Tikal Guatemala - A World Heritage Site

Latin America

Tikal,
Guatemala.

Tikal (Guatemala) had been an inhabited village for a few hundred years before it became a ceremonial centre and the five pyramids for which it is known were built.

Some 10,000 Maya people lived in the Tikal city centre during its peak around the year 700AD and a further 50,000 lived on the outskirts.

Three centuries later the Tikal city was left abandoned for reasons which scholars have been unable to agree upon.

The Tikal site contains around 3000 structures and is the largest excavated site in the Americas even though many of the structures have not been excavated as yet.

The site of Tikal and its corresponding national park, which is included in UNESCO's world heritage list, covers an area of 575 square kilometres and is surrounded by jungle.