LOCATION AND ACCESS The setting of the ruins is a relatively fIat area bordered on three sides by hills and on the fourth by a large bajo. Some of this area is truly flat; but there are a number of hillocks, some of which have been transformed into temple substructures, and there are stretches of very broken terrain, heaped with fractured rock. The range of hills to the north of the site forms part of the great escarpment or arch that runs halfway across Peten, less prominent here than elsewhere. Although Morley places Naranjo in the Holmul Valley, it now appears that land south of the escarpment drains into the Belize River.
The bajo which has formed at the foot of this escarpment is an area of seasonal flooding and supports tangled vegetation and scattered larger trees; at the eastern extremity, however, close to the ruins, the swamp is perennial and covered with reeds. On the 1: 125,000 map reproduced on this page, and on the 1:2,000 site plan, the bajo is indicated by a horizontal hatching of broken lines and the swamp by a wrinkle pattern. The darker area within the swamp on this plan represents a curious feature: a sharply defined, straight swath about 15 meters wide and perhaps 250 meters long in which only low reeds and grasses grow. This may be an area that was dredged by the ancient Maya as a measure to improve their water supply. Another aguada, a much smaller one which usually dries up before the end of March, is marked on the plan north of Structure B-13. A never-failing source of excellent water is the little spring at Manantial, two kilometers from the ruins along the track to Melchor de Mencos.
In the late 1950s a logging road was driven through the forest from Fallabon (soon to be renamed Ciudad Melchor de Mencos) to the ruins of Naranjo and beyond. With some labor this road can usually be made passable for vehicles with four-wheel drive in the dry season. The ruins are 18 km from Melchor de Mencos by this route.