Travel Guide Naj Tunich

The Maya saw the Cuevas de Naj Tunich as a sacred place through which to reach the far reaches of Xibalba, the underworld. On the way to Río Dulce, they can be an interesting last stop before leaving the Petén and its archaeological treasures.Discovered in 1979, the caves - known as "La Casa de Piedra" - house the largest collection of Mayan cave paintings and inscriptions known to date. In concrete terms, it's a chamber just under 3 km long, whose walls are filled with hieroglyphs and drawings from the pre-Classical and Classical periods. They range from ceremonies and human faces to child sacrifices - a controversial chapter in the history of Mayan civilization.To protect the 90 or so paintings in the depths of the Cuevas, replicas have been made on the walls of a nearby cave, which is open to the public. To visit the cave, you can hire a guide from the community of La Compuerta, near the site, or organize an excursion with finca Ixobel, in Poptún.