Great Plaza

You are at the centre of Tikal. To your right, Temple I, the Temple of the Great Jaguar, 47 metres tall. To your left, Temple II. To the north, the North Acropolis, where kings were buried for centuries. Thirteen hundred years ago this space was full of people, colour and copal smoke.

Forget the grey of the stone. In the year 750 everything you see was covered in stucco and painted deep red, with details in cream, black and Maya blue. The roof comb of Temple I, that crest on top, carried a giant sculpture of the king seated on his throne, visible from all over the city.

That king was Jasaw Chan K'awiil I. He ruled from 682 to 734 and in 695 he defeated Calakmul, the great rival, restoring the power Tikal had lost for more than a century. His son, Yik'in Chan K'awiil, built this temple to bury him inside it, in the tomb known as Burial 116, with jade, pearls, shells and bones carved with scenes from his life.

Temple II, opposite, is a little older and lower: about 38 metres. Jasaw had it built in honour of his wife, Lady Kalajuun Une' Mo'. The two temples face each other: the king and the queen, one on each side of the plaza.

The stelae and altars at the foot of the North Acropolis are the portraits of the rulers with their dates. Tikal was occupied from 600 BC, and its dynasty, founded by Yax Ehb Xook around the year 90, lasted almost 800 years. At its height the city had about 60,000 inhabitants.

Around the year 900, after a crisis of droughts, wars and soil exhaustion, Tikal was abandoned. The jungle covered it for a thousand years until the first expeditions of the 19th century. In the 3D view, switch to Year 750 to see the painted plaza, and in augmented reality overlay the temples as they were on the ones in front of you.