Trip to Tikal

While in the western town of San Ignacio, Belize, it's an easy daytrip to the ruins of Tikal in Guatemala. Tikal was the political and cultural center at the height of the Mayan empire from 200-900 AD, and it's name means "knot of hair," which explains all the hair knots in many of the engravings. Those archaeologists sure are good at this interpretation thing, hah! Tikal was abandoned sometime in the 10th century.

Some of the trees at the entrance to the complex were enormous and amazing.

This tree was not growing red/greenish leaves. It's actually covered by epiphytes, parasitic plants in the rainforest.


It's simply amazing to see the structures and temples emerge from the rainforest canopy.




And when you walk closer, you start to realize how deceptively enormous the structures really are.

Imagine climbing an 10 story ladder...



After visting Tikal, Angkor Wat, and a few other ruins in the world, I've started to realize a lot of similarities in form and function. Makes you kinda wonder how exactly could separate civilizations create structures so alike. Not surprising, some believe that aliens built them or taught humans how to. Personally, I believe we're more alike than we like to think.