El Pilar is located twelve km north of the western Belizean town of San Ignacio, astride the Belize-Guatemala border. The ridge land escarpment where El Pilar is prominently situated extends from Guatemala's Peten into Belize, north of the Belize River Valley. Coming up from the valley on the Pilar Road, you have ascended this major escarpment more than 900 ft, or some 340 m.
The area has long carried the name of El Pilar and while the origin of
this name is obscure, the numerous natural sources of water speak to the
old Spanish word for watering basin or pila, whose plural would be expressed
in Spanish as El Pilar. Two local streams have their origins at El Pilar,
one to the east, which we call El Pilar creek, and one on the west referred
to generally as El Manantial. Within 1.2 miles or 2.3 km east is Chorro,
a lovely delicate waterfall. Not far from the waterfall is a minor center
we named Chorro, after the falls. The abundance of water in the vicinity
of El Pilar is rare in the Maya area; the venerable ancient city of Tikal
had no natural water sources at all. The population there relied on constructed
reservoirs or aguadas. The center of El Pilar is situated at the edge
of the interior ridge lands that begin east of Tikal. At the point where
El Pilar is perched, the ridges overlook the eastern flat lands that run
to the Caribbean Sea. This situation provides a natural outlet for water
and, in part, explains its abundance here.
The center was recorded by Belize's Department of Archaeology in the 1970s
by Joseph Palacio and Harriot Topsey but its full extent was unknown.
Recorded as a triangle on the Department maps, Jaime Awe saw that El Pilar
was in the area of the BRASS surveys, and,
in 1983, encouraged Anabel Ford to
visit the site with him in their dependable Land Rover, "Betsy."
From this brief tour it was clear that El Pilar was large and a preliminary
map was made of the major architecture in 1984 as part of the BRASS project.
In 1986, also as part of the survey phase, preliminary excavation and
rescue work was pursued at the site. The first full-scale investigation
of El Pilar was finally begun in 1993 as a result of support and encouragement
from Daniel Silva, the area representative for Cayo at that time.
El Pilar has more than twenty-five identified plazas in an area of approximately 100 acres (38 hectares), ranking it equal with major centers of the lowland Maya area. It is the largest center in the Belize River area, more than three times the size of such well-known centers as Baking Pot or Xunantunich. The site is divided into three primary sectors: Xaman (North) Pilar, Nohol (South) Pilar and Pilar Poniente (West). The eastern and western sections are connected by an offset causeway system extending between two large public plazas. Survey and excavations have been concentrated in the eastern side of El Pilar within Belize. The western section, Pilar Poniente, is across the border in the Republic of Guatemala.
Zotz Na tunnel with corbel vault
The Maya used a fine and durable
limestone quarried from local exposures for ancient construction at El
Pilar, and the preservation is exceptional. Beautifully plastered masonry
rooms, imposing corbel vaults, and monumental stairways have been identified
in illegal looters' trenches and controlled archaeological
excavations conducted in the initial stages of study. A preliminary
chronology, based on ceramic comparisons, has revealed that monumental
constructions at El Pilar began in the Middle Preclassic
and continued with major remodeling completed in the Terminal Classic.
Occupation extended into the Early Postclassic.
This long sequence spans more than 15 centuries and testifies to a steady,
continuous development in the area.