stylistic:tone
Modern history

In 1525, the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés passed within a few kilometers of the ruins of Tikal but did not mention them in his letters. After Spanish friar Andrés de Avendaño became lost in the Petén forests in early 1696 he described a ruin that may well have been Tikal.

As is often the case with huge ancient ruins, knowledge of the site was never completely lost in the region. It seems that local people never forgot about Tikal and they guided Guatemalan expeditions to the ruins in the 1850s. Some second- or third-hand accounts of Tikal appeared in print starting in the 17th century, continuing through the writings of John Lloyd Stephens in the early 19th century (Stephens and his illustrator Frederick Catherwood heard rumors of a lost city, with white building tops towering above the jungle, during their 1839–40 travels in the region). Because of the site's remoteness from modern towns, however, no explorers visited Tikal until Modesto Méndez and Ambrosio Tut, respectively the commissioner and the governor of Petén, visited it in 1848. Artist Eusebio Lara accompanied them and their account was published in Germany in 1853. Several other expeditions came to further investigate, map, and photograph Tikal in the 19th century (including Alfred P. Maudslay in 1881–82) and the early 20th century. Pioneering archeologists started to clear, map and record the ruins in the 1880s.

In 1951, a small airstrip was built at the ruins, which previously could only be reached by several days' travel through the jungle on foot or mule. In 1956 the Tikal project began to map the city on a scale not previously seen in the Maya area. From 1956 through 1970, major archeological excavations were carried out by the University of Pennsylvania Tikal Project. They mapped much of the site and excavated and restored many of the structures. Excavations directed by Edwin M. Shook and later by William Coe of the university investigated the North Acropolis and the Central Plaza from 1957 to 1969. The Tikal Project recorded over 200 monuments at the site. In 1979, the Guatemalan government began a further archeological project at Tikal, which continued through to 1984.

Filmmaker George Lucas used Tikal as a filming location for the fictional moon Yavin 4 in the first Star Wars film, Episode IV: A New Hope, which premiered in 1977.

Temple I at Tikal was featured on the reverse of the 50 centavo banknote.

Eon Productions used the site for the James Bond film Moonraker.

Tikal is now a major tourist attraction surrounded by its own national park. A site museum has been built at Tikal; it was completed in 1964.