Tikal Ruins Mayan Ruins

Miguel Ángel Asturias, named Nobel Laureate in 1967, wrote; "Tikal is the largest known Mayan city, and is incomparable to other Mayan cities. Its size imposing and intimidating, its setting lush and teeming with wildlife, and with a mysterious and overwhelming atmosphere and site worth investigation.

Asturias also writes... "The imagination reels. There are reliefs, pyramids, temples in the extinguished city. The damp murmur of the arroyos, voices, crepitations of the intertangling vines, the sound of flapping wings, trickle into the immense sea of silence. Everything palpitates, breathes, exhausting itself in green above the vast roof of Peten."

In this remote area, one of the greatest civilizations of its time established a city that endured for centuries. The ruins at Tikal buried deep in the Peten jungle are probably the most important archaeological discovery of this century, comprising some 3,000 massive stone temples and palaces dating back 6,000 years.

As is the case with all Mayan sites, the origins of Tikal are barely discernible. Findings of pottery dating from a few hundred years before Christ give evidence that Tikal was inhabited at that time. Bits and pieces of information are gathered from drawings on pottery and bone. But there is no coherent history of Tikal and there may never be one. Tikal is a place for wondering -- not only at the engineering accomplishments of the Maya, but also at the jungle splendors of the Peten.

The site of Tikal is a national park, where the native flora and fauna now flourish relatively undisturbed.

Howler and spider monkeys swing in the treetops, foxes, pumas and wild turkeys roam the grounds and there are hundreds of bird species including toucans and macaws which are visible in the surrounding jungle canopy.