Ucanal is an archaeological site of the ancient

Maya civilization The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, archit ...

. It is located near the source of the

Belize River The Belize River runs through the center of Belize. It drains more than one-quarter of the country as it winds along the northern edge of the Maya Mountains to the sea just north of Belize City (). The Belize river valley is largely tropical rain ...

in the Petén

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

of present-day northern

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Location

Ucanal is located inside a bend of the

Mopan River The Mopan River is a river in Central America spanning the Petén Department of Guatemala and the Cayo District of Belize. It merges with the Macal River at Branch Mouth, Belize, forming the Belize River, which ultimately discharges to the Caribbe ...

. It is accessed via the highway from

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

Melchor de Mencos Melchor de Mencos is a municipality in the Petén Department of Guatemala with population 23,813. It is situated on the eastern border with Belize, and is the only major border crossing from Guatemala to Belize. The city was established in April ...

, and is near the village of Tikalito. It is south of

Tikal Tikal () (''Tik’al'' in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Co ...

History

Ucanal was located in a strategic location near the source of the Belize River. The ancient name of the Ucanal polity was ''K'anwitznal,'' and one of its first rulers was

Ajaw Ajaw or Ahau ('Lord') is a pre-Columbian Maya political title attested from epigraphic inscriptions. It is also the name of the 20th day of the ''tzolkʼin'', the Maya divinatory calendar, on which a ruler's ''kʼatun''-ending rituals would fal ...

K'uk' or Lord

Quetzal Quetzals () are strikingly colored birds in the trogon family. They are found in forests, especially in humid highlands, with the five species from the genus ''Pharomachrus'' being exclusively Neotropical, while a single species, the eared quet ...

. The city had strong ties with

and, in the 7th century AD, with

Caracol Caracol is a large ancient Maya archaeological site, located in what is now the Cayo District, of Belize. It is situated approximately south of Xunantunich, and the town of San Ignacio, and from the Macal River. It rests on the Vaca Plateau, ...

. Ucanal was attacked by the ''Kalomte'' queen-regent, Wac' Chanil Ahau or Lady Six Sky of

Naranjo Naranjo is a Pre-Columbian Maya city in the Petén Basin region of Guatemala. It was occupied from about 500 BC to 950 AD, with its height in the Late Classic Period. The site is part of Yaxha-Nakum-Naranjo National Park. The city lies along the ...

(Saal) in September and December of 693; and on 1 February 695 Ucanal's lord Kinich Cab ("Shield-Jaguar") was captured by the ruler of Naranjo. Kinich Cab was held at Naranjo until 22 June 712; Ucanal was reduced to the status of vassal of that city.Linda Schele, ''Forest of Kings'' (1991), 189 In 800 CE, lord Hok K'awil of Caracol captured the lord of Ucanal. Over the next decades, a Maya-speaking, Nahuat/Maya

mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...

people from the Putun filled the

power vacuum In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum to the political condition "when someone in a place of power, has lost control of something and no one has repla ...

in Ucanal. These people did not worship the Feathered Serpent Kukulcan. In 830 CE, lord Chan Ek' Hopet installed Wat'ul Chatel as his vassal over

Seibal Seibal (), known as El Ceibal in Spanish, is a Classic Period archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the northern Petén Department of Guatemala, about 100 km SW of Tikal. It was the largest city in the Pasión River region ...

, and commemorated it upon Stele 11 there., p.523. One of the rulers of Ucanal was

Itzamnaaj Bahlam of Ucanal Itzamnaaj Bahlam was a Maya king of Ucanal in Guatemala in the late seventh century. He is mentioned on Naranjo Stela 22 as having had his city burned on September 4, 698 by the forces of K'ak' Tiliw Chan Chaak, the ten-year-old king of Naranjo. ...

Site

The site has archeological evidence of two artificial irrigation channels: one is long and the other is long, both channels are wide. There are 114 structures in the main area and at least 150 residential groups. The protected area covers but does not include all the minor groups. There are several temples and palaces, and two

ballcourts A Mesoamerican ballcourt ( nah, tlachtli) is a large masonry structure of a type used in Mesoamerica for over 2,700 years to play the Mesoamerican ballgame, particularly the hip-ball version of the ballgame. More than 1,300 ballcourts have been i ...

. Many of the stelae were destroyed by invaders from Naranjo (Saal). There are 22 stelae and 16 altars.

References

Proyecto Arqueologico Ucanal {{Coord, 16, 19, N, 90, 06, W, display=title, region:GT_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Maya sites in Petén Department Archaeological sites in Guatemala Former populated places in Guatemala