76 Scientific American, October 2020
EL MIRADOR mountain bridges the underworld (represented
by the lake), the world of the living (represented by the land)
and the heavens (represented by the sky), according to the
Lacandon ( 1 ). They believe that the god Chak Aktun lives here.
Palka observes that this mountain rising from the waters of a lake
is a natural version of the altepetl (“water mountain”), a concept
that formed the basis for Maya and Aztec communities. The
temple pyramids that dominated their stone cities were human-
made altepetls. Roughly 2,000 years ago the ancient Maya
leveled the top of Mirador and built a massive temple platform
there ( 2 ). The team has also found remnants of terraces that
form what may have been a pilgrimage route up the side of the
mountain to the temple, where visitors would make offerings
to Chak Aktun for good health and bountiful crops.
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