The Place of Echoes

While I, of course, enjoy and respect the Star Wars franchise for what it is, I am by no means a diehard fan. As such, I was completely surprised to have stumbled across the site of the Rebel Base from Episode IV: A New Hope (movie clip here). For a brief moment I felt my mind leave the reality of Guatemala and all its natural beauty, and found myself on the planet Yavin IV. How did I get here?

The Rebel Base, Star Wars: A New Hope (1977)

My photo, of which I had no idea that 

I was taking the same shot (2014)

Upon entering the national park of Tik’al our guide was certain to point out the famous tidbits about the ruins we were about to explore (e.g. cameos in films like Star Wars and Apocalypto); however, upon first sight of these amazing structures, all fun facts and claims to fame become strangely irrelevant. The structures themselves, peppered within the expansive, lush greenery that completely swallows everything within it, are absolutely breathtaking. The sheer rawness, power, and history that comprise these megaliths cannot be captured or enhanced by Hollywood or its special effects. The faces of these buildings scream, “Life has been here long before your mind can even begin to comprehend,” yet the vast jungle remains eerily silent – save for the occasional gut-wrenching wails of the howler moneys in the distance. We are tucked away, literally, in the middle of nowhere, and each passing second the earth moves to slowly take back what belongs to it.

Unite, build, destroy

As we trek through just a touch of the total 222 square miles of the national park, I begin to take notice of the small hills that really aren’t hills at all, but instead relics of a powerful civilization that date back to as far as the 4^th Century BC. Beneath these “hills” are the ruins of an ancient city that, despite being re-discovered nearly 200 years ago, still remain unearthed.

Humans as Specks

The name Tik’al is the recent name bestowed upon it at the time of re-discovery meaning “the place of voices” or “the place of echoes” in the Itza Maya language. This becomes evident as our tour guide claps his hands in the Plaza of the Seven Temples and echoes ricochet all around us like little sound bullets whizzing by our heads. I close my eyes and try to picture people – humans like us, but really not like us at all – passing their every day lives here. Observing the heavens and celestial bodies above from the temples, lying on the stone beds in the residences for the elites, selling ones labor to build these amazing temples with limestone from the quarries nearby. How they were able to create such beauty – so precisely – that has survived hundreds of years leaves me in absolute awe.

The Great Plaza (acropolises)

My heart swells as I approach Temple 4, the tallest of this ancient civilization. 

Temple 4’s power feels like the first time you have the wind knocked out of you. What just happened? Why can’t I breathe? Will I be ok? I haven’t yet caught my breath before I trek the 230 feet to the top, where I rein over the canopy below. I see nothing but the never-ending appetite of Mother Earth sprawling in its greenness swallowing everything in its path. Only the peaks of 2 temples peek out in the distance among the green wave of ancient jungle. As I whisper to myself that this view is truly out of this world, I begin to understand why Mr. Lucas found it appropriate for his intergalactic film.

The great below

Nothing else exists in this moment. There is nothing but stillness, vast expanse, and emptiness. Just a mere speck in the grand scheme of time – once so important and so powerful – Ti’kal came and went. Now I sit atop it all as if I were something important and powerful, yet that feeling of a speck is all too familiar.