Tikal SUNSET, Archeological focus and Wildlife Spotting Tour (South and East)

We start when we pick you up at your hotel, when booking, please choose the time according to the location of your hotel. In case you don't know the location of your hotel yet, just book the cheapest tour option, later you let us know your hotel location and if there is a price difference, you can pay it to our guide. The walking tour begins at Gate 2 of Tikal National Park DURATION OF EACH WAY OF TRANSFER BY LOCATION WHERE WE PICK YOU UP a. Tikal: 00h: 05m b. El Remate: 01h: 00m c. San Jose, Peten: 01h:20m d. San Benito, Santa Elena Flores or Flores Island: 01h: 30m e. San Andres and Melchor de Mencos: 02h: 00m f. San Ignacio Town, Belize: 03h: 00m g. San Ignacio Out of Town, Belize: 03h: 30m Tikal has two titles of UNESCO, it's cultural and natural heritage of humanity, that's why we'll spend more than six hours exploring different archeological monuments and to go from monument to monument, we'll use nature trails with a high chance of spotting some species of wildlife.

It’s name is Palace of Grooves, because it has a unique architecture design on it’s walls with well preserved grooves. This was the residential palace of Yikin Chaan K'awiil, the 27th successor of the dynasty of Tikal and the richest ruler Tikal had, all the rulers before him used to live at Central Acropolis, a large complex of palaces where each generation added a some buildings, but this ruler was so rich with a lot of people to build, that he decided to build the Palace of Grooves as a separate complex. Yikin Chaan K'awiil also built Temple IV and Temple VI, this palace was built around 750 a.D. with two floors and five courtyards.

We'll explore this complex with you, it was built as the residential area of the royal family of Tikal, it has 6 courtyards, 3 of them have been restored, this complex was also probably the place to host to all the royal visitors that came to Tikal from other mesoamerican cities for diplomatic reasons. It has a palace with 5 floors and some of the lintels on the doors of this palace are still the original wooden lintels placed by the people who built it about 14 centuries ago and the wood is still in good shape.

We will walk around the most iconic monument of Tikal taking pictures of it from different angles. The official name of this temple is Temple of the Great Jaguar because when the temple was discovered, it's original wooden lintel had a Great Jaguar carved on it, now, that beautiful carving in wood is in a famous museum. Back in 1960's when archeologist excavated this temple, they found underneath this temple, the greatest treasure ever found in Tikal, it was the burial of Hasaw Chaan K'awil, the most famous king of the dynasty of Tikal, the jewelry over the skeleton of the king included 16.5 pounds of jade jewels.

The Great Plaza is 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 kings of the city. This complex was excavated back in 1960's by the Museum of University of Pensinvania.

This complex was used as a Royal Cemetery for the kings and queens of Tikal, it's compared with an onion, because of the multiple layers of interesting architecture it revealed, in some of these layers we can see the masks of the rain god and the sun god. The guide communicates efficiently with all guests. During the tour, the guide accompanies you to climb the monuments to explain the most important details while you are above the monuments. We take you to the best spots to take pictures at the right times, this is ideal for photographers and we'll see many Mayan structures.

We'll climb this temple with you and enjoy the best view of the Great Plaza, looking at the masks carved on top of this temple. The view from this temple is a great chance to take a picture of Temple I, North Acropolis and the Great Plaza.

We'll visit this beautiful temple, it has round corners, it's the only temple facing North, it was built around 650 a.C. 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.

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.

We will visit this area at the end to wait for sunset from the top of the Great Pyramid. The sounds of the wildlife are interesting. 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.

The walking tour ends at Gate 2 of Tikal National Park around 19:30 by June when we have the longest day or around 18:30 by December when we have the longest night. 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.