domingo, 12 de junio de 2011

natural wonders in El Salvador


Perquín is a municipality in the Morazán department of El Salvador. It is home to the Museum of the Revolution, which contains artifacts and exhibits related to the Salvadoran Civil War. Exhibits include a recreation of Radio Venceremos, a civil war-era opposition radio station that was broadcast throughout the country and re-broadcast via short wave radio throughout the world during the 1980s. Today Radio Venceremos is a commercial radio station called la RV. Perquin is surrounded by coffee plantations and green pinegroves and hosts an annual festival that takes place during the first week of August.



Tazumal is a Pre-Columbian Maya archeological site in Chalchuapa, El Salvador. Tazumal means, "the place where the victims were burned," in K'iche'.
The site is located in the heart of Chalchuapa in the department of Santa Ana, some 60 kilometers from the capital, San Salvador. This zone is within the archaeological area of Chalchuapa, which covers an approximate area of 10 km² and where other archaeological sites such as Pampe, Casa Blanca, Trapiche and Las Victorias are also located. Chalchuapa is a site which shows evidence of being influenced by Copán in Honduras, and also shares some stylistic elements that are more characteristic of central Mexican sites, such as Teotihuacan and the "Toltec"-style architecture at Tula.Tazumal includes a series of Maya ruins, including ceremonial architecture, that date to about AD 100-1200. The site includes an intricate water drainage system, a few tombs, adjacent minor pyramids, palaces and excavated ritual objects. Tazumal had a long and uninterrupted occupational history, from AD 100 until AD 1200, although its greatest development corresponds to the Classic period (AD 250–900). Around AD 900, the Toltec style pyramid in evidence today was constructed; a large ballcourt was also built at this time. The site was abandoned around AD 1200.
The ruins of Tazumal are considered the most important and best preserved in El Salvador. The artifacts found at Tazumal provide evidence of ancient and active trade between Tazumal and places as far away as Panama and Mexico. The excavated ruins are part of an area covering 10 km² (4 sq mi), much of it buried under the surrounding town. Archaeologists estimate that the first settlements in the area of Chalchuapa date to around 1200 BC.




Joya de Cerén (Jewel of Cerén in the Spanish language) is an archaeological site in La Libertad Department, El Salvador featuring a pre-Columbian Maya farming village preserved remarkably intact under layers of volcanic ash. It is often referred to as the "Pompeii of the Americas" in comparison to the famous Ancient Roman ruins.
A small farming community inhabited as early as 900 BC, Cerén was on the southeast edge of the Maya cultural area. Cerén was evacuated in AD 250 due to the eruption of the Ilopango volcano but was repopulated no earlier than the year 400 and was, at the time of its final evacuation, a tributary to nearby San Andrés.
Around the year 590, Loma Caldera, another nearby volcano, erupted and buried the village under 14 layers of ash. The villagers were apparently able to flee in time – no bodies have been found – although they left behind utensils, ceramics, furniture, and even half-eaten food in their haste to escape. The site was discovered in 1976 by Payson Sheets, a professor of anthropology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Since then the excavation process has continued. About 70 buildings have been uncovered.
Even more important than the buildings, however, are the paleoethnobotanical remains. The low temperature of the wet ash from Loma Caldera, as well as its rapid fall, ensured the preservation of much of the plant material. Of great importance is the discovery of manioc fields, the first time manioc cultivation had been found at a New World archaeological site. Although the manioc had long since decomposed, researchers created plaster casts by filling the resulting hollows in the ash. The farmers had planted the manioc "just hours" before the eruption.
Cerén was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1993.

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