Temple IV (Temple of the Two-Headed Serpent)

17.2256°N, 89.6281°W.

Temple IV, also called the Temple of the Two-Headed Serpent, is the tallest pre-Columbian structure in the Americas at 65 metres including its roofcomb. Built around 741 CE as the mortuary monument of Yik'in Chan K'awiil, son of Jasaw Chan K'awiil I, it stands at the western edge of the Tikal core in the Petén Basin of Guatemala. The pyramid is constructed of cut and stacked limestone faced with stucco, rising in nine receding terraces above an enormous platform. The carved wooden lintels of the summit shrine, dispersed to museums in Basel and Berlin in the nineteenth century, depict the king seated beneath a celestial serpent. The summit clears the rainforest canopy and offers a horizon view of Temples I, II, III, and V rising above the green.

Temple IV is the highest point Maya architecture ever reached, and the king it was built for ruled the empire at its widest.