Tikal: The Mayan Rome

Tuesday

7.22.2008

I arrived in Flores at 5am after an eight-hour Linea Dorada bus ride from Guatemala City. Fortunately, Joanna Zaremba gave me one of her prescription sleeping pills, and I slept like a baby. By 8am I had arrived in Tikal National Park with Joanna and two girls from Wisconsin.

Tikal is a stunning site. It is like the Rome of the Mayan world . . . well, sort of. Actually, a lot of things about Tikal remind me of ancient Rome. I like to juxtapose in my mind what was happening thousands of miles away in Europe at the same time as the construction of these Central American pyramids. Both cultures did not know each other existed, and both thought that they were the center of the known universe. Similar to Rome, the first peoples started gathering on the low hill that would become Tikal around 700 B.C. Rome had huts on the Palatine Hill at this time. Around 250 B.C. Tikal was building its first stone structures and Rome was amassing its Republican temples, too. The North Acropolis in the Grand Plaza at Tikal shares similarities with the Capitoline Hill: it is a layering of sacred temples built on top of pre-existing structures dating back to 500 B.C. And the Central Acropolis, on the south side of the Grand Plaza, is the royal palace complex of Tikal like the mansions on the Palatine Hill.

I could give you the whole history but I´ll spare you. The Mayan kings have fabuous names like King Great Jaguar Paw, Moon Double Comb or Lord Chocolate, Lord Water, and my favorite, Smoking Frog. The significant structures are all from the 7th and 8th centuries.

My photos do not represent the many temples, only my best photos.
The sacred Ceiba tree, or world-tree.
Templo II, the Temple of the Masks, in the Grand Plaza opposite The Temple of the Grand Jaguar (Templo I).
High above the jungle canopy on Templo IV with the tops of Temples I and II and III in the background.
The 58m high, enormous, Templo V!
Templo V. Do you see the tiny people at the top?
At the top of Templo V. You can see why they dont allow you to climb the stairs.
That´s me in the blue shirt half way down Templo V.
In the Plaza de los Siete Templos they were restoring a temple. This construction worker whistled us over and showed us what he had trapped in his water bottle!
I felt safe going to the Templos de los Inscripciones with Toby and Christine. By the way, they were my travel buddies all day.
Toby and Christine left at 2pm and I stayed until 5pm. I hoped to catch a gorgeous sunset from the top of Templo IV after the afternoon downpour. Tomorrow at 7am my 12 day Guatemalan extravaganza comes to and end as I travel to Belize City, then north to Corozal. Seeing Tikal was an explosive, and appropriate finale, to Guatemala. -AR