The Mayans lived in their splendid cities from 500 BC to 1450 AD. They began building monumental stone temples in the first settlements of Dzibilchaltún (northern Yucatán) and Petén (Guatemala). The Maya make up the largest homogenous group of Indians north of Peru, inhabiting a vast area that encompasses Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and parts of the states of Tabasco and Chiapas, as well as Guatemala, Belize and parts of western Honduras and El Salvador.
The Maya culture made significant achievements considering that they lived without metal tools, draught andpack animals, and the wheel. However, the wheel was used for childrens toys. They built great pyramids, the highest at 65m, palaces, ball-courts, altars, and stelae all according to the dictates of the calendar. The Maya devised a complex style of hieroglyphic writing that has yet to be fully deciphered. They refined the exact sciences learned from other prehispanic civilizations. Through their knowledge of astronomy and mathematics they calculated the lunar cycle, predicted eclipses and other heavenly events with great precision and formulated a unique calendar system more exact than the one we use today.
In building their ceremonial centers the Maya followed the design
typical of all
Mesoamerica, constructing tall pyramidal temples, warren-like single story palaces and the ubiquitous ball court around a broad central plaza. Distinctive architectural features of Mayan pyramids include corbel vaults, towering roofs combs and
elaborate embellishment with stucco reliefs. The Chichén Itzá region became famous for its large stone figures of the Chac-mool and the Atlantes, a combination of the Toltec and Maya styles. Mayan cultural influence also reached as far as Oaxaca. Examples of their grand works highlight towns such as Palenque, Bonampak, Toniná, Yaxchilán and Chinkultic.
There is a baroque quality to the artistic style of the Maya, as evidenced in their exotic murals, polychrome ceramics, and finely detailed stelae, altars and other stone work. As opposed to the geometric designs typical of other cultures, the human form is common depicted in Mayan art.
Insufficient food supply, earthquakes, pestilence, invasion by
outsiders, internal rebellion or a combination of these factors have all been suggested as possible causes for the fall of the Mayan
Empire.
What appears certain is that by 900 AD the Mayas numerous ceremonial centers had been abandoned. Other sites died out in the 11th and 12th centuries, and the last Mayan metropolis perished around 1450. Swiftly disappearing beneath dense jungle growth, many sites were spared destruction by Spanish Conquistadors, remaining hidden and remarkably well preserved until the 19th century.
Notable sites of the northern lowland region (Yucatan peninsula) include Chichen Itza, Dzibilchaltun, Tulum and Uxmal. Located in the southern lowland region, the Maya heartland, are Bonampak, Copan, Palenque and Tikal.
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