Tikal National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, is comprised of 575 square km of primary tropical forest and the ruins of one of the largest Mayan cities. Visiting Tikal offers a pretty spectacular glimpse into the forest of the Petén, in addition to seeing the ruins that date back as far as 600 A.D. We arrived just after the park opened at 6 AM, and enjoyed a nice view of the Great Plaza from temple II before things got really crowded (even on a weekday the park was flooded with people by mid-day). We spent the rest of the day wandering around, exploring the park and climbing all of the structures that allowed it. It was hard to resist taking a million photos, here are a few favorites and many more in the gallery below.
View of temple I from temple II
Stairs up temple V
View towards the Great Plaza from temple V
Ethan in repose
Monkey at temple VI
Exploring the Central Acropolis
View of the North Acropolis from Maler's Palace
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- Templo del Gran Jaguar in early morning
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- Templo del Gran Jaguar
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- Stela 16 showing Hasaw Chan K’awil
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- Stela in front of North Acropolis
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- View of Maler’s palace from temple II
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- View of temple I from temple II
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- View north from temple II
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- Early morning in the Gran Plaza
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- goofy tourists
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- Tikal has lizards too
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- And ants that look spider-ish
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- colorful Petén turkey
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- Entertaining translation
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- View from Temple IV
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- Stairs up temple V
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- Climbing temple V
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- La subida vale la pena
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- Content with the view
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- 1, 2, 3, shoot!
(Click on each for larger images.)
