El Salvador - Chalchuapa

Archaeological investigations have demostrated that the present town of Chalchuapa has at least 3200 years of continous human occupation. The record of this lengthly past includes a wide variety of archaeological features, including several groups of monumental architecture relating to different periods of the community's prehistory. Three of these groups are currently protected, including the two Late Preclassic (400 BC - 200 AD) of El Trapiche and Casa Blanca, and the Classic to Early Postclassic Tazumal group (200 - 1200 AD). Two monumental Olmec sculptures from Chalchuapa are the southernmost examples known in Mesoamerica. Chalchuapa is considered to have been an outstanding center of Late Preclassic times. Its Classic Period seems to have hosted the development of a local ethnic group that became important in much of central and western El Salvador by the end of this period. Chalchuapa also possesses important examples of architecture from the Colonial and Republican periods. There exists the potential to combine some natural features with this property, such as the small volcanic Lake Cuscachapa.