44 TIKAL. 



T I K A I, 



The ruins of Tikal lie on a limestone plain to the north-east of the Lake of Peten, 

 in approximately lat. 17° 10' N., and long. S9 3 47' W. 



Bancroft * says : " The ruined structures of Tikal are reported to extend over a space 

 of at least a league, and they were discovered, although their existence had been 

 previously reported by natives, in 1848 by Governor Ambrosio Tut and Colonel 

 Modesto Mendez." 



The ruins were visited in the year 1877 by Dr. Bernoulli, who died on his way 

 home, and whose notes have unfortunately not been preserved. 



I visited Tikal in 1881 and 1882, setting out each time from Coban, in Vera Paz, 

 and journeying northwards for ten days through the then almost uninhabited forest to 

 the Paso Ileal, the ferry across the Rio de la Pasion, where the Government maintains 

 a ferryman and serviceable canoes for the passage of the river. Fourteen miles north 

 of the ferry stands the village of Sacluc, or La Libertad, the headquarters of the 

 mahogany-cutters. Prom Sacluc a short day's ride across the savanna country brings 

 one to the Lake of Peten Itza and in sight of the island town of Flores or Tayasal, a 

 few hundred yards from the south-east shore of the lake. From Flores we travelled 

 by night in canoes to the north-east shore of the lake to a place called El liemate, 

 marked by one dilapidated rancho, and thence on foot through the forest for about 

 thirty miles to the ruins of Tikal. 



The place is absolutely desolate, the nearest Indian villages being San Andres and 

 some other small hamlets on the borders of the lake. 



On neither occasion did my stay at the ruins exceed a week. The site of the ancient 

 town is so thickly covered with forest that during my first visit most of the time was 

 occupied in discovering the position of the more important buildings ; and although 

 in 1882 I sent men in advance to clear away some of the trees, I was not able to make 

 a satisfactory survey, and the Plan on Plate LXVI1. is very imperfect and merely 

 indicates roughly the shape and size of the principal group of stone buildings near the 

 house in which I camped, and gives approximately the position of the five great 

 Temple Mounds. 



Plate LXVIII. gives two general views of the site after the trees had been cleared 

 from the slopes of the principal temple mounds : («) was taken from the doorway of 

 Temple A, looking westward, and shows Temple B at the opposite side of the Piaza, 



* ' The Native Baces of the Pacific States,' vol. iv. p. 135. 



