GUATEMALA - TIKAL (177)
TIKAL NATIONAL PARK
Tikal National Park encompasses 575 square kilometres of jungle and thousands of ruined structures. The central part of the ancient city alone contains 3,000 buildings and covers about 16 square kilometers.
Tikal is also part of the one-million-hectare Maya Biosphere Reserve created in 1990 to protect the dense forests of the Peten, which started to disappear at an alarming rate due to population pressures, illegal logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices. Archeologists estimate that the Maya settled in the area now known as Tikal in about 900 BC.
Tikal grew into an important ceremonial, cultural, and commercial centre over the centuries. Most of the city's huge temples were constructed during the eighth century AD when Tikal became the greatest city in the Maya world with a population of perhaps 100,000. Like Maya complexes on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Tikal fell into decline at the end of the ninth century and was virtually abandoned. The causes of the Maya empire's collapse remain a mystery, but wars, famine, overpopulation and resource depletion have all been blamed.
Tikal's great stone monuments languished for centuries and were gradually reclaimed by the jungle. Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, and his motley band of conquistadors marched by Tikal in 1525, but they failed to see its temples concealed by 40-metre-tall silk, cotton, cedar and mahogany trees. It wasn't until 1848 that an expedition sent out by the Guatemalan government officially discovered the ruins. Swiss, German and British archeologists soon followed to clear debris and begin studying the site.
ON THE GREAT PLAZA
The Temple of the Grand Jaguar (Temple I) and the Temple of the Masks (Temple II) loom like a pair of colossal bookends on opposite sides of the Great Plaza, a vast expanse ringed by terraces, palaces and ball courts.
Temple I rises some 50 meters above the plaza's eastern end. A stone stairway leads up the pyramid's nine tiers, corresponding to the nine levels of the Mayan underworld.
Called Temple of the Masks because of huge stone masks guarding its stairway, Temple II is almost as tall as Temple I.
From atop Tikal's pyramids, Maya astronomers tracked the movements of Venus and all the other visible planets.
They used these calculations -- extremely accurate even by today's standards -- to fine tune their complex calendar.
GUATEMALA - TIKAL (177)
TIKAL NATIONAL PARK
Tikal National Park encompasses 575 square kilometres of jungle and thousands of ruined structures. The central part of the ancient city alone contains 3,000 buildings and covers about 16 square kilometers.
Tikal is also part of the one-million-hectare Maya Biosphere Reserve created in 1990 to protect the dense forests of the Peten, which started to disappear at an alarming rate due to population pressures, illegal logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices. Archeologists estimate that the Maya settled in the area now known as Tikal in about 900 BC.
Tikal grew into an important ceremonial, cultural, and commercial centre over the centuries. Most of the city's huge temples were constructed during the eighth century AD when Tikal became the greatest city in the Maya world with a population of perhaps 100,000. Like Maya complexes on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Tikal fell into decline at the end of the ninth century and was virtually abandoned. The causes of the Maya empire's collapse remain a mystery, but wars, famine, overpopulation and resource depletion have all been blamed.
Tikal's great stone monuments languished for centuries and were gradually reclaimed by the jungle. Hernan Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, and his motley band of conquistadors marched by Tikal in 1525, but they failed to see its temples concealed by 40-metre-tall silk, cotton, cedar and mahogany trees. It wasn't until 1848 that an expedition sent out by the Guatemalan government officially discovered the ruins. Swiss, German and British archeologists soon followed to clear debris and begin studying the site.
ON THE GREAT PLAZA
The Temple of the Grand Jaguar (Temple I) and the Temple of the Masks (Temple II) loom like a pair of colossal bookends on opposite sides of the Great Plaza, a vast expanse ringed by terraces, palaces and ball courts.
Temple I rises some 50 meters above the plaza's eastern end. A stone stairway leads up the pyramid's nine tiers, corresponding to the nine levels of the Mayan underworld.
Called Temple of the Masks because of huge stone masks guarding its stairway, Temple II is almost as tall as Temple I.
From atop Tikal's pyramids, Maya astronomers tracked the movements of Venus and all the other visible planets.
They used these calculations -- extremely accurate even by today's standards -- to fine tune their complex calendar.