"Tikal (/tiˈkɑːl/) (Tik'al in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala... Tikal was the capital of a conquest state that became one of the most powerful kingdoms of the ancient Maya. Though monumental architecture at the site dates back as far as the 4th century BC, Tikal reached its apogee during the Classic Period, c. 200 to 900. During this time, the city dominated much of the Maya region politically, economically, and militarily, while interacting with areas throughout Mesoamerica such as the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico. There is evidence that Tikal was conquered by Teotihuacan in the 4th century AD. Following the end of the Late Classic Period, no new major monuments were built at Tikal and there is evidence that elite palaces were burned. These events were coupled with a gradual population decline, culminating with the site's abandonment by the end of the 10th century." (Wikipedia)

This is a project I started back in 2021 but sluggishly worked on until around August 2023 where I got returned to it after being inspired by amazing Mesoamerican art on Twitter. I've loved Mayan architecture since middle school and with Tikal being a sprawling classical metropolis, I knew that one day I would have to recreate it in Minecraft in its colourful glory.

The scale is around 1:1. I may add water stains to shade the buildings but am hesitant because of the different shades of red being used as distinct colorings. The reconstruction is based on online research, with colors and roof comb masks being recreated from what ever information I could find. I preferred scholarly sources but they were not available for every building. This amazing reconstruction by Armesto, Soriano, Paz, and Blanco was enormously helpful. So was the LIDAR scan from Nat Geo. The world download will be available when it is complete and I plan to create all structures along the major causeways, as well as any housing I may extrapolate the layout of from LIDAR data. Rendered with Chunky.

You may use images but please give credit as it would be greatly appreciated!