El Salvador's Archeological Sites
Unless you’ve never seen any ruins of anything anywhere, El Salvador’s best-publicized archeological sites (San Andrés, Joya de Cerén, and Tazumal) will almost certainly disappoint. The “let’s just cover the whole thing in concrete” style of archeological restoration (or, perhaps more accurately in this case, reconstruction) employed by early archeologists has left Tazumal’s main structures looking more like a 1970s parking garage than a 2,500 year-old Mayan relic. Joya de Cerén, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, might be a must-see attraction for true archeology fanatics, but the ruins – a small collection of clay and adobe structures housed behind fences and underneath large steel structures designed to protect them from the elements – aren’t much to look at. Nearby San Andrés is more akin to general expectations of what a Central American archeological site should look like, but it’s...
