What is "cihuatan"

Cihuatán is a major pre-Columbian archaeological site in central El Salvador. It was a very large city located in the extreme south of the Mesoamerican cultural area, and has been dated to the Early Postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology (c. 950–1200 AD).

Archaeological investigation of the site was undertaken in the mid to late 1970s by Karen Olsen Bruhns of San Francisco State University in conjunction with El Salvador's Administración de Patrimonio Cultural (Cultural Heritage Administration). By 1980, of the city had been mapped by the archaeological project, covering an area that included over 900 structures.