Tikal - Mr. Chocolate's Temple

While visiting my daughter in the country of Guatemala recently, we had the opportunity to visit the ancient Mayan ruins of Tikal in the thick jungle of El Petén.  This is the oldest and most impressive ruins in Guatemala, having been inhabited from about 800 BC to 900 AD.  Each King built his own personal temple, so there are many structures (supposedly more than 4000), not all of which have been uncovered.  Unearthing this civilization from the dense jungle that has grown over it is a huge work in process.

This is the Temple of the Great Jaguar, or Temple I (so named because it was the first one uncovered, but not the first one built).  Rising over the canopy of the jungle, it stands over 150 feet tall, and was built about 700 AD for Ah Cacao, whose tomb was discovered inside.  Ah Cacao has been nicknamed Lord Chocolate, I am guessing because of the similarity of his name with cocoa, but I could be wrong.

Karen (a friend from work who joined us for a week), myself & Bethany

We are standing on top of the Temple of the Masks, or Temple II, also constructed about 700 AD by Lord Chocolate for his wife, which is directly across the the Great Plaza from his own temple.

Temple of the Masks (for Mrs Chocolate), standing about 120 feet high

This is the Great Plaza, with the lower part of Lord Chocolate's Temple to the right, and his wife's to the left, out of the picture frame.  We are standing on structures on the south end of the plaza looking to the north side.  Everywhere one finds the structures that appear to be tombs, but in reality are biographical head stones of different important people, with a round sacrificial platform in front of it. Mayan pictographs tell the story of each one. Under those thatched roofs of the middle tier, archaeologists are at work restoring the faces of  two important gods of the Mayans:

Cha ak, the rain god

Kinich ah Hau, the sun god

Directly below us is the sports court.  This is where they play a ball game, trying to bounce it through hoops placed on both sides of the wall.  The winners had the privilege of being killed in sacrifice to the gods!  Not sure I would put much effort into that game!