the geological fault of the same name make the site vulnerable to natural disasters.
Amazing facts
-
The Maya carved these large stones without any metal tools!
Quiriguá's sandstone monuments were carved without the use of metal tools.
UNESCO notes that the monolithic sandstone monuments were carved without the use of metal tools.
-
The writing on the stones even tells about eclipses in the sky!
The hieroglyphs on the stelae record dates and sky events such as eclipses.
The stelae's hieroglyphic texts record calendar dates and celestial events such as eclipses, as well as political events.
-
Quiriguá has a big open square, the biggest one known in the Maya lands!
UNESCO calls Quiriguá's Great Plaza the largest known public space in the whole Maya area.
At Quiriguá's core is the Great Plaza, which UNESCO calls the largest known public space in the entire Maya area.
Words to know
- stela
- a tall upright stone slab carved with pictures or writing (plural: stelae)
- zoomorph
- a carved stone shaped like an animal
- hieroglyph
- a picture or sign used as writing
- jade
- a hard green stone that was very valuable to the Maya
- obsidian
- a dark, glassy stone made by volcanoes
- sandstone
- a rock made of grains of sand pressed together
Discovery challenge
-
Which people built Quiriguá?
Quiriguá was a city of which ancient civilization?
ICOMOS calls Quiriguá, with Copán, one of the major testimonies to which civilization?
- The Maya
- The Romans
- The Egyptians
Show the answer
The Maya
The Maya!
The Maya.
The Maya civilization.
-
In which country is Quiriguá?
Quiriguá lies in the Department of Izabal in which country?
The Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua are in which country?
- Guatemala
- Peru
- Spain
Show the answer
Guatemala
Guatemala!
Guatemala.
Guatemala.
-
What are the tall carved stones called?
What are Quiriguá's tall carved stone slabs called?
What name is given to the monolithic carved monuments whose hieroglyphs record dates from 426 to 810 CE?
- Stelae
- Domes
- Arches
Show the answer
Stelae
Stelae!
Stelae.
Stelae.
-
Which green stone made Quiriguá rich?
Which green stone, dug in the Motagua valley, was traded from Quiriguá?
Control of the trade in which stone, with obsidian, made Quiriguá prosperous?
- Jade
- Marble
- Coal
Show the answer
Jade
Jade!
Jade.
Jade.
-
What kind of stone are the carvings made of?
Quiriguá's monuments were carved from which stone?
In which stone were the stelae and zoomorphs carved?
- Sandstone
- Ice
- Gold
Show the answer
Sandstone
Sandstone!
Sandstone.
Sandstone.
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For parents & teachers
What children will learn
- Explain what stelae are and how carved writing helps us learn about the past.
- Describe how trade in valuable stones like jade could make a city rich.
- Explain why weather and earthquakes put old stone carvings at risk.
Recommended ages: 4 to 17 · About 15 minutes
Talk about it
- The carvers had no metal tools. How do you think they shaped such big stones?
- Why would people carve dates and events into stone instead of writing on paper?
- Some monuments now have roofs over them. How else could we protect old carvings?
Try at home or in class
- Carve simple shapes and symbols into a bar of soap or a block of clay to make your own small stela.
- Find Guatemala and Honduras on a map, then find the Motagua River and the Caribbean coast.
Key vocabulary: stela, zoomorph, hieroglyph, jade, obsidian, sandstone
Where these facts come from
- Wikidata , Wikimedia Foundation (CC0 1.0)
- Archaeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua , UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- Advisory Body Evaluation (ICOMOS): Archeological Park and Ruins of Quirigua, No. 149 , ICOMOS / UNESCO World Heritage Centre
- File:Escultura de Quiriguá.jpg , Wikimedia Commons
- UNESCO World Heritage List , UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Linked as a reference; site facts come from Wikidata)
- Wikimedia Commons , Wikimedia Foundation (Per file (public domain, CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA); see each media record)
Checked, not yet human-reviewed. Last updated November 1, 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.