People were living at Tikal by about 800–600 BC. Its monuments record 33 rulers, and by about 950 the centre had lost most of its people to the forest. It stayed there, all but forgotten, until 1848. Here is the city’s story in dates, the people who dug it out again, and which of the Tikal ruins tours give you a guide to tell it on the spot.
| When | What happened |
|---|---|
| c. 800–600 BC | The first settlers at Tikal |
| c. 350 BC | Building begins on the North Acropolis |
| AD 200–250 | The Preclassic ends at Tikal |
| AD 292 | Stela 29, the earliest dated monument |
| January 378 | Siyaj K'ahk' arrives; King Chak Tok Ich'aak I dies the same day |
| AD 445 | Stela 31 is dedicated |
| AD 562 | Defeat in a war recorded on Caracol Altar 21; the hiatus begins |
| 657 | Calakmul attacks and King Nuun Ujol Chaak flees |
| 682 | Jasaw Chan K'awiil I erects the first dated monument in 120 years |
| 5 August 695 | Jasaw Chan K'awiil I defeats Calakmul |
| 734 | Jasaw Chan K'awiil I dies; Temple I is raised over his tomb |
| 741 | The date carved on the lintels of Temple IV |
| c. 810 | Temple III, the last major pyramid |
| 869 | Stela 11, the last dated monument |
| c. 830–950 | Central Tikal loses most of its people |
| 1848 | Modesto Méndez and Ambrosio Tut lead the first recorded expedition |
| 1877 | Gustav Bernoulli has the carved lintels removed; in Basel since 1878 |
| 1881–1882 | Alfred Maudslay maps and photographs the centre |
| 1931 | Tikal becomes a national monument |
| 26 May 1955 | Tikal National Park is declared |
| 1956–1970 | The University of Pennsylvania Tikal Project |
| 1979 | UNESCO World Heritage Site; the Proyecto Nacional Tikal begins at the Lost World |
| 30 January 1990 | The Maya Biosphere Reserve is declared, with Tikal as a core zone |
| 2016 | The PACUNAM LiDAR survey scans 2,144 km² of northern Guatemala |
| 2019 | The Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal begins |
| 2025 | An altar to the Storm Goddess is announced in Group 6D-XV |
UNESCO dates the first settlers to about 800 BC. The Penn project put people here “by at least 600 BC”, and called their earliest pottery Eb. Between 300 and 200 BC a new pottery, Chuen, appears, and the record becomes far richer.
The North Acropolis was begun around 350 BC and was growing fast by 50 BC. In April 1962 the Penn trench reached Burial 85, 55 feet down, the oldest rich burial then known in the Maya lowlands. The Lost World was already in use, and its Great Pyramid is Late Preclassic in origin. At Tikal the Preclassic ended between AD 200 and 250.
Its people called the city Mutul, or Mutal, a reading of its “tied hair” emblem glyph; the core was Yax Mutal. “Tikal” is a modern name, from ti ak’al, “at the water hole”. The earliest dated monument, Stela 29, carries the Long Count 8.12.14.8.15: AD 292. The Penn team found its upper part in 1959.
Stela 31 records that in January 378 a stranger called Siyaj K'ahk’, “Fire is Born”, arrived at Tikal. He is linked to the great city of Teotihuacan and served a figure known as Spearthrower Owl. On the same day King Chak Tok Ich'aak I, “Jaguar Paw”, died.
Afterwards Yax Nuun Ayiin I, Spearthrower Owl’s son, was installed as king. Stela 31 itself was dedicated in AD 445 for the accession of his son, Siyaj Chan K’awiil II. Its inscription is the longest from the Early Classic at Tikal. Scholars give different days for the arrival; January 378 is as close as they agree.
A long rivalry with Calakmul, the capital of the Snake kingdom, began in the 6th century. The kings of both cities took the same title, kaloomte’.
Some of that story is carved at other cities, because for more than a century Tikal raised no dated monuments of its own.
In AD 562 Tikal was defeated in a war recorded on Altar 21 at Caracol, carved in AD 633. It was probably by an alliance that included Calakmul. Who led the victory is still not certain, but Calakmul gained the most from Tikal’s long silence.
That silence is called the Hiatus. Not one dated monument at Tikal falls between 562 and 692, more than a century. In 657 Calakmul attacked again and the young king Nuun Ujol Chaak fled. He came back to lead Tikal’s defeat of Dos Pilas in 672.
Jasaw Chan K'awiil I erected the first dated monument in 120 years in 682. He reigned until 734, and on 5 August 695 he defeated Calakmul. He was buried under Temple I, the Temple of the Great Jaguar, on the east side of the Great Plaza. His tomb, Burial 116, was found in 1962, and it was the richest yet found at Tikal. It held a jade collar of 114 beads weighing 8.5 lb, and 37 bones carved with glyphs or scenes.
His son Yik’in Chan K’awiil built Temple IV. Its lintels are dated AD 741, and Lintel 3 marks a victory over El Perú, or Waka’, in 743. Temple VI was dedicated in 766. Complex Q followed in 771, and Temple III, about 810, was the last major pyramid.
These were Tikal’s largest years. The scholarly consensus puts its population at roughly 45,000–62,000 in the eighth century, spread over about 120 km².
The last dated monument at Tikal is Stela 11, from AD 869. It was set up by Jasaw Chan K’awiil II and carries the city’s last Long Count date. Today it stands in the Museo Lítico beside the Visitor Centre.
Central Tikal lost most of its people between about 830 and 950; UNESCO dates the collapse to around 900. No single cause is proven. One factor is documented: a 2020 study found two of the largest reservoirs contaminated with mercury, phosphate and toxic cyanobacteria in the late 9th century.
The first recorded expedition came in 1848, led by Modesto Méndez and Ambrosio Tut, with the artist Eusebio Lara. Méndez climbed Temple V on 26 February 1848.
The carved wooden lintels were the first things to leave. In 1875 J. W. Boddam-Whetham bought two fragments of one in Flores; they are now in the British Museum. In 1877 Gustav Bernoulli had lintels from Temple I and Temple IV removed, and they have been in Basel since 1878, today in the Museum der Kulturen. Seven carved lintels are known from Tikal.
Alfred Maudslay mapped and photographed the centre in 1881–1882 and named the main temples A to E. Teobert Maler worked here for the Peabody Museum in 1895 and 1904. In 1909–1910 Alfred Tozzer and Raymond Merwin mapped Tikal for the Peabody, and their report came out in 1911.
Sylvanus Morley’s Carnegie expedition of 1937 found Group H, two causeways and a large reservoir. In 1951 Antonio Ortiz found Group I and Temple VI.
The largest project began in January 1956, when a Guatemalan Air Force plane landed the first University of Pennsylvania team at Tikal. Edwin Shook directed it first, then Robert Dyson, then William R. Coe from 1963 to 1970. The team mapped the central 16 km² and cut a trench through the North Acropolis from 1960. In 1962 it opened Burial 116 under Temple I. In 1970 the project was handed to Guatemala’s national institute of anthropology and history.
From 1979 to 1984 the Proyecto Nacional Tikal excavated and restored the Lost World, under Juan Pedro Laporte. The same project built the Museo Lítico, which opened in 1989.
In 2016 the PACUNAM LiDAR survey scanned 2,144 km² of northern Guatemala from the air. It found 61,480 structures across the region and suggested 7–11 million people in the Late Classic. At Tikal it showed a city at least four times bigger than thought, partly ringed by a ditch and rampart. Two “natural hills” turned out to be pyramids. It also revealed a half-size copy of a great square at Teotihuacan in central Tikal.
Since 2019 the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal, directed by Edwin Román Ramírez, has dug south of the centre. In 2025 the ministry announced a Teotihuacan-style altar to the Storm Goddess in Group 6D-XV. About 20% of Tikal is restored; the other 80% still lies under forest as mounds.
Tikal was made a national monument in 1931. On 26 May 1955 a presidential agreement declared Tikal National Park, one of Guatemala’s first protected areas. In 1979 UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site, a mixed site, for the Maya city and the rainforest together.
On 30 January 1990 Decree 5-90 created the Maya Biosphere Reserve, more than 2 million hectares, with Tikal as one of its core zones. The park had 372,593 visitors in 2024, and its administrator expected about 400,000 in 2025. The ruins you walk today are the Great Plaza, Temple IV and the Central Acropolis that Maudslay photographed, now cleared, mapped and restored in part.
A guide specialised in archaeology and about seven hours in the park from before dawn, with the park entrance and the sunrise entrance both in the fare. Minimum two travellers.
From $230 per person (min. 2) · sunrise ticket included
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An afternoon and the sunset with a guide specialised in archaeology, from 12:30pm in Flores. The park entrance, the sunset ticket and lunch are in the fare; bring a torch.
From $220 per person · sunset ticket included
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About 4.5 hours on the monuments, from the Central Acropolis to Temple IV, with a bilingual guide and a group of up to nine. The park ticket is extra.
From $85 per person · lowest pickup option · park ticket extra
Check AvailabilityThe history above rests on UNESCO, the ministry and the archaeologists’ own reports.
The structures themselves are on the Tikal ruins guide, the carved stelae on the Tikal museums page, and every tour on Tikal National Park Tours.