Tikal

17.2222°N, 89.6231°W.

Classic Maya city in the Petén Basin of northern Guatemala, dominant from approximately 200 to 900 CE with a peak population estimated at 60,000–90,000. Six stepped pyramids exceed 40 metres in height; Temple IV, completed ~741 CE under Yik'in Chan K'awiil, stands 70 metres tall and was the tallest pre-Columbian structure in the Americas. The city core covers 16 km² within a wider settlement zone of 120 km² connected by causeways (sacbeob). LIDAR surveys conducted by the PACUNAM Foundation in 2018 revealed over 60,000 previously unknown structures, settlements, and 100 km of causeways extending across the surrounding rainforest — confirming a connected lowland population of several million. The city collapsed between 869 and 950 CE; population dispersed and the rainforest reabsorbed the temples within two centuries.

A LIDAR scan in 2018 found that the Mayan world was four times larger than archaeology had measured — and the jungle had been hiding it the whole time.