15.6500°N, 90.0250°W.
Cancuen is a Late Classic Maya city at the head of navigation on the Pasion River in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala, occupied principally between approximately 600 and 800 CE. The city served as a trade gateway between the Maya lowlands and the highland sources of jade, obsidian, and pyrite, and the largest building at the site is a sprawling 200-room palace built of dressed limestone — among the largest Classic Maya royal palaces ever documented, attributed to the ruler Taj Chan Ahk who came to power in 757 CE. Excavations by Arthur Demarest from 1999 onward exposed jade and pyrite workshops integrated directly into the residential complex, indicating that the royal court controlled craft production at scale. In 2005 the Demarest project recovered the remains of more than fifty victims of a final massacre at the site dated to around 800 CE, including the king and queen with their jade ornaments still in place.
The palace foundations remain mostly intact.