Archeological Site El Tazumal

El Tazumal was the first archaeological park in El Salvador, and is among the oldest in the Central American region.

The site takes its name from the Tazumal country house that formerly existed in this place. Although it is generally accepted that "Tazumal" is a word of indigenous origin, its meaning is unclear, and there is no consensus as to which language it belongs to. On the eve of the Spanish conquest (which began in 1524), Chalchuapa was a Poqomam community, a Mayan group very widespread from the Guatemala Valley to the border area with Salvadoran territory. In recent years (especially since the 1980) the site has been referred to as "El Tazumal", probably derived from "El Parque Tazumal". This is, however, a clear aberration that affects the autochthonous name of the archaeological site.

The first news of Tazumal is of 1892, when the Guatemalan-Salvadoran scholar Santiago Barberena had to transport to the National Museum three sculptures of the site. The best known is the wake of Tazumal, which today is exhibited in the National Museum of Anthropology "Dr. David J. Guzman.

Archaeologist Stanley Boggs conducted several excavation and restoration seasons in Tazumal from 1942 to the early 1950s. When Boggs began his investigations, the main pyramid was being damaged by the extraction of stone and earth for new constructions, and had a water tank. Other structures of the site were in the municipal cemetery. Although their restorations have been criticized for the use of cement, their works engendered great interest in Tazumal, avoiding what would surely have been its progressive destruction.

• Schedule:

Tuesday to Sunday, 9am to 4pm (closed on Mondays)

• Fees:

$ 1.00 / national, $ 3.00 / foreigners.
Free entry for nationals under 8 and over 60.      
Central Americans pay the same as nationals

• Phone Number:

  +503 2444-001





If you want to see more. look the next gallery.

• How to get there?

If you are in Santa Ana, you have to take the 218 bus rout to Chalchuapa and tell the bus driver you need to get off in the bus stop of the cementery and then you have to walk for one block El Tazunal is behind the cementery.