Temple of the Lintels

18.6419°N, 88.7608°W.

The Temple of the Lintels at Dzibanché in southern Quintana Roo, Mexico, is named for the carved sapodilla-wood lintels that originally spanned its summit doorways — among the earliest dated Maya monuments at the site, with dates corresponding to the fifth century CE. The pyramid was built between approximately 300 and 700 CE during the Early to Late Classic and is constructed of cut limestone with original wooden lintel beams that survived nearly two thousand years in the dry interior chambers. Dzibanché is now widely identified as the original capital of the Kaan ("Snake") dynasty before its move to Calakmul in the late sixth century CE. The site was investigated by Enrique Nalda for INAH from 1993 onward, and the lintels were recovered intact and conserved at the Quintana Roo Maya Museum.

The Temple of the Lintels is a pyramid where the wooden beams above the doorways outlived nearly the entire civilization that hung them.