Tikal
We took a
day trip from Cozumel to Tikal, Guatemala. It was a long day, starting with a
two hour plane ride and an hour bus ride to the site.
Tikal is the remnant of an ancient Mayan city. The
great temples are just
the beginning. These ruins go back over 2,000 years. The city was at its high
point in AD 300-900 and could have had a population of perhaps 100,000 people.
In addition to their achievements in construction, the Maya also excelled
in the arts, astronomy, and glyphic writing. Wooden lintels are found throughout
the temples of Tikal. These decorative pieces were cut from the chicozapote
wood. The lintels that are visible today are the original ones that the Maya
used in their construction. The native limestone doesn't have the flexural
strength for a lintel that should last over 1,000 years and the Maya didn't
have true arches, so wooden lintels were their solution.
Only about
20% of the site has been exposed. The
rest of the site is left under the protection of the forest. Once exposed to the elements and the tourists, the structures
deteriorate more
rapidly. The Maya
not only designed and constructed these structures, they maintained them.
You can see where centuries of weather took their toll on the structures.
The smooth, vertical faces of the original stones broke off and were
repaired with mortared, round stream rocks.
The Maya were interested in calendars and the passage of time. All early agricultural civilizations needed to be able to predict the seasons, but the Mayans really got into it. They understood the concept of zero and included it in their numbering system. They knew that the year is a little more than 365 days, and developed a complicated, incredibly accurate calendar.
I've been
to one other Mayan site, but this one is special.
The forest is still here in full force and you walk through it as you
tour the site. The mature trees are
amazing and include mahogany and allspice.
The forest is full of parrots, howler monkeys,
spider
monkeys and other critters. The
site is large and seems to have all the features of a large city.
You can imagine yourself walking through areas with sports, temples,
trading centers, living quarters, observatories, agricultural warehouses,
treasuries and armories. We did the
tourist thing and climbed some pyramids which really helps you get a feeling for
the whole site. Looking down from
the top, you get a feeling what it must have been like to be a ruler. Looking up, you get a feeling what it must have been like to
be an ordinary citizen.