Cloaked by the dense jungle of Guatemala’s Maya Lowlands, the ruins of Tikal National Park are as mysterious as they are massive. Ancient roadways connect intricate, temple-lined complexes that once comprised the civilization’s most important metropolis. The Gran Plaza, which is shown in my video above, is Tikal’s main attraction, but the park has other well-known landmarks: Temple IV, the city’s tallest structure, was the perch where George Lucas filmed the rebel base in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, and the Lost World (Spanish: Mundo Perdido) contains the site’s oldest structures.
Along with its maze-like design, Tikal also carries an aura of mystery due to its seemingly abrupt abandonment. No one is really certain what brought an end to the great city, but it likely coincided with the inexplicable collapse of Maya civilization sometime around the 9th century CE. Theories attempting to explain Tikal’s demise include overconsumption of the area’s natural resources, overpopulation, famine, and the poisoning of the city’s water supply by toxic algae and mercury.
For more information on reaching and touring Tikal, you can browse my travel guides for the remote national park. The ruins are just across the Belizean border, so many travelers (including myself) fly into Belize City and then journey inland across the international line. Flores, Guatemala, and San Ignacio, Belize, are the main tourism hubs near Tikal.
Related Content
– Click to view my high-resolution photo collection of the ruins at Tikal National Park.
– Click to view my high-resolution photo collection of wildlife at Tikal.
– Click to read my feature article “Tikal: The Day the King Died” about how Mesoamerica’s most mysterious metropolis altered the course of Maya civilization on one fateful day.