Joya de Ceren, El Salvador

JOYA DE CEREN (El Salvador)

Joya (Jewel) de Cerén in western El Salvador features a pre-Columbian Maya farming village. Located just over 30 miles NW of San Salvador, it has been called the "Pompeii of the Americas" for its preservation by rapid burial in an ashfall around 600 CE. Its rediscovery by a government bulldozer in 1976 provides insights into the everyday life of ancient Maya farmers.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Darien, Panama

DARIEN (Panama)

"Central America" is a region, not a continent. Darien, in Panama, is a natural bridge spanning North and South America. It lies up against the border of Colombia (which is in South America); the rest of Panama and all countries of Central America are actually in North America. Balboa crossed the Isthmus here to become the first European to view the eastern edge of the Pacific.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

León Cathedral, Nicaragua

LEON CATHEDRAL (León, Nicaragua)

Properly "The Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary," this significant historic landmark in León, Nicaragua, was built between 1747 and 1814 and consecrated in 1860. It is the largest Catholic cathedral in Central America; the crypts below hold the remains of 27 people, including, in addition to clergy, three poets, a musician, seven "notables," and a slave.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)

Mayan Ruins, Belize

MAYAN RUINS (Belize)

Thousands of pre-Columbian structures--including temples and pyramids--were used by over two million Maya for roughly 2000 years, until the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century in what is now the English-speaking Caribbean country of Belize. Many have been destroyed recently for materials used in road construction; many more are threatened.

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(Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons; CTTO)