Guayabo
Monument
in Costa
Rica
Recognized
Globally
The
Monumento
Nacional
Guayabo
(Guayabo
National
Monument),
located
on the
slopes
of
Turrialba
Volcano,
was
recognized
on May
22, 2009
by the
American
Society
of Civil
Engineers
(ASCE)
as an
engineering
achievement
for
being
one of
the most
important
archaeological
sites
and the
largest
discovered
in the
country.
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The
Guayabo
National
Monument
dates to
pre-Columbian
times.
Guayabo
was the
third
pre-Columbian
settlement
in Latin
America
to
receive
the
distinction,
after
Peru's
Machu
Picchu
buildings
and
Tipon
who are
also
declared
World
Heritage
for its
hydraulic
engineering.
Costa
Rica's
Colegio
Federado
de
Ingenieros
y
Arquitectos
(CFIA) -
Association
of
Engineers
and
Architects
- made
the
nomination
in 2007
with the
support
of the
government
and the
Ministerio
de
Cultura
y
Juventud.
The
Indian
settlement,
according
to
archaeological
studies,
was
inhabited
by the
Cabécar
between
1000 BC
and 1400
AD is
about 20
hectares,
of which
3.4 have
been
excavated.
Archaeologists
deduced
that the
pre-Columbian
city was
inhabited
by
people
specialized
in
different
fields,
led by a
chief,
who
exercised
political
and
religious
power
over a
large
region.
Currently
it is
unclear
what
caused
the
abandonment
of the
city,
which
was
unoccupied
some 100
years
before
the
Spanish
conquest,
but
among
the most
accepted
hypothesis
mentioned
diseases,
wars and
internal
conflicts.
The
Guayabo
National
Monument
became a
milestone
in the
engineering
world
for its
water
supply
and
drainage
systems,
which
have
more
than
seven
centuries
of being
vacated
and are
still
working.
The
hydraulic
construction
of the
area
contains
two
systems,
a
collection
and
distribution
of water
resources
management
and
another
for
rainwater,
which
serves
to
protect
the
entire
structure
and
prevent
flooding
or
overflow.
Moreover,
in this
area
there
are
found
different
archaeological
features,
like
mounds,
steps,
walkways,
open and
closed
aqueducts,
water
storage
tanks,
tombs,
petroglyphs,
monoliths
and
sculptures.
In the
central
area of
the
monument
are
different
mounds
or stone
foundations,
which
generally
have a
circular
base of
different
sizes.
In
artistic
terms,
the
petroglyphs
and
stone
carvings
are the
most
abundant
and are
found
throughout
the
archaeological
area
including
the
monolith
of the
jaguar
and the
lizard,
which
consists
of a
stone
carved
with the
figure
of a
jaguar
on one
side and
a lizard
on the
other,
whose
meaning
is still
not
deciphered.
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