Yaxha

Yaxha is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in the northeast of the Petén Basin in modern-day Guatemala. As a ceremonial centre of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, Yaxha was the third largest city in the region and experienced its maximum power during the Early Classic period.

The city was located on a ridge overlooking Lake Yaxha. The name of the city derives from the Mayan for "blue-green water"; it is a notable survival of a Classic period place-name into the modern day. The Yaxha kingdom is estimated to have covered an area of 237 square kilometres and to have had a peak population of 42,000 in the Late Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology.Yaxha had a long history of occupation with the first settlement being founded sometime in the Middle Preclassic period.