Our driver picks you up at your hotel or at the airport.
The walking tour begins at the trail gate of Tikal National Park
The Great Plaza
It's the place in Tikal with the largest amount of energy, it's also the most restaured complex of this mayan site, it has multiple stelae, some of them with carving showing the portrait of some rulers of the city. We'll also visit it's surrounding monuments: Temple I, Temple II, North Acropolis and Central Acropolis. This complex was excavated in 1960's by the Museum of University of Pennsylvania.
Temple V
We'll visit this beautiful temple, it has round corners, it's the only temple facing North, it was built around 650 a.D. and it was restored in 2002. Temple V is the second tallest of Tikal, it's architecture is very different than the other temples of the city, this is the first temple discovered in Tikal back in 1848 because the back of it's roof comb as it's totally vertical, it was never covered by trees and it was visible from far away south, the direction of Flores where the discoverers of Tikal came from.
Plaza Of The Seven Temples
This Plaza has Seven temples in line, three ball courts and three palaces, which makes the number thirteen, a sacred number for the mayan culture. It looks like a place for sports and for the aristocracy of Tikal to have fun. It has the only triple ball court found so far in Mesoamerica.
The Lost World
The Lost World is the astronomical observatory of Tikal, it has the Great Pyramid as the point to watch the stars, the planets and the sun and it has three buildings on the east side to mark the seasons of the year. The lower plaza is part of The Lost World, this plaza has a podium in the center with the architecture of Teotihuacan, a clear evidence of the cultural interaction between these two ancient cities.
Temple IV
The official name of this temple is Temple of the Double Headed Serpent, as when the temple was discovered, it had a wooden carved lintel with the sacred double headed serpent carved on it, now this wooden carving is in a famous museum. The nickname of this temple is Temple of Star Wars as back in 1977 the movie director George Lucas came to Tikal to film part of the original Star Wars Movie, Episode IV “A New Hope”
The walking tour ends at the trail gate of Tikal National Park around 02:00 pm and we offer you a hot meal and a cold drink at the Jaguar Inn Restaurant, after eating you can walk around the visitor center to see more wildlife, visit the scale model or buy souvenirs. The activity ends when we drop you off at the location we picked you up, or it can be to a different location, but for this, you need to let us know in advance. This tour is ideal for passengers flying from Flores Airport (FRS) that day on the flight: TAG 5U111 leaving to Guatemala City at 19:15