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Go to page: Seen from between Temple 33 and Temple 34 in the North Acropolis, Temple II emerges from the early morning mist. The North Acropolis was, for most of Tikal's history, the focus of the city's religious architecture and the preferred place of burial for rulers. The eighth-century Tikal king Jasaw Chan K'awiil changed that when he commissioned Temples I and II. The open space between them (now called the Great Plaza) then became the new ceremonial core.

Go to page: Standing under the shadow of the north side of Temple II, a viewer can see many of the Great Plaza's most important elements: the space between Temples I and II which constitutes the Plaza proper, with its multitude of stelae that record several centuries of the history of Tikal, and the stairs leading onto the North Acropolis, the most important and oldest cluster of ritual buildings in the whole city.

Go to page: This glimpse of Temple IV, as seen from the top of the main structure at the Mundo Perdido (Lost World) complex, illustrates the dramatic struggle between the lush tropical vegetation and the titanic efforts of Maya civilization to overcome it. Even though the jungle has reclaimed the once powerful city, its tallest temples have managed to stay above the 100-foot tall forest canopy.

Go to page: The truly massive masonry crest (technically called a roofcomb) of Temple III shoots up from the groping jungle, reaching 60 meters into the sky. In Petén architecture, the enormous weight of these crests forced the Maya to build them upon walls that were often thicker than the narrow inner spaces of the temples they defined. Roofcombs were used as grand billboards for the display of religious and political imagery.

Go to page: Vegetation all but obliterates the urban spaces of once-mighty Tikal. Yet the few visual axes that archaeological work has managed to retrieve from the grip of the jungle allow us to imagine how the ancient city must have looked, with its towering temples ablaze in bright colors, billowing smoke rising from a multitude of censers, while dense crowds below went about their business in the plazas and avenues of this vibrant center of commerce and politics. Here is the view of the back of Temple III from the so-called Bat Palace.

Go to page: As if in defiance of the jungle, Temples I (farthest), II and III (closest) rise above the ocean of giant trees that nowadays surrounds the ruined city as far as the eye can see. The massive volumes of these buildings are characteristic of what specialists call the Petén style, prevalent in many Maya sites of the Classic period, both inside the Petén and outside of it.

Go to page: The ballgame had an enormous, but only partially understood importance throughout Mesoamerica. The implausibly small size of this ballcourt, which sits just off the south side of the imposing Temple I in the Great Plaza, causes one to ponder whether this structure was used for an unknown one-on-one version of the game. Alternatively, this ballcourt may have been purely symbolic and never intended for actual play.

Go to page: Looking south from Structure 61, one gazes across Court 2 of the Central Acropolis to the three-doored, two-storied Structure 65. It is better known as Maler's Palace because, reputedly, this is the building in which Austrian explorer Teobert Maler chose to set up his camp in the course of his investigations at Tikal. The denomination "palace" has been somewhat arbitrarily given to all non-pyramidal, range-type structures, although their actual use or uses were not necessarily limited to elite residential complexes, as their modern nickname would suggest.

Go to page: An ample doorway in Structure 5E-11 nowadays opens onto the ever-present siege of the jungle, although it once communicated its courtyard to the eastern portion of the city. This large complex of buildings, also known as Group G, is a multi-roomed cluster of palace-type constructions, associated either with high-status individuals or clans or perhaps with some of the city's administrative functions.

Go to page: Looking west from within the Great Plaza, across the stelae recounting the deeds of many Tikal kings, the view is interrupted by Temple II, also known as the Temple of the Masks on account of its upper frieze once having been adorned with gigantic stone and stucco masks. Although somewhat squat in appearance, particularly when compared with its slender and more famous mate, Temple I, this structure once rose over forty meters from the Plaza floor and, given its location, must have been central in the city's civic life.

Go to page: Kissed by the very last rays of sunlight before plunging into the darkness of yet another tropical night, the roofcombs of Temples I, II and III glow amid the forest, which has already surrendered its colors to the embrace of dusk. The view at this hour of the day, afforded by the vantage point of Temple IV's roof, is fit for contemplating both the majesty of the Petén and the fate that brought about the demise of Classic Maya civilization.

Go to page: A half-fallen chamber in the Central Acropolis accidentally displays a useful cross section of a typical Maya vault. Two parallel, vertical walls were built to the height of the vaultspring. From that point up, stones were laid so that each consecutive course projected more and more towards the center of the room. Once the space between the two converging vault halves was small enough, it was spanned by flat stones aptly called capstones. To help support the vault halves during the construction process, wooden beams were sometimes installed from wall to wall. The surface of the rooms thus formed was then finished with a layer of limestone plaster, which was often painted.

Go to page: The sheer mass of Petén-style architecture and the inherent structural weakness of the Maya "arch" forced its builders to resort to extremely thick walls and much reduced inner spaces, particularly when further construction was meant to be added on top, as is the case of multi-storied buildings or temples with massive roofcombs on top of them. If the wall thickness is larger than the inner space created, the resulting construction is referred to as having a negative rate.

Go to page: Detail of the western side of Structure 5D-43. Its non-Maya architectural style, which combines a talud, a tablero and an inverted talud is strongly reminiscent of Teotihuacan buildings. Reinforcing this association is the imagery, which consists of stone circles on the inset tableros reminiscent of the so-called goggles of the Central Mexican deity Tlaloc, as well as star markings, which bring to mind similar markings to be found in murals at both Teotihuacan and the highland city of Cacaxtla.

Go to page: Seen from within the sanctuary atop Temple II, Temple I stands against a stormy sky background. Archaeologists found within it the rich tomb of the eighth century king Jasaw Chan K'awiil, although it is still unclear whether the building was originally conceived as a funerary monument or whether its use as such was an afterthought. The harmonious proportions of this temple have made it something of a symbol in present-day Guatemala, where it graces, among other things, the half-quetzal bank note.

Go to page: Seen from the West Plaza, Temple I (in the background) and Temple II (in the foreground) face each other. The steps to the left of Temple II lead to the lower level of the platform upon which sits the North Acropolis. The limits defined by Temples I and II, on the east and west, and by the North and Central Acropolis, on the north and south, define the space known today as the Great Plaza, which seems to have been the hub of Tikal during much of the Late Classic.

Go to page: The back of the huge and fairly well preserved roofcomb of Tikal's Temple VI (better known as the Temple of the Inscriptions) still displays much of a very long inscription concerning Tikal's dynastic history. The fact that most of this temple's substructure still lies unexcavated, covered with the debris of centuries, diguises the fact that this temple is indeed a very large one. Oddly enough and despite its size, its rediscovery happened in relatively recent times (in 1951).

Go to page: In front of Temple VI (in the background) once stood Stela 21 (in the foreground) and Altar 9. In the course of archaeological excavations, both this stela and its altar have been repaired and re-erected in place. Nevertheless, several portions of the former are still missing. (A large carved stone fragment that fits this stela was found in use as a metate - for grinding corn - by people of Lake Petén Itzá.) Despite its being shattered, what's left of this monument displays a magnificent carving style.

Go to page: Detail of an early construction phase of Temple 33, where the inset corners so characteristic of the Petén architectural style can clearly be seen. Earlier phases of Temple 33 (including two huge stone-and-stucco masks that can still be viewed by entering a tunnel) were uncovered by archaeologists of the University of Pennsylvania project when they decided to dismantle the very damaged last construction phase of the once towering structure. Arguably the most famous find made at the extensive excavation work that was carried out on Temple 33 is king Siyaj Chan Kawiil's Stela 31, which was found ritually re-erected, terminated and then buried deep inside the last construction phase of this important Central Acropolis building.

Go to page: The Central Acropolis, apparently the residential and administrative hub of Tikal's elite over much of the city's history, seems to have become crowded in the end, as the ruling elites grew more and more numerous. Here, a cluster of buildings barely has the space necessary for stairs that allowed access to them. Supporting these economically unproductive and ever-enlarging elites must have made Late Classic Maya society top-heavy and probably placed an additional burden on an already strained system at a time when deforestation had reached alarming proportions and the arable land had become scarce and insufficient.

Go to page: Some complexes in the Central Acropolis appear to have been strictly residential in nature, given their restrained access and somewhat out-of-the-way locations. A common arrangement was to have several structures built around an open courtyard. The one shown here must have belonged to a particularly powerful clan (perhaps that of the extended royal family), given its proximity to king Chak Tok Ich'aak's royal palace and the fact that it never ceased to enjoy relatively uncramped space and multi-storied, high-quality buildings.

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