Top of Tikal

On Monday I was taken on a tour of Tikal by Paco, the thirty-something govermnent archaeologist who works on the monument. I have got to know him through my Spanish teacher who he is married to. His English is excellent and his sense of humour pretty damn good too.

The highlights were:


On top of Temple 4, 70 metres up without a net!

climbing the scaffolding built around the very, very top of Temple 4 to stand on the 1.5 metre wide very, very top of the temple. This is the upper surface of the roof comb, a hollow limestone decorative crest to the temple which is the box like building on top of the seven pyramid platforms. At 70 metres high and way above the jungle canopy it is heighest spot in Tikal! The views were of continuous jungle all the way to all horizons! the scaffolding is there to facilitate conservation work and no, there were no hard hats, no ladders and certainly no safety lines involved.


Paco. His tunnel is beneath those tress, at the bottom.

looking into Pacos tunnel. We couldn't go in as the 'workers' were on a public holiday but its a real archaeological tunnel, 1.9 metres high, 1.2metres wide and 20 metres long. It's got another 20 metres to go before it finishes in the middle of the base platform.


Check out Chac

going into a cordoned off old excavation tunnel to look at two large statues of the face of the rain god Chac.


Temple 1 in the late afternoon sun

Thank you Paco for a great tour and wonderful day out!

There's more Tikal photos on my flickr photostream flickr stream