Tikal Temple IV is a Mesoamerican pyramid in the ruins of the ancient Maya city of Tikal in modern Guatemala. It was one of the tallest and most voluminous buildings in the Maya world. [1] The pyramid was built around 741 AD. [1] Temple IV is located at the western edge of the site core. [1] Two causeways meet at the temple; the Tozzer Causeway runs east to the Great Plaza, while the Maudslay Causeway runs northeast to the Northern Zone. [1] Temple IV is the second tallest pre-Columbian structure still standing in the New World, just after the Great Pyramid of Toniná in Chiapas, Mexico, [2] although Teotihuacan's Pyramid of the Sun may once have been taller. [3]
The pyramid was built to mark the reign of the 27th king of the Tikal dynasty, Yik'in Chan K'awiil, although it may have been built after his death as his funerary temple. [4] Archaeologists believe that Yik'in Chan K'awiil's tomb lies undiscovered somewhere underneath the temple. [5] The summit shrine faces eastward to the site core, with Temple III visible directly in front and Temple I and Temple II beyond it. [3]
The pyramid has a rectangular base with its long axis running north–south. [1] It stands 64.6 metres (212 ft) from its supporting platform to the highest part of the roof comb. [3] Archaeologists estimate that 190,000 cubic metres (6,700,000 cu ft) of construction material were utilised in the bulk of the pyramid. [3] The temple faces eastwards towards the site core and supports a massive roof comb in pure Petén style, which was built upon the highest part of the structure's rear. It was hollow and was faced with an enormous mosaic sculpture. [1] The architecture of Temple IV is broadly similar to that of the other major temples at Tikal, such as Temple I and Temple II. [3]
The pyramid body itself, excluding the superstructure, consists of seven stepped levels with slanting talud walls and multiple corners. The lowest of these levels measures 88 by 65 metres (289 by 213 ft), whilst the uppermost platform measures 38.5 by 19.6 metres (126 by 64 ft). The pyramid was built on top of an enormous supporting platform that measures 144 by 108 metres (472 by 354 ft); this platform had two levels and rounded corners; it was accessed via a 44-metre (144 ft) wide projecting stairway. The supporting platform was of very high-quality and utilised enormous stones in its construction. [6]
The summit shrine was accessed via a 16.3-metre (53 ft) wide stairway that climbed from the supporting platform; a plain stela (Stela 43) and the associated Altar 35 are centrally located at the base of the stairway. [7] The shrine has been partially restored and has walls up to 12 metres (39 ft) thick. The shrine was built upon a platform resting upon a supplementary platform, which was in turn seated upon the top of the pyramid. [3]
The supplementary platform measures 33 by 20 metres (108 by 66 ft) with the longer axis running north–south. A stairway projects eastwards from this, giving access to the shrine itself. The supplementary platform is not exactly rectangular but consists of a number of architectural elements forming a complex plan. The platform resting on top of this measures 0.9 metres (3.0 ft) high; this element is poorly preserved, being visible only on the east side and in the middle of the north and south sides. [1]
The roof comb is 12.86 metres (42.2 ft) high and consists of three distinct levels. The massive bulk of the roof comb was lightened by internal chambers, with four being built into each of the three levels. The roof comb was originally somewhat taller as evidenced by the bases of three smaller architectural elements on top. [1]
The shrine measures 31.9 by 12.1 metres (105 by 40 ft), with a maximum height of 8.9 metres (29 ft) excluding the roof comb. [6] The exterior walls of the shrine are vertical, contrasting with the rest of the pyramid. [6] The upper sections of the exterior walls formed a frieze, with three giant stone mosaic masks facing eastwards over the temple access. [6] The central mask was directly over the outer doorway, while the other two were near the northern and southern extremes of the building's facade. [6]
The shrine had three chambers situated one behind the other, each linked by a doorway with a lintel fashioned from sapodilla wood. [8] These three rooms were the only accessible chambers in the entire pyramid temple. [6] The lintel of the exterior doorway was plain but the two interior lintels were intricately carved. [3] These two were removed in 1877 by Gustav Bernoulli and are now found in the Ethnographic Museum in Basel in Switzerland. [9] The lintels were carved elsewhere and then moved to the pyramid, raised to the summit shrine and installed in prepared positions; this was a laborious task given that sapodilla wood weighs 1120 kg/m3 (69.1 lb/cubic foot). [8] It was only after the installation of the lintels that the shrine was roofed and the roof comb built. [10]
The hieroglyphic inscriptions on the sculpted lintels indicate that the temple was built in 741 AD, and radiocarbon dating of the lintels and wooden beams in the vaulting confirmed this, giving a result of 720±60 AD. [10]
Lintel 3 is a wooden panel measuring 1.76 by 2.05 metres (5.8 by 6.7 ft) that is carved in low relief. [11] It depicts the Tikal king Yik'in Chan K'awiil seated on a litter underneath the arch of a celestial serpent. The lintel was sculpted to mark his victory over the city of El Perú in 743. [12] It has two panels of hieroglyphic script, containing a total of 64 glyphs. [11]
The Tikal Project of the University of Pennsylvania stabilised the ruins of the pyramid between 1964 and 1969, carrying out some limited restoration work to the upper part of the temple. [1] The National Tikal Project (Proyecto Nacional Tikal) carried out emergency repairs in the second half of the 1970s. [1]
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Dos Pilas is a Pre-Columbian site of the Maya civilization located in what is now the department of Petén, Guatemala. It dates to the Late Classic Period, and was founded by an offshoot of the dynasty of the great city of Tikal in AD 629 in order to control trade routes in the Petexbatún region, particularly the Pasión River. In AD 648 Dos Pilas broke away from Tikal and became a vassal state of Calakmul, although the first two kings of Dos Pilas continued to use the same emblem glyph that Tikal did. It was a predator state from the beginning, conquering Itzan, Arroyo de Piedra and Tamarindito. Dos Pilas and a nearby city, Aguateca, eventually became the twin capitals of a single ruling dynasty. The kingdom as a whole has been named as the Petexbatun Kingdom, after Lake Petexbatún, a body of water draining into the Pasión River.
Tikal is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Calakmul is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul was one of the largest and most powerful ancient cities ever uncovered in the Maya lowlands.
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Río Azul is an archaeological site of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is the most important site in the Río Azul National Park in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala, close to the borders of Mexico and Belize. Río Azul is situated to the southeast of the Azul river and its apogee dates to the Early Classic period.
El Zotz is a Mesoamerican archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region around 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of the major center of Tikal and approximately 26 kilometres (16 mi) west of Uaxactun. It is so called because of the large number of bats living in caves in the nearby cliffs. The site is located within the San Miguel la Palotada National Park bordering the Tikal National Park in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. It is a large Classic Period site and contains many unexcavated mounds and ruins.
Yaxha is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in the northeast of the Petén Basin in modern-day Guatemala. As a ceremonial centre of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, Yaxha was the third largest city in the region and experienced its maximum power during the Early Classic period.
Tikal Temple V is the name given by archaeologists to one of the major pyramids at Tikal. Tikal is one of the most important archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization and is located in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala.
Triadic pyramids were an innovation of the Preclassic Maya civilization consisting of a dominant structure flanked by two smaller inward-facing buildings, all mounted upon a single basal platform. The largest known triadic pyramid was built at El Mirador in the Petén Basin of Guatemala; it covers an area six times as large as that covered by Tikal Temple IV, which is the largest pyramid at that city. The three superstructures all have stairways leading up from the central plaza on top of the basal platform. Triadic pyramid structures are found at early cities in the Maya lowlands.
Tikal Temple II is a Mesoamerican pyramid at the Maya archaeological site of Tikal in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala. The temple was built in the Late Classic Period in a style reminiscent of the Early Classic. Temple II is located on the west side of the Great Plaza, opposite Temple I. Temple II was built by the king Jasaw Chan K'awiil I in honour of his wife, Lady Kalajuun Une' Mo'. Temple II had a single wooden sculpted lintel that bears the portrait of a royal woman who may have been the wife of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, who was entombed beneath Temple I. Lady Kalajuun Une' Mo', whose name means "Twelve Macaw Tails", was also important for being the mother of Jasaw Chan K'awill I's heir. In fact her son Yik'in Chan K'awiil oversaw the completion of Temple II when he became king.
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The Central Acropolis of the ancient Maya city of Tikal is an architectural complex located immediately to the south of the Great Plaza. Tikal is one of the most important archaeological sites of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization and is located in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala. The complex served dual administrative and residential purposes. The Central Acropolis was first established in the Late Preclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, and it remained in use until approximately 950 AD.
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