Guatemala Part 9b: Tikal's jungle pyramids

Two tourists are dwarfed by the soaring Templo V. After the impressive monuments, palaces, and tombs of the Great Plaza, I wondered how much the rest of Tikal could offer that would be worth a hike through the jungle in the growing heat. How wrong I was! In addition to Templo V (shown above), this second posting on Tikal will focus on Templo IV (the largest pyramid in Tikal), the Plaza of the Seven Temples, the Lost World Complex, and Complex Q. For a map showing these areas in relation to each other, click here. Again, I would like to stress that even including all of this, what we saw barely scratched the surface of Tikal's wonders. If you have the opportunity, plan to spend at least a couple of full days here. Unless otherwise noted through the various links, the information I present here comes from William R. Coe's excellent "Tikal: A handbook of the ancient Maya Ruins", or from local pamphlets I picked up at the Tikal visitor center.

Jungle encounters:

Coatimundi enjoys lunch, warmed by a ray of sunlight. As we walked through the jungle, we often encountered some of its permanent residents, such as this coatimundi. His size is about that of a large house cat. As he chewed, I was able to glimpse his rather fearsome-looking fangs. Although coatimundis appear rather friendly, I hesitated to get in range of this one's jaws. Although this little guy was alone at the time, they like to travel in groups of a dozen or so.

Bromeliad thrives on the side of a handy forest tree. This one was starting to bloom, as you can see from the red flower. Bromeliads trap water in their long, trough-like leaves and provide homes for many jungle animals, including frogs, slugs, and spiders. After we left the Great Plaza, we walked through a cathedral-like tunnel of green, with little shafts of sunlight filtering down to the jungle floor as if from stained-glass windows set high in the canopy above. The sounds of the forest were all around us. All this left us unprepared for our encounter with Temple V.

Templo V, a musical interlude

A huge temple looms as eerie music drifts around us. We rounded a bend in the trail and were suddenly confronted by the awesome staircase of this 58m (190 ft) giant. Archaeologists place the construction of this pyramid around 600 AD, making it the first of Tikal's great temple pyramids. Templo V is higher by more than 15m (50 ft) than either the Temple of the Great Jaguar (Templo I) or the Temple of the Moon (Templo II). Oddly, Templo V is the only pyramid at Tikal where no tomb has yet been discovered. The tomb of Animal Skull, the ruler who built it, was found in the North Acropolis. As I stood, rooted with astonishment and fumbling with my camera, I again heard the soft, eerie notes of some wind instrument. Examining the temple more closely, I looked for the source of the music. Finally, using my telephoto as a telescope, I spotted a small figure near the top of the structure.

Summoning ancient Maya gods? A young man sat at the very entrance of the temple that tops the pyramid, playing what appeared to be a recorder, a woodwind instrument related to the flute. Instead of holding the instrument to the side and blowing across a flute hole, the musician blows directly into one end. Recorders were popular from the Middle Ages through the Baroque period. The lack of a tomb is not the only oddity of Templo V. The temples surmounting most of the other pyramids of Tikal have three successive rooms, positioned so that a person has to step up from one to the next. Templo V has only one room, measuring .76m (2.5 ft) wide. Surprisingly, the rear wall of the room is 4.6m (15 ft) thick. As archaeologist William Coe mused, "perhaps never was so much built to provide so little floor space". Why? No one knows. It is just another of the many mysteries of this ancient city, lost for so long in the heart of the Petén jungle.


Templo IV, Tikal's largest pyramid

A wooden stairway switches back and forth up the heavily forested side of Templo IV.  Although it is the largest of all Tikal's pyramids (70m or 229 ft), very little of the structure has been unearthed. It is easy to discount this giant when approaching it because only the temple and roof comb are visible. The rest could well be a steep, jungle hill if you didn't know better. In fact, from the base of the staircase, you can hardly see the temple on top. The photo above shows only a part of the actual staircase. It is a long climb up. Although there are some with greater volume, Templo IV is the tallest of all such ancient structures in the New World. Templo IV is sometimes called the Temple of the Two Headed Snake and archaeologists estimate its construction date at approximately 745 AD.

Temple and roof comb atop Templo IV's pyramid. Tourists carefully step along narrow stone paths after reaching the base of the temple at the top of the pyramid. As with other temples at Tikal this one was partially covered by scaffolding to enable repair work. Why make the long climb, if so little of the structure has been divested of its jungle cloak? In short: the view!

Seen from atop Templo IV, Petén's jungle stretches away in every direction. Pyramid roof combs provide the only visible evidence of the massive metropolis that once thrived below the forest canopy. In the center-right you can see the roof comb of Templo III, a site we didn't visit. To its left are the combs of Templos I & II. Given the difficulty of traversing this jungle on foot, as well as its vast size, it is easy to understand how experienced explorers like John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood could pass nearby in the 1840s, completely unaware of Tikal's existence. It was not until 1848 that Guatemala's government sent an expedition to check out the rumors of a lost city and discovered Tikal.

Telephoto shot of Templo II (right) and Templo I (left rear). If you look closely you can just make out the face and shoulders of the figure of the priest-king on Templo I's roof comb. In 800 AD, the peak of the Tikal's Classic era, all of the jungle for miles around would have been cleared for buildings and fields. The city at that time had an area of at least 9.6 sq. km (6 sq. mi) and may have covered as much as 75.6 sq. km (47 sq. mi.), with a population of 60,000. Although I was facing thick jungle rather than desert, I was reminded of Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "Ozymandius" as I looked out across the endless forest canopy.

I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert...Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:

'My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away."

Top of a South Acropolis pyramid peeps above the foliage. This was another complex we didn't visit. It is largely unexcavated, but its origins may extend far back into the pre-Classic period. Archaeologists can look forward to many years of excavation on this extensive and almost untouched site.


Plaza of the Seven Temples

Palace at the south end of the Plaza of the Seven Temples. Although the plaza and some of its structures date far back into pre-Classic times (600 BC-250 AD), the structure above is one of 3 palaces constructed in the late Classic period (700-900 AD), almost 1000 years later. The Plaza of the Seven Temples, and the Lost World Complex to which it adjoins, are some of the oldest areas of Tikal, and accordingly have some of the thickest concentrations of ruins.

The center of the seven temples for which the plaza gained its name. The temples sit on an embankment in a row along the east side of the rectangular plaza. This one (#4 from either end) has been restored. The others have been partially unearthed but otherwise left in their ruined state. The palm-thatched palapa roof protects the interior carvings of the temple. The plaza was open and park-like, but still shaded by the tall trees scattered around. It was getting to be mid-day and the shade was welcome.

Trio of temples to the left of the central temple. There are 3 other almost identical temples to the right of temple #4. The Seven Temples face west, directly across the Plaza to the back side of the adjoining Lost World Complex.


The  Lost World Complex

Back side of the Lost World complex from the Plaza of the Seven Temples. The west side of the Plaza of the Seven Temples adjoined the back side of the Lost World Complex. The structure above is sometimes called the Temple of the Skulls. Between 500 BC and 250 AD (the start of the Classic era) the Lost World functioned as an observatory. Then it became a ceremonial center and royal burial place that rivaled the North Acropolis. The Lost World Complex is also important because it provides an architectural and historical link between Tikal and the great city of Teotihuacan far to the north in the Valley of Mexico, about 48.3km (30 mi.) north of present-day Mexico City.

Temple built in Teotihuacan style. This structure, dating from the 4th Century AD, is sometimes called the Temple of Talud Tablero (Panel and Slope), an architectural style clearly associated Teotihuacan. There is evidence that a substantial number of Teotihuacans lived in the area immediately around the Lost World Complex. This was not unusual. Teotihuacan was a great commercial state with trade connections to both the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, and from Honduras to New Mexico in the US. The Zapotec capitol of Monte Alban in present day Oaxaca, Mexico also contained a substantial population of Teotihuacans. The city of Teotihuacan itself was divided into neighborhoods populated by people from a variety of Mesoamerican areas, including a Maya sector. From the period of 100 AD to 600 AD, Teotihuacan was the largest and most powerful state in all Mesoamerica, with a population that grew to approximately 200,000. Apparently Teotihuacan's power was based on military conquest as well as trade.

Palapa protects the unearthed top of the small temple in the Lost World Complex. In some cases, archaeologists seem to have left structures largely buried to protect them. Ancient Maya records from the late 4th Century AD indicate that Teotihuacan conquered Tikal, possibly with the help of the resident population of Teotihuacans. The Maya king of Tikal, called Chak Tok Ich'aak (Great Jaguar Paw) was killed on January 14, 378 AD, apparently after being captured by invading Teotihuacans under their general Siyah K'ak' (Fire is Born). Chak Tok Ich'aak was apparently revered by his people, even after (or perhaps because of) his execution by invaders. His palace was never covered over with other buildings but was maintained intact for centuries as a sacred monument. Even with local help, the Teotihuacan conquest was quite an amazing feat of arms, since the two capitals were 1014 km (630 miles) apart, separated by great mountain ranges and vast stretches of thick jungle. Not until the arrival of the conquistador Pedro de Alvarado in 1524 AD would a conquerer again travel such a distances in Mesoamerica.

The Great Pyramid of the Lost World. Standing 30.5m (100 ft) tall, this was one of the greatest structures of the pre-Classic era when it was built. It achieved its final form during the rule of Chak Tok Ich'aak, the king killed by the Teotihuacans. After defeating Tikal's army and executing its king, Siyah K'ak' installed Yax Nuun Ayiin (First Crocodile), a son of the Teotihuacan ruler, as the new king of Tikal in 379 AD. We know all this because archaeologist David Stuart deciphered Tikal's Stela 31 in 1998, revealing the answer to a question that has puzzled archaeologists ever since they first noticed Teotihuacan's strong influence on Tikal. The clincher was the discovery of a symbol showing an owl with a spear. It was the symbol for the ruler for whom the general Siyah K'ak' worked. Archaeologists promptly dubbed the unnamed ruler Spearthrower Owl. This symbol was not only distinctly non-Maya, but it appears in Teotihuacan itself as a symbol for the city.

Jungle looms over the remains of a ruined palace in the Lost World Complex. The fast-growing jungle constantly threatens to swallow up Tikal's ruins. Spearthrower Owl's son, Yax Nuun Ayiin, promptly married into the dynasty of his executed Maya predecessor. This was the move of a smart ruler sitting on the throne of a newly conquered people far from his own home. It helped mute opposition to the succession of his son Siyaj Chan K'awiil. Although he was the King of Tikal from 379-411 AD, Yax Nuun Ayiin remained the vassal of his father, the ruler of Teotihuacan, at least until Spearthrower Owl died. Yax Nuun Ayiin's son, Siyaj Chan K'awiil, ruled from 411-456. It is not clear what relationship Tikal had to Teotihuacan after that. Teotihuacan itself abruptly declined in 600 AD, when its temples and elite palaces were destroyed in an apparent revolt by the commoners. Within 100 years or so, Teotihuacan was an abandoned ruin, its empire gone. Tikal lasted until 900 AD, when it too was abandoned in the general collapse of Classic-era Maya civilization.

Small temple on the edge of the Lost World. Tikal abounds with small sites like the one above. Most have no marker explaining what they are, making them truly (for me, at least) a lost world. By studying several maps of the site, and carefully reading William Coe's book and other sources, I was able to piece together at least some information about many of my photos. If I have mis-identified any of the structures I show in this or the previous posting, I welcome corrections from my viewers.

Complex Q

One of the twin-temples of Complex Q with a line of stelae and altars in the foreground. Complex Q is one of 3 twin-temple complexes (Q, R, & O) stretched out along a 531m (1/3 mi.) path. In each complex, there are two pyramids, like the one shown above, facing each other and oriented along a strict east-west axis. Complex Q is the easternmost and largest of the twin-temple complexes. It sits on a huge platform of about 5 acres. Equidistant from the two pyramids, but well off to the side, is an enclosure containing a carved stela and altar. It is believed that Complex Q was built by Yax Nuun Ayiin II, who reigned from 768-790 AD. A stela on the site provides a Maya date equivalent to 771 AD. He was apparently a distant relative, or perhaps simply adopted the name, of the Teotihuacan noble elevated to power 400 years before. Twin-temple complexes were once thought to be unique to Tikal, but have been found in several other Petén cities, attesting to the political and cultural influence of Tikal in the area. You can get a sense of the pyramid's scale from the small figure seated on top of the pyramid.

Lucas makes a careful descent. The figure on top of the Complex Q twin-temple turned out to be Lucas, a high school student seen in my previous post on Lake Atitlán. He and his parents were part of our Caravan Tour. Typically, steps to Maya temples are quite high but also quite narrow. It is necessary to exercise considerable care to avoid a mishap. In some archaeological sites, careless tourists have been killed by tumbling down such staircases. This has led both the Guatemalan and Mexican governments to restrict access to many temples.

A low-walled enclosure is entered through a classic Maya "corbel" arch. For all their amazing architectural skills, the Maya never mastered the true arch. The closest they came was the false or corbel arch. Just inside the arch, behind the wood barrier, you can see an upright stela and a low disk-like altar immediately in front. The arrangement of an enclosure off to the side of a twin temples, and containing a stela and altar, is typical of all three twin-temple complexes.

One of the more finely carved stelae and altars was in this Complex Q enclosure. Some of the stelae found in Tikal are blank, for unknown reasons. It is always the case, however, that if a stela is carved, so will be the altar, and vice-versa. As with very many of the stelae containing carvings of priests or kings, the face has been obliterated. Archaeologists think that this defacement may have occurred in the centuries after Tikal fell to ruin. Although no longer occupied as a city, it remained a sacred site and local cults were active here. The defacement may have been done to take away the power of the stela, or of the figure on it.

Kickin' back at the base of a sacred ceiba tree. A ceiba is instantly recognizable by the shape of its unusual buttress roots, and by the tall, straight trunk. Ceibas can grow to 70m (230 ft). Their arrow- straight trunks contain no branches up to the broad spreading canopy. The Ceiba was sacred to the Maya. They saw it as connecting the underworld (Xibalba) through its buttress roots, with the trunk representing daily reality, and the spreading canopy as heaven. Even in modern times, Maya foresters will often leave a ceiba standing while cutting all the trees around it.The photo of me above was taken by one of two Guatemalan soldiers who were assisting tourists wanting their picture taken in this evocative site. Dressed in jungle camouflage, and armed to the teeth with assault rifles and other weapons, the soldiers were really quite friendly and easy-going.

This completes my two-part posting on Guatemala's stunning Tikal archaeological site. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to leave a comment, please do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section PLEASE leave your email address so that I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Guatemala Part 9a: Tikal, an ancient metropolis

Temple of the Great Jaguar at the Grand Plaza, Tikal. Towering 44.2m (145 ft) above the plaza, this temple, also called Templo I, is probably the best known structure at the ancient Maya metropolis of Tikal. Archaeologists stumbled upon one of the richest of the late Classic Era tombs when archaeologists tunneled under the temple. After our visit to Antigua, we piled on the Caravan Tours bus for the long drive to Tikal from the mountainous high country of southern Guatemala up to the northern lowland jungles of the Petén panhandle. Even with a modern tour bus on good highways, the trip can take at least 10 hours. As it happened, ours took a bit longer. To locate Tikal and the Petén area of Guatemala, click here.

High desert stream in one of Guatemala's many different environments. When I first pictured Guatemala in my mind, I thought of low, buggy jungles. There are plenty of those, particularly on the Pacific and Caribbean coasts and in the Petén panhandle to the north. However, there are also the mountains of the southern highlands with their many volcanoes and cool, temperate climate. In addition, there is an area of high desert located in a long valley between the two main mountain ranges that cross southern Guatemala from east to west. This valley runs in a slant heading northeast from the central part of the southern highlands to the Lake Izabal area near the Caribbean Coast. The valley's climate and countryside are similar to California's San Fernando Valley, or the high deserts of eastern Oregon and Washington State. Before we reached this valley, traffic came to a complete halt for several hours, right in the middle of the mountains. We assumed there had been a major accident, or landslide, but it turned out to be a labor dispute. Apparently a group of workers became frustrated when the government neglected to pay their salaries. The road we were traveling is the main east-west link in Guatemala, and the workers decided to get the government's attention by shutting it down. As a former labor organizer, I was fascinated by this creative use of civil disobedience. Our Caravan Tour director Jorge Fuentes used his cell phone to gather information so he could brief us on the progress of events. Finally, after several hours, government representatives arrived and negotiated a settlement satisfactory to the workers and traffic began moving again. It is very significant that there was never any violence throughout this entire episode. Only a few years ago, these workers would have been lucky to escape with their lives, and would almost certainly have been arrested and tortured. Times have changed in Guatemala!

Lago Petén Itza lies in the geographic center of the Petén panhandle.  The lake is the largest body of water in the Petén area, and lies 260km (160 miles) north of Guatemala City "as the crow flies", but is much further by road. Measuring 35km (22 miles) long and 16km (10 miles) wide, Lago Petén Itza is 50m (165 ft) deep. It is the home of the Itza Maya. They were one of several groups of so-called Mexicanized Maya who, in the Late Classic period (700-900 AD), adopted the customs and styles of warfare of the Toltec Empire. The Itza moved into the northern Yucatan peninsula after the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization around 900 AD and conquered a Puuc Maya city that they renamed Chichen Itza ("Well of the Itza"). Several hundred years later, they apparently lost a power struggle with another group of Mexicanized Maya from the city of Mayapan. Driven out of Chichen Itza, they retreated to Lago Petén Itza and founded the city of Tayasal on an island in the lake. The Itza of Tayasal managed to maintain their independence from the Spanish until they were finally conquered in 1697. Today, the island city is called Flores and is the capital of the Petén district.


Hotel Villa Maya

The restaurant of the Hotel Villa Maya overlooks a quiet lagoon teeming with life. We arrived late at night, due to the labor dispute, but the Hotel Villa Maya opened their dining room and a delicious buffet dinner was waiting for us. The restaurant is completely open-air, allowing diners to enjoy the sights and sounds of the surrounding jungle and lagoon. Earlier, while driving through the pitch-black jungle of the Petén, Jorge suddenly announced that the headlights behind us belonged to a truckload of police assigned by the Ministry of Tourism who had been alerted that our bus was traveling through the area late at night. We were all cheered by this news, but after a moment's reflection it dawned on me to ask "why do we need a police escort?" Apparently there have been problems with bandit gangs on this road and the Ministry decided that the last thing they wanted was the hijacking of a bus full of foreign tourists. However, we arrived without incident. The scene above was photographed not long after dawn. Much of Petén is swampy, making for wonderful concentrations of wildlife, but also plenty of bugs. Visitors are strongly advised to bring insect repellent.

A permanent resident cast a skeptical eye as we walked by. The trees were full of brilliantly feathered Scarlet Macaws like this one. Although he seemed a little disdainful of gawking tourists, he remained still and allowed me to photograph him. Scarlet Macaws live 30-40 years in the wild, and up to 50 years in captivity. Poaching, destruction of habitats through deforestation, and insecticides have decreased their numbers and range, but they are still fairly common from southern Mexico down to Paraguay and Brazil. Hotel Villa Maya is surrounded by a nature preserve, and sits on a peninsula extending into a large lagoon. There are trails along the edge of the lagoon and bicycle paths for those so inclined.

The hotel is situated along the shores of Pentenchel and Monifata lagoons. Above, a thick mist begins to rise off the lake as the warm morning sun casts a golden light on the trunk of a small tree in the foreground. The lagoons are truly idyllic. In addition to Scarlet Macaws, the surrounding jungle contains wild deer, pecari (a kind of wild pig), and howler monkeys. We never saw any howlers around the hotel, but we sure heard them at night and in the early morning. Their name is well-earned.

Hoping for a snack of fresh tourist toes. Floating quietly just off shore below the restaurant was a small crocodile. Like the Scarlet Macaw, he seemed well-adjusted to tourists and their cameras. Although he was probably only about 1m  (3.5 ft) long, he possessed sharp teeth and powerful jaws. In addition, there could well have been a mama croc of considerably greater heft not far away. Adults can grow up to 3.5m (11.5 ft).  His presence discouraged any random thoughts of wading in the shallows, or sitting on the dock dipping one's toes in the water.


Tikal, a city lost in the jungle

One of the trails winding through the jungle surrounding Tikal's ruins. Almost all of the walkways from one area of Tikal to another are jungle trails like this one. The atmosphere is primeval and mysterious. The Petén area, like the Yucatan peninsula that is its northern extension, is basically a flat or gently rolling limestone plateau surmounted by thick, triple-canopy jungle. Until recently, there were very few roads into Petén, making much of it almost completely inaccessible to any but those with Indiana Jones proclivities. Unfortunately, the very roads that allow tourists to visit Tikal have also opened the Petén to deforestation by timber interests and land-hungry campesinos. We saw some evidence of this on our drive from Hotel Villa Maya to Tikal, and on our daylight return trip to Guatemala City the next day. According to some estimates, in the last 25 years, as much as 50% of Petén's old-growth jungle has been converted to agricultural purposes.

The view from the trail. My guidebook on Tikal warns against wandering off the established trails because the thick jungle can easily disorient the unwary. The Tikal area was originally occupied about 600 BC. The name itself comes from the modern Maya words for "place of the water hole". What the original inhabitants called it is not clear. 1500 years later, approximately 900 AD, it was abandoned concurrent with the general collapse of late Classic Maya society. Even after Tikal was abandoned as a city, people in the post Classic era continued to come back and use some of the sites for religious purposes. As many as 3,000 archaeological sites have been identified in the immediate area of Tikal, and there may be as many as 10,000 more just under the surface of the surrounding jungle. Although Tikal is world-famous and has been the focus of archeological explorations since 1848, only a small portion of it has been unearthed. Today, even some of the major pyramids are still mostly covered by earth and jungle.

A yet-to-be-unearthed pyramid. As we moved along the jungle trail, I noticed regularly spaced conical mounds. As you can see from the one above, these pyramids and other structures are still covered with earth, trees, and undergrowth. This must be similar to what the first European explorers and archaeologists found as they fought their way through the jungle in search of rumored "lost cities." In fact, Tikal was so remote and so thoroughly covered by the jungle that famous mid-19th Century archaeologists Frederick Catherwood and George Stephenson passed nearby without ever suspecting the presence of this vast ancient metropolis.

Archaeologists' tunnel leads into a still-buried ruin. Some of the covered ruins show evidence of tunneling by archaeologists who ran test holes to discover what might be best to excavate. There is so much here that they have learned to be selective in how they spend their limited time and funds. It is estimated that a thorough excavation of Tikal might take a century or more. And why not? The human occupation lasted 1500 years, with another 1100 years for the encroaching jungle to cover it all up. A hundred years of excavation would hardly be a hiccup in that time span.

Evidence of nature's power to slowly destroy man's creations. Above you see a fallen stela (stone monument). Tree roots have grown through small cracks in the circular altar which once stood in front of the fallen stone, breaking the altar into pieces. I wondered if in some future era, our modern buildings might lie fallen and jungle-covered like this, to be unearthed by distant descendants of today's archaeologists.


Temple of the Great Jaguar (Templo I)

Back side of the Great Temple of the Jaguar (Templo I). After a sudden turn in the trail, a huge stone building could be glimpsed through the trees. We had come upon the back side of the Great Temple of the Jaguar, one of the largest pyramids in Tikal. This is typical of the Tikal experience. Thick forest all around, then suddenly a clearing with a stupendous stone temple or palace. Of course, most of the jungle would have been cleared away in Tikal's heyday. While few people live in the area today, as many as 60,000 lived in and around Tikal at its peak in 800 AD. The city covered an area that was at least 9.6 sq. km (6 sq. mi) miles, but may have sprawled as much as 75.6 sq. km (47 sq. mi). Tikal was built on a series of low hills, surrounded and separated by bajo, or low swampy areas. Apparently these low areas were agriculturally productive, and also helped provide the water supply. Water was channeled into several reservoirs in and around the center of the city. For a map of the major sites of Tikal, click here.

Repair work was under way on the Jaguar Temple's upper levels. We found scaffolding on many of the major pyramids. The government of Guatemala seems to recognize the jewels that are the Maya ruins in their country. For reasons of national pride, and no doubt with an eye to the tourist dollar, the government is making strong efforts in conjunction with foreign and local archaeologists to protect and repair these great monuments. Underlying everything in Petén is the thick limestone base. Limestone is one of nature's best building materials, and the Maya made full use of it. Major structures often have quarries conveniently nearby. Relatively easy to cut into blocks, even with primitive stone tools, limestone can also be powdered and mixed into a plaster for stucco relief designs or for surfaces such as the Great Plaza. Connecting the hills containing temples and other structures are broad, straight causeways called sacbe. Their purpose was to allow easy passage across the wet, swampy areas from one built-up hilly area to the next. The sacbes were paved with limestone plaster and had dimensions of as much as 58m (190 ft) wide and .8 km (1/2 mi) long. They were major engineering feats in themselves. Typically, sacbes were lined with parapets along either side and had exits at intervals, not unlike modern freeways.

Temple of the Great Jaguar and the Central Acropolis. This pyramid is probably the most photographed Maya monument in Guatemala. I took the shot standing on the terrace of the North Acropolis looking south. In the foreground is a stela, with its wheel-like altar in front. To the right of the Jaguar Temple is the Central Acropolis, a set of palaces, courtyards, and ancient administrative offices for the priestly elite who ran the city. Directly in front of the Jaguar Temple is the Grand Plaza. The pyramids and other buildings surrounding the Grand Plaza were built relatively late in Tikal's history, probably somewhere between 700-760 AD. The plaza itself is one of the earliest structures. It consists of multiple layers of limestone plaster, laid down over the centuries. The temple at the very top of the Jaguar structure consists of 3 rooms where priests performed rituals out of sight of the common people massed in the plaza below. On top of the temple is a structure known as a "roof comb". Many of Tikal's temples are surmounted by such combs. This particular comb originally contained a relief sculpture of a seated man, thought to be a god, or possibly the representation of one of the priest-rulers. Only the outlines of it remain today.


Central Acropolis 

Closeup of the Central Acropolis. I regret now that I didn't explore this structure because it is much more extensive, covering about 4 acres, than I perceived while walking by. That is part of the problem of one's first visit to Tikal. So much of it is mind-boggling, that it is easy to become distracted and miss important areas or crucial details. My Tikal guide book advises that a reasonably thorough visit to Tikal will take at least 3 full days. Our visit lasted less than one. The Central Acropolis was built gradually over the centuries in a rather hodge-podge, but still pleasing fashion. Many of the most impressive buildings in the complex were constructed in the Late Classic period (550-900 AD). In the left foreground, you can clearly see two of the many stelae of the Great Plaza, along with their round altars in front. Some of these once had carvings of Maya priests and rulers. Others, mysteriously, were left blank. Many of the carved stelae had their faces deliberately obliterated in ancient times. It is thought that this was done to kill the power of the figure represented on the stela.

Another view of the Central Acropolis. The green slope at the lower right is an still-buried part of the structure. The four sides of the Grand Plaza are bounded on the west by the Temple of the Great Jaguar, the south by the Central Acropolis, the north by the North Acropolis, and the east by Temple II, also known as the Temple of the Moon. For an overall look at what Tikal may have looked like in 800 AD, click here. Traces of ancient paint pigments indicate that in those days, most of the temples were painted blood-red, although some included other colors and designs.


Temple of the Moon (Templo II)

The Temple of the Moon faces the Jaguar Temple across the Grand Plaza. It is a bit shorter than the Jaguar Temple, rising to 38m (125 ft). However, when the roof comb was intact the Temple of the Moon probably stood close to 42.7m (140 ft). The temple on top contains three rooms, one after the other. A large block in front of the door of the temple was apparently some sort of reviewing stand for the priest-ruler. The roof comb still contains the outline of a gigantic face with ear plugs. Interestingly, the Temple of the Moon was built only a few years after the Temple of the Great Jaguar.

Climbing the Temple of the Moon was daunting but provided breathtaking views. The park has built sturdy wood parallel stairs, one set for climbing, one for descending. It is the best way to get a full sense of the Great Plaza and its surrounding structures. Climbing is forbidden on many of the other pyramids both to protect the structures and to avoid injuries to tourists.

Men at work. Two Guatemalan men, one with a level, examine the plaster around the main doorway into the top of the Temple of the Moon. I was glad to see the amount of resources and energy the Guatemalan government is putting into projects like this.


Maya ceremony in Plaza Central

View of the Jaguar Temple from the top of the Temple of the Moon. The head and shoulders of the figure on the roof comb of the Jaguar Temple can just be made out. Although the clouds you can see in the background appear threatening, they never actually produced any rain. Below, in the center of the Grand Plaza, I observed some interesting activity around the large cement fire pit. Apparently a couple of Maya shamen were conducting a ceremony.

Maya religious rituals have been conducted here for almost 2 thousand years. Above, a shaman drops material into the fire pit. The burning substance appears to be copal, a pungently pleasant-smelling incense used by the Maya from the earliest times, and later adopted by the Catholic church when the Spanish arrived. There is evidence that local Maya returned to the the site of their abandoned city to conduct such ceremonies for a very long time after Tikal was reclaimed by the jungle.


North Acropolis

The North Acropolis is very different from the Central Acropolis. While the Central Acropolis was probably used for administrative and residential purposes, the North Acropolis appears to have been entirely ceremonial in function. It contains many important burial sites, and the edge of the plaza along the front of its first terrace is lined with stelae and altars.

View of the North Acropolis from the top of the Temple of the Moon. The North Acropolis consists of a series of terraces filled with small pyramids and temples, getting higher and higher as you move toward the back. This area is quite old. Deep excavations have uncovered traces of occupation as early as 600 BC. As many as 100 buildings are buried here, dating back to 200 BC. The area seems to have been used for ceremonial purposes from its earliest days. Again and again, structures were either built on top of earlier buildings, or were razed entirely and then new structures, bigger and grander, were built.

Closeup of one of the several temples on the North Acropolis. Archaeologists have found numerous burial sites within or under the buildings of the North Acropolis. What was described as "one of the goriest burials" occurred when a priest was buried and then 9 retainers were killed to accompanied him. Also interred with the priest were turtles and a crocodile. Many of the tombs contained beautifully carved and painted objects of stone and wood along with the skeleton. In one tomb, the paper thin blue paint of a wood object survived, even though the wood on which it had been painted had rotted away. Using plaster of paris, archaeologists filled in the space and preserved the form of the object.

Detail of the North Acropolis. Palm-thatched palapas protect many of the carvings and stucco relief designs discovered in the temples. It appears that many of the earlier temples and their statues, stelae, and other objects were ritually "killed" before they were covered over by new temples. It is now believed that many of these temples were connected to particular priests or other high individuals. When those people died, the temple was destroyed and another built. Oddly absent at Tikal are permanent stone monuments with  records of names and dates such as one finds at other Maya archaeological sites such as Palenque in Mexico's Chiapas State. Apparently Tikal's Maya kept such records on perishable folding books. Tragically, most of the ancient Maya books of that sort were destroyed by Spanish colonial priests as "works of the devil".

What central Tikal may have looked like in 800 AD. In the foreground is the Central Acropolis complex. The tall pyramid behind it on the right is the Temple of the Jaguar (Templo I). Facing the Jaguar Temple across the Grand Plaza is the Temple of the Moon (Templo II). Rising behind those two are the complex of temples comprising the North Acropolis. Traces of paint pigments suggest that most or all of these buildings would have been painted blood red. Notice the roof combs with the carvings of gods or priest-kings.

Coatimundi patrols for treats. These appealing little critters abound at Tikal. They are not shy about leaping up on a table to beg scraps either. Coatimundi (Nasua, nasua) are related to raccoons, and were kept as pets by the ancient Maya according to Spanish priests who visited Maya communities in the 16th Century. They noted that the little animals were intensely curious and loved to root around and turn over every container in sight.

This completes the first of my two postings on Tikal. Next week I will show some of the other palaces and temple complexes, including some that show distinct features of the northern Mexico civilization of Teotihuacan, whose relationship with Tikal continues to provoke archaeological debate.

Hasta luego, Jim