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Tikal
Temple I and the Great Plaza. Temple I is the mortuary monument
erected to commemorate Ruler A, who is interred in Burial 116
beneath this pyramid. One of his sons was buried about 100 yards
diagonally across this plaza, under Structure 5D-73, in the Tomb
of the Jade Jaguar. (LINK LINK) The photographs on this page were
taken with a Hasselblad ELX camera and Zeiss 50mm wide angle lens,
using a Polaroid filter. Photography was programmed for December,
the height of the rainy season, in order to get the full green
of the surrounding jungle. Too many photos of Maya ruins are taken
in the dry season, when the grass is wilted and the trees have
lost their leaves.
Telephoto
view of Temple I taken from the Central Acropolis across the Great
Plaza. The entire structure was originally plastered white. Then
the roof comb was painted with reds, blues, and other colors to
accent the different areas of sculptural decoration. These roof
combs were like giant billboards, with immense portrayals of the
enthroned king, larger than life size. The stone used to construct
these pyramids is local limestone, obtained from nearby quarries.
The ancient Maya had no stone tools but limestone is soft enough
that the Maya could utilize chert tools to work the stone into
neat rectangular building blocks.
Closeup
view of Structure 5D-34 on the corner of the North Acropolis,
taken with a Zeiss telephoto lens from the Central Acropolis.
This
shows the special camera equipment used to take the panorama views
of Tikal. This system is fully portable and completely computerized.
It draws power from a sophisticated battery system. The lens is
a normal Zeiss (borrowed from my Hasselblad system). This remarkable
camera can also be mounted on wheels, placed on rails, to do a
15-foot long continuous photograph (on 70mm film) of any architectural
facade.