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Jaron Lanier
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Tikal: 'Center of Echoes'
The ruins were discovered in 1848; excavation and restoration took place from 1956 to 1969. But it has been only in the past 10 years or so that visitors have been able to reach the site with relative ease.
Tikal is peppered with thousands of structures over 12 square miles: stepped pyramids containing underground burial chambers; stone altars for ritual human sacrifice; and chiseled tablets called stelae, which the Maya used to keep an accurate calendar and precise chronicle of the heavens' movements.
Our guide, Edgar, leads us past carved tablets depicting the Maya's symbol of wisdom: the serpent. "This did not go over so well with the Christian missionaries," Diaz observes. Farther along, we pass a courtyard where Mayan ballplayers in padded leg gear once competed in a sport somewhat akin to basketball. (A rather unsettling twist is that the captain of the winning team would have his head cut off immediately following the game.)
We continue on to the Plaza Mayor, or Great Plaza, said to be the Maya's most impressive visual legacy. One pyramid, the Temple of the Giant Jaguar, rises 145 feet high at the eastern end. A second pyramid, the Temple of Masks, rises 127 feet to the west.
The temples served as astrological observatories as well as sacred places for ceremonial sacrifices. The limestone monuments are now stone-gray, but during Mayan times they were the color of blood.
"Tikal," Edgar says darkly, "means 'center of echoes.' "
Mulling this, Colleen and I climb the decaying stairway leading to the chamber atop the jaguar temple. From there, one can take in the sprawling acropolis and imagine a time when it was alive with activity. Archaeologists still don't know what led the Maya to abandon Tikal and other major cities around 900 A.D.
After a time, we head back to the Jungle Lodge, at the center of the 222-square-mile national park that encompasses the ruins. We decide to stay the night — an experience that proves richly rewarding. We wake up to the animal sounds of the jungle, and listen to the tropical rain storm that beats like kettle drums on our thatched roof. We then set out for a second day of taking in the ruins at an unhurried pace.
Hidden for centuries beneath the jungles of northern Guatemala lie the remnants of the New World's cultural center. Tikal, the premier city of the ancient Mayan civilization, flourished from a few hundred years before Christ to 900 A.D.
Guatemala: An introduction
Tikal
Antigua
Panajachel/Lake Atitlan
Chichicastenango
Guatemala resources
Guatemala photo gallery
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