Tikal Maya Ruins, Guatemala - August 18-19, 2023

[Martin Hash]

Other than the 7 countries of Central America, none of which we’d ever visited before, my next most important goal was the ancient Maya city of Tikal in the Penten region of Guatemala.



Luckily, I had examined several other ancient Maya sites before so I had something to compare it to: in my estimation, Tikal is by far the best Maya heritage excavation, and among the most impressive of anything else I’ve seen, rivaling the pyramids of Egypt, Angor Wat in Cambodia, and those in Peru. I do have one major criticism though, whereas those other ancient artifacts are pretty much like they were discovered, the Maya pyramids suffer significantly from artistic license. Comparing a before photo of a Maya pyramid when it was engulfed in the primordial jungle verses what the tourists climb today, requires a lot of imagination. Unrestored, they are little more than towers of crumbling gravel ensconced in hundred year old trees growing directly into them. There is no integrity of the original stone blocks; all worn into gravel and shapeless masses by wind & weather.

Unreconstructed Maya Pyramid.jpg

Unreconstructed Pyramid

Never-the-less, I’ll allow that the custodians who oversaw the reconstruction are as much experts in their fields as I am in mine, so I’ll suspend my disbelief enough to thoroughly enjoy my explorations. Not to mention that Tikal features prominently in my book, “Sacrificio.” Besides the structures themselves, highlights include wandering coatis; raccoon-like creatures totally unafraid of us humans, howler monkeys that signal intrepid Indian Jones with their siren-songs that something of interest lies here, and of course my fellow tourists, who though there weren’t nearly as many as you’d expect, did encompass all aspects of curious & enlightened dilettante archaeologists such as myself.