In the latter half of the 9th century it was an attempt to revive royal power at the much diminished city of Tikal , as evidenced by a stela erected in the Great Plaza by Jasaw Chan K 'awiil II in 869 . This was the last monument erected at Tikal before the city finally fell into silence . The former satellites of Tikal , such as Jimbal and Uaxactun , did not last much longer , erecting their final monuments in 889 . By the end of the 9th century the vast majority of Tikal 's population had deserted the city , its royal palaces were occupied by squatters and simple thatched dwellings were being erected in the city 's ceremonial plazas . The squatters blocked some doorways in the rooms they reoccupied in the monumental structures of the site and left rubbish that included a mixture of domestic refuse and non @-@ utilitarian items such as musical instruments . These inhabitants reused the earlier monuments for their own ritual activities far removed from those of the royal dynasty that had erected them . Some monuments were vandalized and some were moved to new locations . Before its final abandonment all respect for the old rulers had disappeared , with the tombs of the North Acropolis being explored for jade and the easier to find tombs being looted . After 950 , Tikal was all but deserted , although a remnant population may have survived in perishable huts interspersed among the ruins . Even these final inhabitants abandoned the city in the 10th or 11th centuries and the rainforest claimed the ruins for the next thousand years . Some of Tikal 's population may have migrated to the Peten Lakes region , which remained heavily populated in spite of a plunge in population levels in the first half of the 9th century .