Chacchoben is one of the more popular ruin sites in southern Quintana Roo, with regular tourist trips from the port of Costa Maya. Also notable at the base of the largest pyramid is a large stone slab called a stela with a Maya hieroglyphic inscription. Some structures still bear traces of the red paint with which they were originally coated, and INAH has set up shaded areas to prevent further degradation of this pigment by the sun. Excavation is continuing on several mounds which are known to contain further buildings. Visitors to the site today walk a circular path that includes three excavated and restored pyramids, as well as many walls and staircases. Today one temple is still overgrown with nature, and they were unable to restore it. In 1994 the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) excavated and restored the site, which was closed to the public until 2002. Harrison realized there were temples beneath these hills, which were naturally covered over a period of 2000 years. Harrison stumbled upon this site while flying a helicopter over Mexico and noticed numerous hills in predominantly flat lands. Peter Harrison, an American archaeologist who was working on a project for The Royal Ontario Museum, and who also made the first maps of Chacchoben. The ruins were officially reported to the Mexican government in June 1972 by Dr. ![]() The principal pyramid was apparently then still used as a site for religious worship. The site was reported visited by archeologist Loring Hewen and briefly described in a letter to ethnohistorian Ralph Roys in 1962. In the 1940s a farm was established near the site by the Cohuo family. ![]() It is characterised by large temples and massive platform groups. Settlement by the Maya at the site is estimated at 200 BC, and the structures date from 700 AD.
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