UNESCO declared Tikal National Park a World Heritage Site. It shelters the remains of one of the largest and most important cities in the pre-Hispanic history of the Maya Civilization, as well as 550 square kilometers of exuberant rainforest, home to a great diversity of flora and fauna.
Tikal was inhabited for nearly 1,500 years, starting in the Mid Preclassic (800 BC), until it was abandoned during the ninth century. The structures and monuments found at this site relate Tikal’s vital role in measuring time with the Long Count Calendar and commemorating the beginning of various K’atun periods and the Bak’tun 9.
To this day, Tikal has the oldest Long Count date recorded in the Maya Lowlands (Stela 29, 292 AD), indicating that it was the first or one of the first cities to establish a dynastic government that recorded its rulers in stone stela with hieroglyphic inscriptions. Therefore Tikal recorded a dynastic sequence of 33 successive kings.
One of the few commemorations of the beginning of the Bak’tun 9 is found in Stela 31 of Tikal, which narrates the story of its first 15 rulers. Other stelae found here also reference the celebration of the end of several periods of 20 Tuns (almost 20 years) called K´atuns. K’atunshe 26th ruler, Jasaw Chaan K´awiil, K’awiilK´atun wK’atunebrated with constructing a commemorative plaza, now known as the Twin Pyramids Complex. The plaza had two truncated pyramids (no temple), each with four radial staircases, one at the west end and one at the east end, symbolizing sunrise and sunset on the horizon.
North of each complex, a commemorative stela whose inscription celebrated the start of a new K´atK’atun was placed. Six of these complexes have been found in Tikal: Complex M, Complex N, Complex O, Complex P, Complex Q, and Complex R. The first two were built by ruler # 26 (Jasaw Chaan K´awK’awiilhe following two by his son, ruler # 27 (Yik´Yik’inan K´awK’awiilnd the last two by his successor, ruler # 29 (Yax Nuun Ayiin II).
During the mid- and Late-Preclassic Periods, Tikal had an observatory for solar solstices and equinoxes, now known as the Astronomical Observation Complex or Group E, in what is now known as the Lost World (Mundo Perdido). The observatory’s observation point was the Great Pyramid.
This suggests that the people in Tikal also used the Solar Calendar or Haab to measure time.
In addition to its archaeological importance, Tikal is still considered a Maya sacred place, and different religious ceremonies are performed there weekly.
From: Guatemala Tourist Commission.
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