Tikal (25)


Source: WTL© digital photograph taken on site at Tikal, Guatemala.
Comments: This is a marvellous sight alongside the site of the Gran Pirámide in Tikal's Mundo Perdido. Below the earthen talus at the top of the stone wall in the image's center and to the right of the stone steps (on the left side of the image), we can read and interpret two panels each with a set of sculptured stones . Between the two readable horizontal rows of images is what now looks like a horizonal line of blank stones, although once it may have been fully decorated and polychrome. Reading from right to left, looking at the center of the photo, we see blank stones on the far right, right? The second panel top and bottom from the right shows what looks like two eye-like circles. These eyes are paired to their left near the steps with hard-to-discern eye-like circles. These binary sculptures represent the Maya god of rain, fertilization, etc., known as Chaac. Below the images of Chaac is another horizontal blank area, right? Then, on the bottom are a binary pair of images representing the Plumed Serpent god, who was known to the Maya as Kulkukan (Gucumatz in the Popol Vuh) or as Quetzalcóatl to the Aztecs and the Toltecs. For further close-up views, see: => Tikal #25a.
Note: The dirt on top of this pyramid is a reminder that when the Mayas abandoned Tikal, the tropical forest for centuries covered most of the site with centuries of dirt, plants, and trees; that is, until archeologists and anthropologists re-discovered (and uncovered) what remained of the city-state of Tikal. For another image of what the forest did to Tikal from ca. 900 C.E. to the 20th century, see: => Tikal #27 in this series..