Urban center of the Maya in the dense tropical forest of northern Guatemala, 13 km away from El Mirador, to which it was joined by a causeway. It was one of the earliest ceremonial centers of the Maya. There are two main clusters of platforms and mounds, including a 50 meter high pyramid. Thought to have been typical of the architecture of the period known as the Late Formative, or Late Pre-classic (300 BC-AD 100), the huge stone pyramids, temples, and other relatively tall buildings characteristic of the construction at Nakbe have been carbon-dated to 600-400 BC (corresponding to the Middle Formative). Although remains have been unearthed from almost every period of Mayan culture at Nakbe, it was not important after the beginning of the Late Formative period.