The Middle of the Maya Pyramid Is Filled In at Animal Kingdom, and the Encanto Casita Now Reads as a House From the Air

Earlier this month the Maya pyramid on the front of Indiana Jones and the Myth of the Jade Serpent had a hole in the middle of it. The top was carved and painted. The bottom was carved and painted. Between them sat open steel, waiting. Aerial photos that ran this week show that gap closed, with a third carved section now seated in the center of the facade.

The photos are by aerial photographer bioreconstruct, and they ran in two batches: WDW News Today published a set on Monday covering the whole Tropical Americas site, and Blog Mickey followed on Tuesday with a closer look at the Encanto side of the land.

The pyramid came together in three pieces

WDW News Today reports that the first two sections went up in early September, and that the third is now in place in the center. That matches what the aerials showed at the start of the month, when the top and bottom thirds were finished and the middle was still bare frame.

The carved face is not the finished picture. The slope in front of the pyramid is still gray, and WDW News Today says it will be themed to rockwork. In the photo above you can see the wire mesh and forms waiting for that treatment, running down from the base of the temple toward the work area.

Behind the temple, crews are pulling dirt off the rooftop garden that used to hide the DINOSAUR show building, which this ride is reusing. The garden is not being scrapped. WDW News Today reports it will still be used for the new ride, with crews refreshing it.

There is a permit attached to this building as well. WDW News Today reports that a permit went in on the Indiana Jones building from Disney's Facility Asset Management team, with Harper Limbach, LLC listed as the contractor for "General Construction." The permit itself gives no detail, but the outlet notes that Harper Limbach specializes in "mission-critical mechanical, electrical, and plumbing infrastructure." WDW News Today draws no conclusion from that. For what it is worth, mechanical, electrical and plumbing work is usually the phase that runs before a ride building's interior gets finished out.

The Casita finally looks like a house

Over at Antonio's Fiesta de Encanto, the change is easier to read at a glance. A silver steel frame now stands on a raised concrete base at the front of the attraction, and it has gone up far enough to have a silhouette: a main block, a set-back second level, and a tower on one end.

Blog Mickey puts the caveat plainly: "The framing is still bare, with no exterior sheathing or stucco yet applied. Even so, the outline of the structure is clear enough to make out the shape of the house."

Compare that silhouette to the concept art Disney released for the attraction and the tower lines up.

Behind the steel stand the plain warehouse boxes that hold the queue and the ride itself. Blog Mickey likens the arrangement to the Haunted Mansion, where a massive show building sits behind the facade, and says Disney has used that same approach on this attraction: the large show building went up first, and crews have now moved on to the smaller, more finely detailed Casita that stands in front of it.

The other half of that illusion is the rockwork climbing the show building behind the Casita. Right now it is scaffolding, wood forms and wire mesh. Eventually it gets sculpted concrete and paint. Blog Mickey explains the point of it: "It will hide the warehouse-style buildings from guest sightlines, and it will create the illusion that the Casita sits on a much larger hillside than it actually does."

WDW News Today also spotted a second steel facade going up on the side of the show building, and says it is likely for the ride's exit.

What else moved on the site

Away from the two headline buildings, the fictional village of Pueblo Esperanza is filling in:

• The fountain: concrete has been poured for the exterior wall of the village's central fountain, which sits between the former Restaurantosaurus and El Carrusel de los Animalitos.
• The carousel: roofing is almost complete, with paneling recently added to the topmost section.
• The ruined walls: a run of faux ruined walls is going up near the fountain, and scaffolding has come off some of them in recent weeks. WDW News Today is candid that "We don't yet know what the function of these structures will be."
• The old gift shop: the former Chester & Hester's Dinosaur Treasures is being rethemed, and the excavated ground nearby is for a new playground. WDW News Today says Disney has not shared details of the play area, though a Florida environmental filing in January placed it on the old Cretaceous Trail site and appeared to show at least two slides and a climbing structure.

The part nobody can answer yet

Tropical Americas has been pointed at 2027 since it was announced, and on our read the vertical progress in these photos looks like a land still in the thick of its build rather than one near the end. The timeline itself has wobbled on Disney's own pages, though. Earlier this month the words "in 2027" came off the Tropical Americas entry on the Coming to the Parks list at DisneyWorld.com, as we reported at the time, while the Disney Parks Blog and Disney's own upcoming projects page both kept the year.

Disney has not announced a delay, and it has not announced a firmer date either. For now the steel is the part you can actually judge: a temple face with no gap left in it, and a house you can finally recognize from the air.

Sources

• WDW News Today, "Fountain & Facade Progress in Tropical Americas at Disney's Animal Kingdom"
• Blog Mickey, "Aerial Photos Show Magical Casita Rising in Tropical Americas Land"
• WDW News Today, "Details of Tropical Americas Playground Revealed in Disney Filing" (January 30, 2026)
• Parks Magic, on the first two pyramid sections going up
• Parks Magic, on the 2027 line coming off the Coming to the Parks list

Image credits: Aerial photography by bioreconstruct, published by WDW News Today and Blog Mickey. Concept art by Disney.