Lying on a plateau below volcanic mountain ridges to the north and east, and at a height of 500–1000 meters, the site consists of three general groupings extending over c. 6 by 2 kilometers, oriented north-to-south.

To the north, great platform mounds consisted of elite residences, with elaborate hydraulic networks of stone-lined canals bringing water in from underground springs.

Archaeoastronomical research has tentatively identified crucial alignments from structures in the administrative center of the city that reflect primordial measurements that underlay development of the Maya calendar.

[3] However, scholars lack a clear sense of even the broader events and processes that shaped southern Guatemala's history and gave it its peculiar and, as long assumed, seminal character.

Investigations at Kaminaljuyu, in the central Guatemalan highlands, and Takalik Abaj, in southwestern Guatemala, over recent decades showed the strong relationship between these two regions.

[6] The discovery by Burkitt of Monument 1, a stela carved in the "Miraflores" style, sparked interest among scholars, suggestive as it was that Chocolá may have been an important polity early on with distinct political connections with Kaminaljuyu.

These investigations are exploring the social and cultural developments that led to the rise of the Classic Maya, with sophisticated city-states, hieroglyphic literacy, exquisite ceramics, and the most advanced mathematics and astronomy in the New World.