Alta Verapaz Caves


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Candelaria Caves | Hun Nal Ye | Cueva de las Chinches | B’omb’il Pek | Juliq’

Candelaria Caves

The Candelaria Caves now a National Park, are indeed a System of caves between Chisec and Raxruhá, in a 20 Km. section the Candelaria river passes trough seven big caves, there are indeed worth to visit only for its natural beauty despite its archeology.  These Caves were a major ritual center associated with the Great Western Trade Route, which followed up the Usumacinta and Pasión rivers to a series of interconnected valleys through Carchá and Salamá, in the Verapaz region in Central Highlands Guatemala. This important route, along with the eastern route through the Motagua Valley and along the Caribbean coast, brought jade, obsidian, iron pyrite, quetzal feathers, and other highland goods, as well as Cacao, salt and conch shells from the Pacific Lowlands to the Classic lowland market. The K'eqchi', who are among the poorest in the Maya World, are now stewards of their own patrimony and co-managers of the Candelaria Caves National Park. The tourist paths were created in order to assure minimum impact on fragile formations and archaeological remains

The caves are located at the highland-lowland transition 12 km. to the south of Cancuén, in an area defined by "mogotes" or pyramidal haystack karst hills and ridges abutting the beginning of the highlands. The Candelaria Caves were brought to international attention by French spelunker Daniel Dreux in the 1960s.  A large amount of ceramics from throughout the Classic period had been found there. The cave system is centered around seven river caves along a 25 km stretch of the Río Candelaria, although hundreds of small hill-caves are located above and around them, of which  the program VUPACS (Vanderbilt University) was able to reconnoiter 22 of these caves. Ten caves or cave segments has been mapped, and areas of ancient and modern use were identified and registered. Rituals here seem to have been undertaken in the same manner as pyramids, with evidence of public ritual on high, naturally-lit ledges above cave floors or the valleys outside Amid the ash, incense burners, smashed and burnt pots, and hundreds of obsidian blades were found, along with shell "tinklers" and other evidence of ceremonial regalia. Behind these ledges, "backstage" parts of the ceremonies appear to have occurred, evinced by the presence of altars, hearths, and unslipped wares. In several caves, flat platforms were built below these stages, probably to accommodate more observers also, two significant sites were discovered: Muqb'ilha' Viejo, an Early Classic settlement in the center of the cave system, and La Lima, a Late Classic village at its eastern edge. Both sites are approximately the same size, consisting of 3-5 plaza groups, although site organization is completely different. While Muqb'ilha' Viejo is organized with a more typical settlement density (mound groups are 30-50 meters apart), La Lima is spread out over more than a kilometer of narrow valleys, with each group approximately 300 meters from the next. The site is book-ended by two larger mound groups at its extreme edges, both of which front the principal entrances for Los Nacimientos, the furthest down-river cave in the Candelaria system and the principal focus of Late Classic ritual activity. In addition to its low density, the site is organized in a typical northern highland manner, with larger mounds built into the valley walls with a rubble and earth fill.

 Unlike other caves in the area, use of the Candelaria system begins relatively late, with a miniscule amount of material recovered from the Terminal Preclassic. Use peaks in the latter part of the Early Classic, at which point it greatly overshadows other ceremonial centers in the rest of the region. A smaller, more restricted period of use, is found at the eastern, downriver part of the system in the Late Classic, surrounding the site of La Lima.

Hun Nal Ye

  Hun Nal Ye cave was discovered by  Leonidas Javier Morales, owner of the land. It is located in front of a pool, above a cascade, and contains evidence of intense use during the Late Preclassic and Early Classic. There are 24 complete pieces of pottery in an interior chamber, of difficult access, all from distant sources in the Motagua valley and Salamá and perhaps Kaminal Juyú, also there is a stone box that is unique evidence of this use in the Low Lands. The box has incised glyphs and figures of gods in all tour side and in the cover it has a portrait of the God of Maize and the Moon during the early Classic, the text was traduce as:” so that’s how it begins, this carving, this box the house of the Moon god of was made by (his name) its beautiful.”   At the sides is a text in process of deciphering, that makes reference to Kawi’l, a Death God, also make reference to a city maybe Tamarindito or Tikal by its Emblem Glyph. The box is rectangular with two underworld jaguars in a throne made of serpents facing opposite sides. It was made by two different persons, due to its different styles, inside the box is a calcified Femur (the rest of the skeleton was found in another chamber of the cave and was identified as a Tapir. This cave was clearly not used for public ceremonies, but as a sacred worship place and the offerings were not for others to see due to its difficult to access and the fine and complete pottery found there. 

 Cueva de las Chinches

 Located just 20 minutes walk from Candelaria, is a large, inverted P-shaped pass-through in a large hill visible from the Cobán-Sayaxché highway. While it too has a large ledge inside of the cave almost identical to those studied before, it is completely devoid of artifacts. Instead, all of the artifacts, which include several prismatic blades and hundreds of polychrome and unslipped shreds are near the dramatic entrance, indicating that this hill and associated cave worked much like the more common temple-pyramids of the Maya Lowlands. The ledge in Cueva de las Chinches is also just inside the dark zone unlike those in Candelaria, which might indicate the importance of natural light with regard to large-scale public rituals.

B’omb’il Pek

 B’omb’il Pek Cave is located near Chisec, Alta Verapaz, and the entrance is in a depression of a hill you need to go down 10 mt and cross the depression to enter the cave witch is small although it was made bigger by the Mayas, in the cave there are early Classic pottery, and 3 animals painted with charcoal, and also have been found obsidian knives

Juliq’
Juliq’ is a larger cave than B’omb’il Pek witch is very close to it, it shows evidence only of Private rituals, including broken pottery in small holes, in one part of this cave is one of the most convincing Proof of self-sacrifice in the Maya World, a big bowl put over a natural fire holder formed by 3 stalagmites with burn evidence both, in and under the bowl, and a single obsidian knife. After the sacrifice the actor throw a stone in the bowl, breaking its bottom.