The Centro Ceremonial Indígena de Tibes is the most important pre-Columbian archaeological site in Puerto Rico, located about three kilometres north of downtown Ponce on the banks of the Río Portugués. The site preserves nine ceremonial ball courts (bateyes) and two plazas used by the Taíno and their predecessors between approximately 300 and 1200 CE. The courts are large earthwork constructions — precisely levelled flat areas bordered by rows of stone monoliths, some carved with petroglyphs — and their scale gives a clear sense of the organized societies that created them.
The on-site museum provides context: burial artifacts, ceramics, and carved stone objects recovered from the site. Guided tours walk visitors through the courts and explain the ball game that was played on them — a sport with religious and political dimensions, played with a heavy rubber ball that could not be touched with hands or feet. There is also a reconstructed Taíno village showing typical dwelling structures and daily life. The site is half a day well spent for anyone interested in Caribbean history before Columbus.