Unveiling the Ancient Splendor of Tikal: A Guide to the Majestic Mayan Ruins
Huge pyramids rise high above the jungle canopy and catch the sun. Howler monkeys swing around noisily on the branches of old trees, and colorful parrots hop around and cry loudly. Welcome to Tikal, the largest of the old Mayan cities that have been destroyed.
This place is in the Petén department in the northern part of Guatemala. Its steep temples, which are almost 45 meters high, are the most interesting thing about it, but the fact that it is in the middle of the jungle makes it even more interesting than other famous ruins.
History
The archaeological site of Tikal was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1979. Since then, it has undergone a painstaking restoration, during which its complexes were cleared of the trees and vines that had grown around them over the years. Today, it is considered one of the most beautiful archaeological sites in Central America.
Tikal is built on a small hill, which you can see as you walk up the road to the Gran Plaza. Around 700 BC, the Maya chose to live there despite the fact that the area was full of unhealthy swamps. In the first two hundred years, the Maya of Tikal started building stone structures for ceremonies. By 200 BC, there was already a large group of buildings on the site of the Acropolis del Norte.
After centuries of splendour, the greatness of Tikal definitively deteriorated in the 10th century, when the city was depopulated for reasons that are not yet well defined and the Mayas definitively abandoned these plains.
Even though some Spanish missionaries wandered through, the jungle covered the ruins until 1848, when the Guatemalan government sent an expedition led by Modesto Méndez and Ambrosio Tut to check it out. In 1956, a first phase of restoration brought the site back to its former glory.
What to see in Tikal
The ruins of Tikal are in the national park with the same name. This park is 550 km2 and has thousands of Mayan-era structures. The heart of the city is a 16 km2 area with more than 4,000 structures that are mostly still standing.
About twenty kilometers south of the ruins, the road from Flores leads into the national park, where you can pay an entrance fee and visit the visitor center, where you can buy books, guides, souvenirs, videos, and other basic items.
Near the visitor center, there are hotels, a camping area, a few small restaurants, two museums, and an old airstrip that is no longer used. From here, you can walk about 25 minutes in a southwesterly direction to get to the Gran Plaza.
- Gran Plaza, Temple I. The trail goes around Temple I, which is called the Temple of the Great Jaguar and was built in 734 AD to honor the Double Comb Moon King, who was buried there. This is how it gets to the Gran Plaza area. There were stingray bones, almost 200 beautiful jade objects, and 100 pieces of bone with hieroglyphics and pearls engraved on them. On the top of the temple, at a height of 44 meters, there is a small enclosure with three rooms covered by a false vault.
- Temple II. Right in front of Temple I is Temple II, which is just as beautiful but a bit lower. It leads to the Acropolis del Norte, where archaeologists have found more than 100 different structures, the oldest of which shows that people were living there as early as 400 BC. There are two rows of stelae on the same side of the plaza as the Acropolis del Norte. These were put there to remember the great things the kings of Tikal did and make their memory holy.
- Plaza Oeste. The Plaza Oeste is north of Temple II. It is surrounded by a large Late Classical temple and the 55-meter-high Temple III. Temple IV is instead noticed as they move toward the Tozzer Causeway, which is one of several sacred paths built between temple complexes for astronomical and aesthetic reasons.
- Acropolis Central. The Acropolis Central is one of the most mysterious parts of Tikal. It is a complex maze that many people think was a palace where the nobles of the city lived. Over the years, the arrangement of the rooms changed many times. This suggests that this “palace” was actually the home of a noble or royal family, which changed it over time to meet the needs of the new communities.
- Acropolis del Sur. If you go back to the Gran Plaza and head south, you’ll reach the Acropolis del Sur, which is dominated by the 58-meter-tall Temple V, which was built around 600 AD. From Temple V, you can see the Plaza de los Siete Templos, or “Square of Seven Temples,” which is made up of seven small buildings built next to each other in the late classical period.
- El Mundo Perdido. About 400 meters to the southwest of the Gran Plaza is El Mundo Perdido, also known as “The Lost World.” It is a huge complex with 38 buildings and a huge pyramid in the middle. El Mundo Perdido has buildings from many different time periods, from the Preclassic, when the pyramid was built, to the Late Classic, when the “Temple of the Skulls” was built. In the rest of Tikal, Late Classic buildings were built on top of earlier ones. The pyramid is another thing that makes the complex stand out. It has four faces, and each one is decorated in a different style from the others. Archaeologists have found four pyramids of the same type under the exterior facade by digging into the pyramid’s galleries.
Activities in Tikal
At the Tikal site, you can do a lot of outdoor activities in addition to visiting archaeological sites. Many of these people like birdwatching, which gives you a chance to see some of the more than 300 types of birds that live in the jungle of the national park. These birds include sulfur toucans, kingfishers, blue herons, tiger herons, red-cap manakins and white-necked manakins. On the other hand, there are a lot of falcons, hummingbirds, ocellated turkeys, parrots, and Aztec parakeets near the water basins.
Lastly, don’t miss the exciting tour that takes about an hour and is done with a harness and dozens of cables that let you move from the top of one tree to the top of another along a path that is more than 300 meters long.
Best time to visit Tikal
There is no best time to visit Tikal, but remember that summer, which runs from mid-May to mid-October, is the rainy season, which makes it harder to get around on unpaved roads in the jungle. The dry season, on the other hand, lasts from November to April and is a time when the heat in the whole area can be quite oppressive. So, the best time to visit Tiakl is in the spring or fall, when temperatures are nice (around 27–28 °C) and it doesn’t rain much.
Getting to Tikal
Before you can even think about going into Tikal, you have to get to Flores (63 km from the site) or Santa Elena, which is served by the small Aeropuerto Internacional Mundo Maya, which is run by TACA, the only airline that has regular flights to and from Guatemala City. Once you land, you can take one of the many shuttles (both public and private microbuses) that go to the archaeological site every day.
If you’re driving from Flores, take the CA-13 road until you reach Melchor de Mencos, then take the left turn at Aldea Ixl to get to the Remate. Stay on the road until you reach the park’s entrance. For people coming from Belize, it costs at least US$50 to take a taxi from the border to Tikal: gotta haggle for a better deal!
How many days do you need at Tikal?
The Mayan ruins at Tikal are among the largest in the world. You can explore the most important sites in a day, but two days will allow you to take your time exploring the Mayan ruins and hiking paths.
How much does it cost to enter Tikal?
The gates to Tikal National Park open at 6:00 AM and close at 5:00 PM every day. Foreign adults can purchase tickets for 150 GTQ ($20 USD). Tikal does not charge for children under the age of 12. Uaxactun is an extra 50 GTQ to visit.
Tikal: Safe for your little tykes?
To put it simply, the level of risk is entirely up to you. You can climb some of the extremely steep stone stairs to reach the top of the pyramids, which reach heights of up to more than 60 meters. Some of the pyramids have hidden wooden staircases that were created to protect the monuments, while others do not allow visitors to climb them at all.
