The Mayan Temples in Tikal National Park, Guatemala
Tikal has been on our bucket list for quite some time. It is one of the largest and most impressive archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Needless to say, it’s a playground for history buffs and cultural travelers looking to walk in the footsteps of one of mankind’s most fascinating societies.
Our original plan was to visit the lakeside town of Flores, and take day trips to Tikal National Park. After browsing several travel blogs and researching online, we decided that staying inside the park was our best option, even if this meant paying more for accommodations. This allowed us to experience two sunsets and one sunrise in the park, when all of the tour buses are long gone. Little did we know that we were visiting Tikal during one of its slowest months, which meant that we had the park, and hotel, virtually all to ourselves!
Below is a collection of pictures of the Mayan Pyramids and Temples in Tikal
Backside of Temple 2 in Tikal’s Gran Plaza
Incredible panoramic jungle views from the top of Temple 4
Can you spot Nicole in this picture?
Hint – she’s wearing a white shirt
Views of the Gran Plaza and Acropolis from the top of Temple 2
Can you spot Nicole?
We literally had the entire park to ourselves!
Views of Temple 1 and the Gran Plaza from the Acropolis del Norte
Temple 5 (left) and Temple 2 (right) from the Acropolis del Norte
Acropolis Central located just outside the main plaza
The Gran Plaza – Temple 1 (right) rises as high as 44-metres
Arguable the most beautiful, Temple 5 stands at 58 metres high
To give you perspective of Temple 5, notice the two people sitting on the top of the stairs
Mayan Temple not yet fully revealed to modern man
Mayan Pyramid in the Lost World of Tikal National Park
Nicole taking a break at another picture perfect Mayan Pyramid Temple
Temple 4, the tallest building in Tikal, towers high above the endless jungle canopy
Temple 2 in the Gran Plaza
Views of Temple 1 and the central complex of Tikal
Frontal view of Temple 2, notice the perfect symmetry
Sitting on the top of the ancient temples as the sun begins to set over the jungle canopy, it’s easy to see why this UNESCO World Heritage Site was selected as the Eighth Wonder of the World by top travel bloggers.
Have you visited Tikal National Park? What did you think?
Share your experience in the comments section below!
I was too lazy to make the trek to Tikal when I was in Guatemala. Now that I have seen your pictures, I’ll just tell people it was beautiful 🙂
It really was spectacular. We lucked out by having the park all to ourselves!
First visited Tikal in 1976 and then again on 6 occasions in the 70’s working with Nicholas Hellmuth from Harvard University. Temple V was covered in jungle in those days! There was a hotel and runway right at the site back then. You could sleep in the ruins. We used to sleep on Temple II and watch the sunrise! That was a great time, I was 25 years old! Now I’m 72.
I slept in the ruins of Macchu Pichuu when I was 25.
73 now.
Times sure change.
How cool to have it all to yourself!! Did you play “Mayan conquerors” and run around the park pretending you were at war? (I think I would have!)
Haha… no, didn’t run around playing Mayan warriors, but now thinking that might have been some cool video footage! 😉
Very cool 🙂
Definitely need to visit there someday!
It was on our bucket list for quite some time – glad to have finally experienced it firsthand, it was definitely worth the wait!
Great pictures guys. I can’t wait to experience Tikal for myself. When I see your pictures I remember Jaguar Paw and the movie Apocalypto.
Thanks Joel!
Yes – we had images of heads rolling down from the top of the pyramids. If only to had a window back in time…
Great post and amazing photos! I have to get off my bum and finally head to Central America very soon I think.
Thanks Peter – for what its worth, we’re having a blast in Central America! 😉
I’ve been in two minds about whether to head to Tikal when I’m in Guatemala next month – starting to look like it’s a must-see!
Definitely worth adding to your itinerary! Stay at one of the hotels located just outside the park so that you can visit in the morning and evenings when it is much cooler and no tourists
Great photos! How wonderful to have the place to yourselves. I will take note that this is a good time to go. Keep the photos & blog posts coming!
Thanks!
Yup – May and June are the perfect months to visit if you want to avoid the crowds
I met my husband camping next to him in Tikal. This is one of the most special places for us in the world!
We took our son there when he was 6 to show him where mama and papa met, he wasn’t as impressed with that as he was with the hundreds of different animals crawling all over the place.
That’s a great story! Thanks for sharing 😉
Very cool that your son was able to see Tikal as well.
I loved Tikal when I went. The heat was oppressive when I went though — I roasted like a chicken. Very nice pics!
Thanks!
Sadly the heat doesn’t seem to take a break. We roasted as well. In fact, we left the park mid day and returned late afternoon because the heat was too intense
some great shots here — looks far better than Copan, which was the one I hit
Thanks Michael!
We didn’t get a chance to visit Copan, but hearing this makes us feel like we made the right choice to visit Tikal instead – cheers!
Tikal looks gorgeous!
It really is!
The third picture is just stunning! In the middle of a jungle, two Mayan pyramids stand out. I love the color too. Tikal National Park: now officially in my list 🙂
Thanks! It was a very cool moment. We captured that photo from the top of a temple equally as tall
Great shots, guys. And a great looking ruin to boot. We haven’t been to any ruins just yet here in South America – but looking forward to it.
Thanks guys!
Will you be visiting Machu Picchu while in SA? It’s our favourite (well, tied with Petra and Angkor!)
So cool you had Tikal all to yourselves! Great pics. 🙂
It was so unique having the park to ourselves. We’ve never had that happen before.
Great photos! It really seems like nobody was there when you visited Tikal. We went there last year in October and we were also lucky that there were no crowds at all, contrary to some of the Maya ruins that we visited in Mexico. Tikal was definitely one of our favorite Maya sites, if not even our absolute favorite 🙂
Tikal is high on our list of favorites. It was totally worth paying the little extra to stay in the park.
Amazing!! I don’t know why, but I’ve had Guatemala on the brain for a year. These pyramids look like a dream.
If you go, don’t miss Tikal. It lives up to the hype.
These pictures are absolutely gorgeous and you can’t even begin to describe how jealous I am that you two were able to visit the part virtually all by yourselves! I visited Chichen Itza in the middle of summer, and you can probably imagine what the crowds looked like. Where are you 2 off to next?
A benefit of traveling in the ‘off season’ 🙂 We’re not sure where we will head next..too many places to choose from.
@ Nicole We definitely found out the hard way. But it was still an amazing trip. Kukulcan Pyramid wasn’t part of the world’s 7 wonders so we were some of the very last people who were able to hike up the pyramid and enjoy the gorgeous scenery from the top! And now just for that I don’t regret it!
Wow! I can’t believe you lucked out and had the whole place to yourself. That’s so awesome! Great pictures.
It was quite a lucky outcome – wasn’t it?!
The sunsets on top of the pyramids were unforgettable, the sounds of birds chipping and the strange quiet, kind of haunting actually
These are amazing photos. I’ve never seen these pyramids before. I’ve seen alot of photo’s of Mayan temples, but you guys got some awesome ones! I enjoyed the text on the page just as much! Captivating stories. Thanks!
Thanks Jasmine – glad you like the photos! 😉
Wanted to go see these in January but ended up cutting off that part of the trip. Will return some day, these photos are proof I should!
Too Bad – hoepfully you’ll get a chance to visit again in the future (it’s well worth the extra effort!)
Incredible to see Nicole posing in some of the photos next to the temples – really adds some perspective to the scale of things! I’d love to visit someday.
It really does give a sense of scale – imagine building these pyramids hundreds of years ago! Mind blowing!
Beautiful photos! The Mayan temples have been on my to-do list for so long, now I feel like I need to go there 🙂
I enjoyed playing the ‘Can you spot Nicole?’ game even though my screen’s really small. So when’s the lean season? Or did I miss it?
Great Places to visit too. And Great Pics too!
Did you guys get to the top of Temple 5? Looks a hell of a long way up! What fantastic architecture though, the views from the top must’ve been truly breath-taking 🙂
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