In 1952, the government of Guatemala assigned a piece of land to Mr. Antonio Ortiz Contreras for the construction of a hotel which will help with the logistics of the TIKAL PROJECT, and room and board for the archeologists. This project was supervised by the University of Pennsylvania with the collaboration of many other universities around the world. Form 1956 to 1969, 113 scientists worked in the Tikal Project, making it one of the longest archeological projects in the western hemisphere.