Poxte River

Poxte is a river and valley of the Maya Mountains in Guatemala. The valley is noted for numerous Maya sites such as Ixtutz and the Petén Caves.[1][2] The river is located on the southwest of the Dolores plateau and northwest of Poptún, in the Guatemalan department of Petén.[3] The source of the river is on the same plateau, near the villages of Boca del Monte and Santo Domingo.[4] The river flows westwards through the hamlet of Poxte, it then disappears amongst the karst topography and resumes its course 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) to the west.[5] It continues westwards into the San Juan River, which is a tributary of the Machaquila River.[6] The Machaquila River feeds into the Pasión River,[7] which flows into the Usumacinta River and into the Gulf of Mexico.[8] The upper reaches of the Poxte River shares its drainage with the Mopan River, which flows eastwards into the Caribbean Sea.[9]

The Poxte River Basin itself measures 20 kilometres (12 mi) long and is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) wide.[10] The river valley drainage is broken and confused, and the land has been largely cleared of forest in order to graze cattle.[11] The Poxte valley includes modern settlements of Las Nuevas Delicias, La Lucha, Santo Domingo and Boca del Monte.[12] The valley encompasses the Maya archaeological sites of Chaquix, Curucuitz, El Eden 2, Ixcoxol 1, 2 and 3, Ixtutz, La Lucha, Machaca 2, Nocsos, Nuevas Delicias 1,2 and 3, Poxte 1 and 2, San Luis Pueblito and Tesik.[13] It also includes the cave systems of Balam Na (also known as Sebanal).[14]