Tikal

One of the great cities of the Maya world, sitting in rainforest in the Petén. Building started as early as the fourth century BC and the city ran through the Classic period until it was abandoned around AD 900. More than 16 square kilometres of it, roughly 3,000 structures, inside a national park of 570 square kilometres. Temple IV is the tall one at 70 metres, then Temple V at 57, Temple III at 55, Temple I at 47 and Temple II at 38, and the view from the top of IV is the canopy with the other roof-combs pushing out of it. Population estimates at the Late Classic peak run anywhere from 10,000 to 90,000, which tells you how hard the arithmetic is. Found again by the outside world in 1848, made a national park on 26 May 1955, UNESCO listed in 1979 as both a cultural and a natural site.