La Blanca, Maya archaeological site in Petén Department, Guatemala

La Blanca is an archaeological site in Petén with multiple stone structures from the Maya Classic period. The complex features an Akropolis with preserved ground surfaces, pyramid temples, and a throne building decorated with red paint and hieroglyphic carvings.

La Blanca's earliest occupation lies in the South Group and dates to the Early Classic, but the city grew mainly in the Late Classic, when public spaces were surfaced with white stucco and the first buildings went up. In the Terminal Classic the stairways and many doorways of the acropolis were filled in and some buildings sealed, and flint projectile points and two burials near the surface of the south terraces point to a violent end. Refugees reoccupied the acropolis afterwards and left for good in the 11th century.

A five-meter-long stone mosaic displays deities and serpent heads with celestial symbols, showing how artists here mixed different regional styles. This kind of carving tells us something about what the people valued and how they connected to distant communities.

La Blanca is reached by a dirt road that leaves the Flores–Melchor de Mencos highway at La Pólvora and runs 17 km to the ruins; the same road leads about 3 km the other way to the village of La Blanca beside a small lake. The ruins stand in a pocket of forest surrounded by cattle and horse pasture, close to the Mopán and Salsipuedes rivers, where land between the site and the rivers floods often.

The acropolis walls carry graffiti from its last occupants in the Early Postclassic: human and animal figures, deities, temples and courtly scenes. A Spanish captain, Pedro Montañés, added his name and the year 1752 during a visit on 14 August of that year, and his inscription is still visible.