THE MYSTERIOUS

MAYA

ARCHITECTURE AND ARCHEOLOGY

• The Maya were master builders.

• Of all the objects created by the Maya, the largest most striking are their buildings.

• They did not have metal tools—they used stone, bone, and wood tools to build hundreds of magnificent cities.

• The Maya used soft limestone that was found in many parts of their land and was relatively easy to quarry and shape.

Faiza Rehman

Faiza Rehman

• Archaeologists have identified the remains of at least 83 Maya cities.

Every Maya city had

• an impressive palace for its ruler,

• a bustling marketplace,

• an open-air plaza where people could gather,

• at least one huge pyramid,

• a large temple,

• and one ball court similar to the stadiums we have today.

Mayan Cities

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MAYAN CITIES

•Mayans built huge temples and pyramids for religious purposes

•These temples and palaces were surrounded by large plazas

•Adjacent to the plaza (above) were homes of important officials, with the homes of lower class people on the outer perimeter

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Some of the most important cities were:

• Tikal

• Palenqué

• Chichén Itzá

• Copan

• Coba

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• Archaeologists have identified the remains of at least 83 Maya cities.

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Mayan cities in

MesoAmerica

Chichén Itzá

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Chichén Itzá

• Near the northern end of

the Yucatan Penninsula,

Chichen Itza is one of the most

visited archaeological

sites in Mexico.

• An estimated 1.2 million tourists visit the ruins

every year.

Chichén Itzá

• Chichen Itza is Mexico’s most popular tourist destination, and rightfully so.

• The foundations of the city state date back to the third or early fourth century

• The Yucatan's grandest archaeological site is Chichen-Itza, a UNESCO World

Heritage area of immense cultural significance

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Faiza Rehman

But after centuries of

prosperity and

absorbing influxes of

other cultures like the

Toltecs, the city met a

mysterious end.

Chichén Itzá was more

than a religious and

ceremonial site. It was

also a sophisticated

urban center and hub

of regional trade.

Chichén Itzá

• Archeologists have fully explored only about 20 or 30 of several hundred buildings on the four-square-mile site. El Castillo (The Castle), a 98-foot-tall pyramid, dominates the city, while the Temple of the Warriors features murals of battle scenes and village life.

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The Caracol, or Observatory

• The structure, is theorized to have been a proto-observatory with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events, specifically around the path of Venus as it traverses the heavens

"El Caracol" observatory temple

Faiza RehmanColumns in the Temple of a Thousand Warriors

each column showcasing carvings.Though many of the columns have destroyed over time, visitors still see

and even feel the faint impressions of the carved images that represent the soldiers

Sacred Cenote (Well of Sacrifice)

• Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac

• During the exploration of the cenote, many bones of human bodies were found, including males, females, and children. According to archaeologist many young victims were male

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The Kukulkan Pyramid

• It is one of the new seven wonders of the world elected in 07.07.2007. It is exactly 24 m. high

• Incredibly, twice a year on the spring and autumn equinoxes, a shadow falls on the pyramid in the shape of a serpent. As the sun sets, this shadowy snake descends the steps to eventually join a stone serpent head at the base of the great staircase up the pyramid’s side

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The temple has 365 steps—one for each day of the year. Each of the temple’s four sides

has 91 steps, and the top platform makes the 365th.

The most recognizable structure in Chichén Itzá is the Temple of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo

The structure embodies Mayan myth along with natural astronomical cycles

feathered serpent god

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• July 16 Start of Mayan new year. Add 52 days to this date (the same as the number of years in Maya "cycle" and you arrive at Sept 6th.

• Sept 6th All nine triangles of light are visible between 5 and 5:30 PM.

• Sept 22 Fall equinox (Day and night equal length) when seven triangles are visible. This is 92 days from previous summer solstice of June 21.

• Oct 9th Six triangles visible between 4 and 4:30 PM.

• Dec 21 Winter solstice, longest night of the year. (91 days from Sept 22 fall equinox) North and East sides in total darkness while West and South are in daylight. 91 Days from fall equinox

• March 5 Six triangles visible between 4 and 4:30 PM.

• March 21 Spring Equinox. (Day and night equal length) Seven triangles between 4:30 - 5 PM. 91 days (same as stairs on the pyramid) from December 21 solstice.

• April 6 Nine triangles between 5 and 5:30 PM All possible triangles visible at this time.

• June 21 Summer solstice. Longest day of the year. (91 days from the March 21 show of seven triangles) South and West sides in total darkness between 7 and 7:30 AM.

The Shadow of the

Equinox (The cycle of the

sun and how it interacts

with the pyramid.

Key dates that are all

approximately 91 days apart

from each other)

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Faiza Rehman

The archaeological site of Palenque in the state of Chiapas is one of the most

outstanding Classic period sites of the Maya area, known for its exceptional and

well conserved architectural and sculptural remains

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Palenque

• Palenque is a medium-sized site, much smaller than such huge sites as Tikal, Chichen Itza, or Copán, but it contains some of the finest architecture, sculpture, roof comb and bas-relief carvings that the Mayas produced.

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Distinguished by its highly expressive relief sculpture,

Palenque comprises temples, terraces, plazas, altars, burial

grounds, and a ball court

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Palenqué

• In southern Mexico west of the Yucatan, Palenqué is the site of the famous tomb of King Pacal, who died in 683 AD.

• His tomb, found by Mexican archeologists in 1952, lies at the bottom of a set of steps leading 80 feet down from the top of the temple.

PACAL’S

TOMB

COBA

COBA

COBA

• Coba means ‘waters stirred by the wind’, an appropriate Mayan name as this settlement is surrounded by two large lagoons.

• For many years Coba was an ignored piece of Mayan history due to its location.

• Archeologists first learned about the site in the mid 1800's, but dense jungle, the Caste War and lack of funds made this site a difficult area to penetrate

• Coba was not studied nor visited until the 1920's

• The entire site spreads over more than 80 square kilometers..

120 steps lead up to the top of the Nohoch Mul pyramid, and reaches 137 feet in height.

This is the tallest temple pyramid on the Yucatan Peninsula..

It is believed that the Coba settlement was finally abandoned when the Spanish conquered the Peninsula around 1550.

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Coba

Ballcourt

Nohoch Mul

pyramid

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Tika

l

Tikal was the most developed Mayan city and was also the

largest. It is also known for its interesting burials

Tikal (tee-KAHL),

• Tikal was one of the city-states of the great Mayan Civilization.

• Located in the present-day country of Guatemala, in the dense subtropical forest of the northern Guatemala lowlands.

• Tikal was once a wealthy metropolis of about 100,000 inhabitants that spread across 10 kilometers (6 miles).

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Faiza Rehman

The site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in

1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site

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The heart of the site is the

Grand Plaza, which is

surrounded by the Central

Acropolis, the North Acropolis,

and Temples I and II. In the

North Acropolis alone, 100

buildings lie piled atop one

another. Temple I is 145 feet

tall, but it is dwarfed by Temple

IV. At 212 feet, Temple IV, built

around 741, is the tallest pre-

Columbian structure in the

Western Hemisphere.

Tikal has some of Central America’s most dramatic

pyramids

the Temple of the Giant Jaguar

The Tikal National Park

• Today, Tikal is part of the Maya Biosphere Reserve in Petén, northern Guatemala.

• It is the home of hundreds of species of trees, animals and plants.

• The Tikal National Park is the home of an abundant wildlife.

• Some species of animals are easy to spot, such as birds, Insects, reptiles, and always entertaining monkeys.

• Others, are more elusive, such as jaguars, pumas, ocelots, and tapirs.

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Ocellated Turkey, Tikal

National Park, Peten,

Guatemala

The rare Kit Fox

The Mysterious Demise

• Initially, The Mayan benefited by clearing areas in the forest to plant and build cities.

• Later, with overuse of land, deforestation and overpopulation, the great city of Tikal started to fall apart.

• The Great Tikal started to collapsed around AD 900.

• Even though archeologists are not sure what caused the collapse of the Maya civilization, many agree that possible causes were warfare, drought, deforestation, overuse of natural resources and diseases.

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SCIENTIFIC

ACHIEVEMENTS

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MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY

• Although we know little of Maya medicine and other sciences, through the Stele (carved stone monuments) archaeologists and others have been able to reconstruct much of their mathematics and astronomy.

• The Maya developed a highly complex system of writing, using pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements.

• The Maya carved symbols into stones called stellea. The stelleas, display events of Mayan culture.

• Also, they create paper from fig tree bark. The paper is bound to make books.

• Unfortunately, the books didn’t survive due to the humidity of the tropics.

MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY

• Although we know little of Maya medicine and other sciences, through the Stele (carved stone monuments) archaeologists and others have been able to reconstruct much of their mathematics and astronomy.

• The Maya developed a highly complex system of writing, using pictographs and phonetic or syllabic elements.

• The Maya carved symbols into stones called stellea. The stelleas, display events of Mayan culture.

• Also, they create paper from fig tree bark. The paper is bound to make books.

• Unfortunately, the books didn’t survive due to the humidity of the tropics.

MATHEMATICS

• The Maya invented of the idea of the number zero.

• This invention made the Maya’s calendar accurate.

• The Mayans had a number system consisting of shells, dots, and lines

• A dot stood for one, a bar for five, and a shell for zero

MAYAN CALENDER

• Using there knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, the Maya developed one of the most accurate calendar system in human history.

• Mayan calendar is complex and serves both practical and ceremonial purposes.

Interwove two kinds of year

• A solar year of 365 days governed the agricultural cycle

• A ritual year of 260 days governed daily affairs by organizing time into twenty “months” of thirteen days each

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ASTRONOMY

• The Mayans were masters of the Night Sky

• known for their observatories

• Accurately charted the planets by using a forked stick like implement

• Created an accurate yearly calendar

• Predicted eclipses of the sun

The Equinoxes

• The Maya designed the temple at Chichén Itzá to illuminate a giant serpent on the risers of the stairs at the solar equinoxes

Lunar Eclipses

• The Maya knew that the lunar eclipse occurs every 173.31 days.

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Venus

• Maya calculated its revolution at 584 days.

• Modern astronomy estimates it at 583.92.

The Moon

• Maya gave the lunar month as 29.5302 days.

• Modern astronomy says 29.53059.

The Sun

• Maya calculated a solar year at 365.242.

• Modern astronomy gives it as 365.242198.