Archeologists say the temple was likely built to honour the leader buried under the Diablo Pyramid tomb, the governor and founder of the first El Zotz dynasty called Pa’Chan, or “fortified sky.”

Mayan civilisation, which spread through southern Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and Belize, was at its height between 250 and 900 AD.

Carbon dating places construction of the temple at the early part of that era, somewhere between 350 and 400 AD, the archeologists said.

Archeologists uncover 1600-year-old Mayan temple