Tikal

American

[tee-kahl] / tiˈkɑl /

noun

an ancient Mayan city occupied c200 b.c. to a.d. 900, an important center of Mayan civilization, situated in Petén in the jungles of northern Guatemala and the site of significant archaeological discoveries in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Ashcroft, 66, was part of a birdwatching group visiting the ancient Maya city of Tikal, a Unesco World Heritage site, in February 2023.

From BBC • Jul. 23, 2025

“But if you read between the lines, that’s what it means—these were vassals, probably of Tikal directly and Teotihuacán indirectly.”

From National Geographic • Jan. 26, 2024

They used quartz sand for water filtration, sometimes importing it from great distances to massive cities like Tikal in what is now northern Guatemala.

From Science Daily • Oct. 9, 2023

By that time, a handful of powerful Maya city-states like Tikal, Calakmul, and El Mirador had grown to large urban centers and were using their own sophisticated writing and calendar system.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

At the moment Tikal was divided, Kaan conquered it, forcing both brothers to recognize the other city as their overlord.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023