January 29, 2011 (Part 4) TIKAL, Part One

My plan for Saturday, January 29 was to possibly meet my Canadian friend Kirby at the greatest of all excavated Maya sites-- Tikal. To get to the site from Belize you need to travel from San Ignacio to the border town of Benque Viejo del Carmen. Here you need to clear customs and have your Passport stamped (and it is here that I discovered that my Passport had never been stamped when I entered Belize!). From the border Tikal is about another hour by automobile or van. I had arranged for transportation that morning by van with a San Ignacio travel hustler named "Max". I only had to pay US$25.00 for transportation to the border (about 40 minutes) and the rest of the way to Tikal. I left my return "open" because I thought I might run into Kirby and wanted to remain flexible. The entry fee for admission to the national park was US$20.00 (so I needed to trade some Belize dollars for Guatemalan "quetzales"). I never ended up finding Kirby at Tikal (as hings turned out he visited Tikal the following day) but I really enjoyed my visit. The park was quite crowded but the structures and other attractions were amazing. Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centers of the Tikal was the capital of a conquest state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the site dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period (200 to 900 AD). During this time, the city dominated much of the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily, while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica such as the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. There is evidence that Tikal was conquered by Teotihuacan in the 4th century AD. Following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a gradual population decline, culminating with the site’s abandonment by the end of the 10th century. One of the Five Great Pyramids at Tikal (Temple VI) pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Peten Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. The site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Tikal is probably the best understood of any of the large lowland Maya cities, with a long dynastic ruler list, the discovery of the tombs of many of the rulers on this list and the investigation of their monuments, temples and palaces. In this remote area, one of the greatest civilizations of its time established a city that endured for centuries. Set in the jungle canopy, the site today consists of over 3,000 structures extending over six square miles including temples, palaces, ceremonial platforms, ball courts, terraces, avenues and plazas.

Experts believe the Maya began building Tikal around 600 B.C. At its peak-- some 1,500 years ago --Tikal was a wealthy metropolis, home to an estimated 100,000 Mayans, as well as an important religious, scientific, and political center. The “Great Plaza” of Tikal is surrounded by stelae and sculpted altars, ceremonial buildings, residential and administrative palaces, and a ball court. At each end of the Great Plaza loom the two great temples erected in about 700 A.D. by order of As is the case with all Mayan sites, the origins of Tikal are only barely discernible.　 Findings of pottery dating from a few hundred years before Christ give evidence that Tikal was inhabited then. By the time of Christ, the Great Plaza had already taken its basic form, with platforms and stairways on the north side.

 Tikal is an amazing place to behold—not only for the engineering accomplishments of the Maya, but also for the jungle splendors of the Petén region in Guatemala. The site of Tikal is a national park-- where the native flora and fauna still flourish relatively undisturbed.　 In addition to its numerous well-excavated temples and pyramids, Tikal presents an excellent opportunity for animal and bird-watching. Roaring howler monkeys and squawking parrots provide nature's soundtrack and along the paths, spider monkeys, gray foxes, coatis-mundis, dear, and peccary are visible to the visitor.You can can sit atop a huge pyramid that is over a thousand years old, gazing down at the Great Plaza and roof-combs rising up from the sea of jungle and imagine the times more than a thousand years ago when the plaza was alive with activity and the city was surround by cultivated fields dotted with houses. Jasaw Chan K'awiil I and his heir Yik'in Chan K'awiil.

 · The Temple of the Great Jaguar (150 feet in height); and

Tikal has five great pyramids in all, which give this ceremonial centre a majestic grandeur unique among Maya cities. The height of the temples, crowned with tremendous roof combs; the complicated assemblage of the palace structures of the central Acropolis; and the complexity of the chronology of the North Acropolis are staggering to anyone visiting Tikal for the first time. Among the many highlights are several colossal pyramids, including:

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· Temple II (120 feet in height).

There is no coherent history of Tikal and there may never be one. Bits and pieces of information are picked up from drawings on pottery and bone, tools, similarities in artistic styles between Tikal and other Mayan and Non-Mayan centers, and the few glyphs that have been deciphered up to now. Tikal attracts archeologists from all around the globe and the wild-life surrounding the ruins, make Tikal a naturalist's dream. This combination of archaeological remains and the natural environment of the Petén, makes Tikal the only place in the world which has been declared by UNESCO as both a Natural & World Cultural Heritage site. My visit to Tikal was fabulous-- but I made a huge mistake in not allowing sufficient time to take it all in. Tikal requires a ful day-- maybe even more if you can manage it. Due to my transportation issues (to be detailed in my next blog) I had to try to explore the site in only about four hours-- which is ridiculous. Nevertheless I did see a great deal of the site, and I climbed the 100 step wooden platform to behold the panoramic view from the upper platform of the amazing Temple V. It was a great workout, and the view of the surrounding jungle countryside was breathtaking.