Deterioration of building materials from the Great Jaguar Pyramid at Tikal, Guatemala

The building materials of the Great Jaguar Pyramid, a Mayan construction in Tikal Park, Guatemala, were characterized and deterioration processes investigated. Stone, stucco, mortar and embono (filling in the ashlar masonry cells) have lost their cohesiveness through the dissolution of calcium carbonate. Biological colonization, mainly cyanobacteria and mosses, has produced disaggregation of the materials due to rhizoid penetration.