Temple of the Night Sun (Devil's Pyramid)

17.2869°N, 89.7678°W.

The Temple of the Night Sun, also called the Devil's Pyramid, sits atop the El Diablo acropolis at El Zotz in the Petén Basin of northern Guatemala, west of Tikal. The pyramid was built around 350–400 CE during the Early Classic by the founding dynasty of El Zotz, of cut limestone faced with stucco. The pyramid's defining feature is a series of enormous stucco masks, each over 1.5 metres tall, depicting the sun god K'inich Ajaw in different aspects across the diurnal cycle — dawn, midday, sunset, and the underworld night sun. The masks were preserved by burial under a later construction phase and exposed by Stephen Houston and Edwin Román Ramírez's project in 2010. The mountaintop position offers a clear view across to Tikal.

The Temple of the Night Sun is a pyramid whose builders sealed its giant solar masks under the next layer of stone, where they sat in the dark for sixteen centuries.