The ruins of Guayaba, located in the Center of Costa Rica near the Turrialba Volcano, are the country’s most ancient. Those who dwelt here between 1000 BCE and 1400 CE stood at an epicenter of power in the region, and commanded excellent engineering skills which allowed them to construct underground aqueducts, wide imposing roads, and round-mounded stone foundations that have led historians to conclude that the 10,000 inhabitants estimated to have lived here must have dominated the area. The animal petroglyphs offer clues to what may have been aristocratic dynasties involved with each other.
By 1400 CE, the settlement was abandoned, and no one knows why: disease? Rival clans? Only discovered in the modern era in the 1800s and first excavated 80 years later, the Guayaba ruins still haven’t been completely investigated. Their remains lie in the remote jungles in a nature preserve, an evocative mystery amidst the greenery.
