Tikal (11)


Source: WTL© digital photograph taken facing Temple I at Tikal (2008).
Comments: This is Tikal's most celebrated pyramid. It is about 140 feet high and it has nine levels below its temple and roof comb at the top. It is called the Jaguar Temple due to a jaguar carved on the lintel of the door to the temple. It is likely that the temple top was painted cream, red, and green. This temple was built to honor the wife of the greatest ruler of Tikal, Hasaw Chan K'awil (682-721), who led Tikal's warriors in the defeat of Calakmul, their archenemy city-state. Hasaw's wife, Lady Twelve Macaw, died in 703. His tomb is found in this pyramid's core, along with precious things that accompanied the dead ruler in the afterlife: jade, pearls, seashells, sacrificed servants, and a jade vessel representing his beloved wife (see: => Tikal #11a).
Humanities question: Since this pyramid-temple was the grandest building created by the Maya up to the 8th century, what do you see in its design and construction that Maya rulers intended to communicate to the Maya community of Tikal and elsewhere by means of this architecture?