From Deseret News archives:
Tikal, Guatemala Exploring ancient history
The Temple of the Jaguar Priest. The Temple of the Two-Headed Serpent. Their flat tops poke through the canopy, into the vast and misty sky. It is a scene so otherworldly that filmmakers used it in a "Star Wars" movie.
This is Tikal, in the tropics of Guatemala. It is one of the largest Mayan ruins in the world and is even more otherworldly in reality than it is on the screen. You can spend several days walking through Tikal walking where the Maya walked, trying to imagine yourself back in time.
Tikal was a premier trading and ceremonial center during the Classic period of Mayan culture, inhabited as a city from 200 B.C. to A.D. 900. At its peak, it was home to about100,000 people. Out of thousands of structures, about 500 buildings have been excavated and studied, and about 300 have been restored.
When you visit, you will walk in a few square miles, only a small part of the 25 square miles Tikal must have covered. You'll see many green mounds. Unexcavated buildings abound.
As you walk, you breathe the jungle air, heavy with the scents of growth and decay. You see orchids and philodendron and bromeliads. You hear frogs, toucans, doves and madly squawking parrots.
With luck, you will see the male howler monkeys fighting and screeching in the treetops. Don't be surprised if the females remain unimpressed by the males' display. The females like to doze in the branches while the males spar. (Hint: Never stand directly under a monkey in a tree. Monkeys tend to spray urine when defending their territory.)
Tikal gets more than a million visitors a year, half of them Europeans. While you wander down the trails and across the plazas, you'll hear Italian, French, perhaps Swedish or Norwegian. You may also hear your guide speaking Mayan to one of the other guides.
As it turns out, descendents of the ancient Maya still live in this part of the world and still speak one of several dozen Mayan dialects. Some remember a few ceremonies and farming practices bits and pieces of the long-ago culture. The national park service allows the Maya to conduct ceremonies at Tikal. So they come, regularly, to pray for rain, to give thanks for the harvest.
Recent comments
put something with food in it like what did they eat
joey campbell | May 29, 2009 at 8:38 a.m.
hi your website is very boring!
put more intresting words and...
Jennie | Sept. 24, 2008 at 3:56 p.m.
- Economic news raises hopes 10:38 a.m.
- Auto, bank exec pay package limits 9:55 a.m.
- Iraqi bomb blast kills at least 6 9:49 a.m.
- Stocks rise on retail sales data 9:46 a.m.
- Kobe's decade: On top at start, end 9:25 a.m.
- Pope will write letter on abuse 9:24 a.m.
- ACC well-represented in College Cup 9:20 a.m.
- Climate draft has gaping holes 9:12 a.m.
- Raich wins World Cup super combi 9:11 a.m.
- Detained Americans face deportation 8:31 a.m.
- Disappearance called 'sususpicious'
- Defense witness goes on offensive
- LDS to emphasize helping needy
- Unga might enter NFL draft
- Nude bathers cited for lewdness
- Few details on missing W.V. mom
- Jazz manage a magical win
- BCS = power conference monopoly
- 5 officers lose their certification
- Pitta doesn't win award
- Letters: Global warming a lie
256 - TCU to play Boise in Fiesta Bowl
206 - BYU football: Bronco weighs in on Hall
193 - Palin signs books, chats with fans
167 - Utah/BYU rivalry can be more civil
151 - Cougars going back to Vegas
150 - Andersen apologizes for Jordan hoax
142 - Nude bathers cited for lewdness
128 - Max Hall wants to look ahead
127 - Jazz fall apart late at L.A.
110
Is Angels Landing perhaps Utah's single most dangerous hiking trail? The...
The BYU/Utah rivalry is stupid. It's nothing but bickering and name calling...
or maybe he is just another crafty criminal using religion as an excuse.
Plain English? - Venus Venus is our Sister planet. Look up the...
THIS IS BREAKING NEWS ?, ........ THIS JUST IN, Obama administration's pay...
Wow! $3000 per household connection fee? And I was feeling bad about a 2...
Want I don't get is he told the cops, he went camping with his kids, but the...
Hey Shunned Member: The church preaches self-reliance. You should have...
re thoughts comments, From a John Wayne movie, "you called the tune, time...
Isn't Glenn Beck a Mormon? He is pretty rude and angry on his radio show....
one decent game,no rebounds,he`ll disappear soon


