Tikal, Guatemala

Why does this steamy tropical world thrill me?

Perhaps it’s the mystery of a once grand civilization whose history is expressed in enigmatic images… In art.

All that remains is their art. Their architecture. Their monuments. The mysterious glyphs.

But even that the jungle has claimed.

A painting from a maya codex.

Buried in centuries of layers of leaf litter turned to soil only the diligent digging of archeologists has revealed the little that has been explored.
Towering stone stairways rise above the canopy of tangled rainforest, capped with temples and carved facades. What do they tell us?

A Frieze carved into the side of a pyramid at Xunantinich, Belize.

They speak of ancient power, of many hands working to create a monument marking their place in history.  A platform reaching for  the stars, for the Gods. A place for prayer, for offerings, for sacrifice.

I find their frieze imagery hard to interpret… complex abstractions with one mask juxtaposed on another. Glyphs are interspersed with other symbols.

Burial figurine from Jaina island

Further study reveals a tender side to their work. Many small sculptures have been unearthed on the burial island of Jaina on the northwest side of the Yucatan peninsula.

Even though you KNOW that many have been here before there is an exhilarating sense of personal discovery.