El Zotz is a Mesoamerican archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located within the San Miguel la Palotada National Park in the Petén Basin region. The area has caves and swamps and is known for the hundreds of thousands of bats that fly out from under the cliffs at sunset.
El Zotz is a medium sized site covering an area of perhaps 0.75 by 0.75km that includes a variety of large and small architectural remains in a style typical of the Early Classic. It has at least two ceremonial centres, one within the site core, the second known as El Diablo and located about 1km west of the core.
The large Classic Period site finds itself within a day’s walk (about 20kms) from Tikal, the capital of one of the largest and most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya (El Diablo is even visible from Temple IV at Tikal). El Zotz flourished in the midst of the 1st millennium AD – after Tikal was defeated by Caracol (Belize) and Calakmul (Mexico). It is likely that El Zotz allied with Tikal’s enemies and that relations between the two cities were hostile. According to a text found at Tikal, in the 8th century AD, El Zotz was engaged in battle against Tikal, and the last known hieroglyphic inscription to refer to El Zotz describes the city as being the target of an attack by Tikal.
