Is That a Pyramid?

The forests of Quintana Roo contain hundreds of unexcavated Mayan pyramids (see The Pyramid at Tres Garantias). The image above shows what these pyramids look like when you are walking through the forest reading tree bands (see Reading the Bands) and look over and see some abrupt topography in what is essentially a flat, limestone shield.

If you stop what you are doing and climb to the top of this little mountain (highly recommended), noticing all of the precisely-cut, square stones during the ascent, when you get to the top  and look out toward Guatemala, what you see - is a flat limestone shield and hundreds and hundreds of hectares of tropical forest. [NOTE: The Selva Maya is the second largest expanse of tropical forest in the New World after Amazonia].