Of Ancient Mayan Citadels - Tikal

The next stop of our trip was up north to Tikal, an ancient Mayan citadel. I knew close to nothing about the Mayan culture and civilization, and was very much looking forward to this part of the trip.

We woke up early and took the 6:30 am flight from Guatemala City to Flores. In Flores we found our guide and shuttle waiting at the airport, and then with the rest of our group we were off to Tikal.

It took us about an hour to reach the main gate of the Parque Nacional Tikal complex (including a short 20 minute stop at El Remate), and from the gate another 20 minutes to reach the gate to the park itself.

We changed our tickets to wristbands, and were off to explore the park.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site of Tikal is the ruins of an ancient Mayan city nestled in the jungle in the north of Guatemala. Once a major political, economic, and military center of Pre-Colombian Mayan civilization, it is now one of the civilization's largest archaeological sites. In the 1960s, the University of Pennsylvania undertook a project to restore the ruins, and about 20% is currently restored.

We took two guided tours in Tikal; one when we arrived, and another the next morning for the sunrise tour (a guide is required to go in the park for the sunrise tour). Interestingly, we received very different sets information from both tour guides. Our first guide focused more on the history of Tikal, as well as the cosmic beliefs of the Mayans, while our second tour guide shared many cultural aspects of the ancient Mayan civilization.

The first thing we stumbled upon on our tour was the national tree of Guatemala, la Ceiba. Our guide related it to the Mayan cosmo-vision. They believed a lot in energy, and how everything has energy which is always transferred, and never lost.

La Ceiba

We continued walking on (lots of steps taken this day!), and reached our first of the ruins (the central part of Tikal covers 16 square km with about 3,000 structures). This one here was a twin pyramid plaza built to commemorate the lapse of 20 years. The 9 plazas in Tikal thus signify that 180 years were commemorated.

Twin Pyramid Plaza

Of the two pyramids in this plaza, only one was uncovered and restored. We climbed up the steep stairs and had our first glimpse of the vast jungle of the national park.

From there we made our way to the famous Grand Plaza. Tikal has six big temples (five which are in the central part, and one several kilometers away). The temples are solid inside which means they were not used for burials nor rituals. Rather they were university complexes, and scholars would go up the temples to study and contemplate. At the Grand Plaza lies the first two temples. The temples were numbered not by when they were built, but rather the order they were studied. At 50 meters tall, Temple I or the Gran Jaguar is not the highest one, but it's the most famous one because it's the only one with a tomb next to it.

Temple I on the East

On either side of the plaza were more structures used in the Mayans' daily life. To the left of Temple I were many small buildings. Archaeologists first believed they were rooms to hide treasure, but later on discovered they were offerings. This was also where they found many tombs (not in the temples).

Mausoleums among other things, behind us

Across from that, on the right of Temple I was the residential and administrative area. Our second guide mentioned that this was the largest residential area of Tikal and it had 38 palaces and 150 bedrooms.

What used to be houses and offices

Across from Temple I on the west side of the plaza is is Temple II nicknamed The Temple of the Masks because several masks that were found inside. This was dedicated by one of the kings to his wife, and is the only temple built for a queen.

With Temple II behind me

We climbed up Temple II (one of the two temples you can climb, the other being Temple IV), for a magnificent view of the Gran Plaza.

Those Mayans sure knew what they were doing

Tikal is not only a cultural heritage site, but a natural one due to its abundance of flora and fauna. We didn't see or hear as many animals as we were expecting to, but we did see a toucancillo bird --

-- and also these animals whose name escapes me at the moment.

We likewise walked through so much of the jungle. Aside from the temples, plazas, and a few pathways that were cleared, much of the national park remains a jungle.

Walking through the jungle

If you look closely in the picture below you will see two twin pyramids that have yet to be uncovered, and upon which vegetation grew.

Another set of twin temples

We continued on with the tour learning more about the history, culture, and daily lives of the Mayans with each ruin, temple, and structure we saw.

Our guide explaining something about the limestone they mixed with the sap of the tree to make glue

A small pyramid used with three others in the complex to observe the sunrise and determine the season of the year

The Lost World / El Mundo Peridido complex

Three hours later our tour was complete, and we took a lunch break at the restaurant outside the park. Then we said goodbye to our group, and my mom and I went back to explore more of the park. We first went back to see Temple IV (since the lines were terribly long when we were with our guide). It is the tallest of the ones in Tikal (at 70m) which makes it an ideal site to watch the sunrise and sunset. It was also the filming site of one of the scenes from Star Wars (which I tried to replicate in the picture below left).

We didn't stay for the sunset (since you need a special ticket for that), and instead headed back to the Grand Plaza to explore and climb the ruins since we didn't have the time to earlier.

It was fun (and a nice workout) climbing up all the ruins.

We were at the Grand Plaza during the golden hour, and I tried (but failed) to take nice pictures with my iPhone. It was still such a treat admiring all the structures.

We left the park at closing hours and headed to our hotel, Tikal Inn, which was within the National Park. It's a bit of a splurge to stay in one of the lodges in the park (there are only three), but we were able to get a decent dinner and breakfast package with them, as well as the Sunrise Tour. It also gave us a few more hours of sleep (as opposed to if we had to drive from Flores in the early hours to make it to the park before 4am). At Tikal, there are no power lines and all the electricity is run by generators. Thus, they keep the electricity in the rooms off for most of the day to conserve energy, and turn them on for a few hours in the evening and in the morning. We were able to charge our phones in the evening, and then had an early night after dinner since we would be up early the next morning for our sunrise tour.

We woke up at 3:30am the next morning, got ready, and waited in the lobby for the rest of our group. At 4:15 we were off. It was dark as we made our way into the park and to the Grand Plaza where we stopped for a bit. Our guide pointed out Venus, the morning star, behind Temple I, and gave us a bit of an introduction before we made our way to Temple IV. It was so serene with no people around, and we enjoyed the early morning walk.

Venus behind Temple I in the morning

We were at Temple IV by around 5:30am, and waited with everybody else for the sunrise. We saw a lot of morning mist at first, and then the sun slowly rose. It was beautiful, but I like to joke that it wasn't necessarily life changing. Still a lovely experience.

We headed back down a little after 6 and continued on with the tour. As I mentioned earlier, it was so interesting because we got so much different information from both our guides, which just goes to show how vast the culture is of the Mayans. He spoke a lot about the pyramids (most Mayan pyramids were flat topped and used for observation), shared about how each person has its own nawal or nahual (an animal spirit or animal protector), and more about the kings and history of Tikal.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was when our guide showed and explained to us a stela. Mayan stelae were tall stone sculptures that had carvings which spoke of important events. 

A Mayan stela

He also showed us the numeral system of the Mayans which has a base of 20 and 3 symbols: a shell (for zero), a dot (for one), and a bar (for five). He showed us the math of it, and how they can be seen in the quetzal bills. The math nerd in me was very fascinated!

The Mayan numeral system

We ended the tour back at the Grand Plaza as the day's visitors were trickling in. I loved visiting Tikal and learning about the history and culture of the Mayan civilization. As with anything, the photos and stories I tell don't do it justice, and a visit in person is much worth it. :)