The first published account of this lost city was in 1567, from a Spaniard, Father Pedro Lorenzo de la Nada. Exploring near the Usumacinta River, located in the modern Mexican state of Chiapas ...

Encircled by thick jungle, Palenque is one of the most impressive and mysterious of all Mexico’s ancient Maya sites. Known by the ancient Maya people as Lakamha, and today a UNESCO World ...

This story appears in the September 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine. Your National Geographic Society membership helped fund recent excavations at Holmul and La Corona, Guatemala.