Twin-pyramid complex

A twin-pyramid complex or twin-pyramid group was an architectural innovation of the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. Twin-pyramid complexes were regularly built at the great city of Tikal in the central Petén Basin of Guatemala to celebrate the end of the 20-year kʼatun cycle of the Maya Long Count Calendar. A twin-pyramid complex has been identified at Yaxha, a large city that was to the southeast of Tikal. Another has been mapped at Ixlu, and Zacpeten appears also to possess at least one twin-pyramid complex and possibly two. These examples outside of Tikal itself indicate that their cities were closely linked to Tikal politically. The basic layout of a twin-pyramid complex consists of identical pyramids on the east and west sides of a small plaza, with a walled enclosure to the north housing a sculpted stela-altar pair and a range building to the south. Plain monuments were generally raised at the foot of the east pyramid. The term "twin-pyramid complex" was first used in 1956 by Edwin M. Shook when he recognised that five such groups conformed to a similar architectural pattern. Twin-pyramid complexes had identical radial pyramids on the east and the west sides of a small plaza; these pyramids had a stairway climbing each of its four sides. Usually they had a range building on the south side that possessed nine doorways and a small enclosure on the north side that housed a sculpted stela-altar pair. These sculpted monuments recorded the king performing the kʼatun-ending ceremony. Up to nine plain stela-altar pairs were erected in a line at the foot of the eastern pyramid, facing west; at Tikal no stelae were ever placed in front of the western pyramid. The whole twin-pyramid complex may be a miniature representation of Tikal's Great Plaza, mirroring the placement of pyramids on the east and west sides, an ancestral shrine to the north and a simple palace on the south side. The twin pyramids were never designed to support a summit temple. The walled northern enclosure faced southwards onto the plaza.