Main Pyramid (Structure B1-1)

13.9794°N, 89.6742°W.

The Main Pyramid at Tazumal, designated Structure B1-1, is the largest pyramid at the Tazumal complex in Chalchuapa, El Salvador, the principal Maya site in the country. The pyramid was built in stages between approximately 100 and 1200 CE, of adobe brick faced with lime plaster — typical of the southern Maya construction tradition. The structure rises 24 metres in stepped terraces with a single broad central staircase on its western face. Tazumal shows clear evidence of cultural contact with Teotihuacan during the Early Classic and later with Toltec-influenced Postclassic Yucatán, evident in ceramic finds and architectural detail. The pyramid was first systematically excavated by Stanley Boggs in 1942–1947 with subsequent restoration that has been criticized for over-reconstruction. The site was occupied continuously for more than a thousand years.

The Main Pyramid is a building successive cultures kept adding to over a millennium without ever quite finishing it.