Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Great Plaza lies at the core of the site. It is flanked on the east and west sides by two great temple-pyramids. On the north side it is bordered by the North Acropolis and on the south by the Central Acropolis. The Central Acropolis is a palace complex just south of the Great Plaza.
The sites construction began in the Preclassic Period, around 350 BC. It developed into a funerary complex for the ruling dynasty of the Classic Period, with each additional royal burial adding new temples on top of the older structures. After AD 400 a row of tall pyramids was added to the earlier Northern Platform, which measured 330 by 260 ft, gradually hiding it from view. Eight temple pyramids were built in the 6th century AD, each of them had an elaborate roofcomb and a stairway flanked by masks of the gods. The North Acropolis continued to receive burials into the Post classic Period.
The most prominent surviving buildings include six very large pyramids, labeled Temples I - VI, each of which support a temple structure at their peak. Some of these pyramids are over 200 feet tall. They were numbered sequentially during the early survey of the site. It is estimated that each of these major temples could have been built in as little as two years.
The first temple is the Temple of the Great Jaguar, the second is the Temple of the Mask, the third is the Temple of the Jaguar Priest, the fourth and fifth temples mark the reign of important rulers, and also serve as their tombs, the sixth is known as the Temple of Inscriptions. The temples primary purposes were to serve as location for certain rituals, and also to serve as burial sites for great leaders.
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