Sierra del Lacandón

Sierra del Lacandón National Park was established in 1990 in the north-west of the Guatemalan Petén, along the Usumacinta River and next to the Mexican border, and protects some 2,020 km². Like Laguna del Tigre, it forms part of the Maya Biosphere Reserve.

Its relief is one of limestone ranges covered in tall evergreen rainforest, with lagoons, cenotes and the canyon of the Usumacinta, the largest river in Mesoamerica by flow, marking its western boundary. It is one of the best-preserved blocks of forest in the Petén, although it is also subject to the pressure of agricultural colonisation.

Inside it lies Piedras Negras, one of the great Maya cities of the Classic period, famous for its carved stelae and lintels: it was there that Tatiana Proskouriakoff demonstrated in 1960 that Maya inscriptions recorded historical events in the lives of real rulers and not only calendrical cycles, a discovery that opened the way to the decipherment of Maya writing. The park is home to jaguar, Baird's tapir, spider monkey and scarlet macaw, and its management rests on agreements with communities and on the forestry concessions of the Maya Biosphere Reserve.