Tikal

Our internet hasn't been functional for the last few days, so I'm going to try to catch up on my entries since last weekend.

Last Saturday, we  booked a tour to Tikal, the largest of the Mayan ruins in this region, just across the Guatemala border. 

Tikal has 5 large temples, the Mayan palace, the market, and other parts of the city still under excavation. The enormity of the temples was mind-boggling, especially when I learned that ancient Mayans did not use the wheel. They did fashion large round stones, but these were used as sacrificial altars, not for transportation.

In this picture, you can see one of the large temples, there is a second mirroring temple across the courtyard. In front of the temple are two round stones with upright stones behind- these are both sacrificial altars. We learned from our guide, that unlike the scenes depicted in the movie Apocalypto, the Mayans did not perform sacrifices at the tops of their temples. There were different altars assigned for each of the different animal and human sacrifices.

This is one of the Mayan ball courts. Originally, there would have been two metal rings in the center of each court wall. To score points, the players would pass the ball through these rings. The fate of the defeated team was decided by the Mayan rulers, and the winning team had the honor of wearing the losers skulls on their belt. This is a fairly small court and may have been used for one-on-one or two-on-two play.

After our tour of Tikal, Katie, Ryan, Kelly, and I went zip-lining through the Guatemalan jungle.