Poxte is a river and valley of the Maya Mountains

Maya Mountains

The Maya Mountains are a mountain range in Belize and eastern Guatemala. The highest peaks are Doyle's Delight at and Victoria Peak at . The Maya Mountains and associated foothills contain a number of important Mayan ruins including the sites of Lubaantun, Nim Li Punit, Cahal Pech, and Chaa Creek;...

 in Guatemala

Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...

. The valley is noted for numerous Maya

Maya civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...

 sites such as Ixtutz

Ixtutz

Ixtutz was an important Classic Period Maya city located south of Ixkun in southeastern Petén, Guatemala. Ixtutz is situated in the valley of the Poxte River in the western portion of the Maya Mountains...

 and the Petén Caves. The river is located on the southwest of the Dolores plateau and northwest of Poptún

Poptún

Poptún is a municipality in the El Petén department of Guatemala. It contains 30,386 people. It is some 385 km from Guatemala City.Since 1989, Military Zone 23 in Poptún has been the home of the Guatemalan Army's élite Kaibiles special operations force....

, in the Guatemalan department

Departments of Guatemala

||Guatemala is divided into 22 departments :#Alta Verapaz#Baja Verapaz#Chimaltenango#Chiquimula#Petén#El Progreso#El Quiché#Escuintla#Guatemala#Huehuetenango#Izabal#Jalapa#Jutiapa#Quetzaltenango#Retalhuleu#Sacatepéquez...

 of Petén

Petén

Petén or Peten may refer to:*Petén , a department of Guatemala*Petén Basin, the geographical / archaeological region of Mesoamerica and a center of the Maya civilization*Lake Petén Itzá, a lake in the Petén Basin region...

. The source of the river is on the same plateau, near the villages of Boca del Monte and Santo Domingo. The river flows westwards through the hamlet of Poxte, it then disappears amongst the karst topography

Karst topography

Karst topography is a geologic formation shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite, but has also been documented for weathering resistant rocks like quartzite given the right conditions.Due to subterranean drainage, there...

 and resumes its course 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) to the west. It continues westwards into the San Juan River, which is a tributary of the Machaquila River. The Machaquila River feeds into the Pasión River

Pasión River

The Pasión River is a river located in the northern lowlands region of Guatemala. The river is fed by a number of upstream tributaries whose sources lie in the hills of Alta Verapaz. These flow in a general northerly direction to form the Pasión, which then tends westwards to meet up with the...

, which flows into the Usumacinta River

Usumacinta River

The Usumacinta River is a river in southeastern Mexico and northwestern Guatemala. It is formed by the junction of the Pasión River, which arises in the Sierra de Santa Cruz and the Salinas River, also known as the Chixoy, or the Negro, which descends from the Sierra Madre de Guatemala...

 and into the Gulf of Mexico

Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is a partially landlocked ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. In...

. The upper reaches of the Poxte River shares its drainage with the Mopan River

Mopan River

Mopan River is a river in Guatemala and the Cayo district in western Belize near the border with Guatemala. The Mopan River discharges to the Belize River as the Mopan merges with the Macal River; the Belize River in turn terminates at the Caribbean Sea. The Belize River/Mopan River Catchment...

, which flows eastwards into the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean located in the tropics of the Western hemisphere. It is bounded by Mexico and Central America to the west and southwest, to the north by the Greater Antilles, and to the east by the Lesser Antilles....

.

The Poxte River Basin itself measures 20 kilometres (12.4 mi) long and is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) wide. The river valley drainage is broken and confused, and the land has been largely cleared of forest in order to graze cattle. The Poxte valley includes modern settlements of Las Nuevas Delicias, La Lucha, Santo Domingo and Boca del Monte. 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. It also includes the cave systems of Balam Na (also known as Sebanal).