Mayan's architecture

Mayans also were famous for their massive temples, pyramids, and castles, which would be religious centers. Their construction relied heavily on bilateral symmerty. Each half of the building was identical. Limestone was used in most buildings. The temples had a relatively small interior compared to the mass of the structure as a whole. Their temples would house altars or stone platforms where preiests would perform their sacrifices. On the was behind the platform there would be a paiting representation of the god of that city. The Mayan version of a pyramid is truncated so that a temple can be built on top. There were two types of pyramids, those that were meant to be climbed and those that were not (Morley 81). The steps of these structures were too steep to climb many times they had doorways leading nowhere. The staricases lead from ground level to the temple. The number of staircases had varied. Aside form having religios functions, Maayan pyramids also had other purposes. They were build so high that their tops could be seen out of the jungle, Mayans could use them as landmarks (Gallenkamp 90). Some pyramids even house burial chamber for high raking officials. Treasue such as jade was also found in some of the chambers. Each Mayan city had its own temples and significance. Copan, which was from the first cities to develop, had very good artists, and sculptures. Copan is home to the stariway that contains more that 1,500 hieroglyphic carvings. These hieroglyphis chronicles showed the achievments of many great Mayan rulers (Tutor 75).
The Mayans were and still are a mystical civilization. The Spaniards that move in Mesoamerica wiped them out. Today the culture still exists and also ruins and ancient cities are preserved for people to visit and explore.


Tutor, Pilar. Mayan Civilization.
Chicago: Children's Press Inc/UNESCO, 1993.

Morley, Sylvanus G. The Ancient Maya. Stanford University, CA:
Stanford Univeristy Press, 1946.

Gallenkamp, Charles. Maya. The Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civilization. 3rd. ed.
New York: Viking Penguin, Inc, 1985.

The Mayan Religion and Gods

The Mayans were very religious people; their religion regulated almost everything they did in their lifes. Priests were the most important people in the tribes. The Mayan belived their Gods had destroyed and recreated their earths several times, that is the reason they always tried to please their gods with sacrifices. Their sacrifces included various animals that had many ties to them spiritualy. Each God represented something for them in one way or another. Their Supreme Being and creator of the universe was called "Hunan Ku"(Gallenkamp). The next important gods were the sun and moon gods. "Kinish Ahau" was the sun god. They believed that the sun and moon gods were responsible for harvest and various other vital things important to their lifes; statues show him wearing a headdress from ears of corn. Their were four rain gods called "Chacs", which represented rainfall, lighting, thunder, and storms. "Ixtab" was the goddess of sacrificial suicide (Henderson). Mayans believed suicided lead to heaven. "Yum Cicil" was the god of death (Gallenkamp). He was also called "Ah Puch", the god of the underworld. "Kakulcan" was the god of wind. Every job or activity in Mayan life had a god or goddess.



Gallenkamp, Charles. Maya: The Riddle and Rediscovery of a Lost Civilization. 3rd ed.
New York: Viking Penguin, Inc, 1985.

Henderson, S. The World of the Ancient Mayan.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press (1997.)

Beauty in the Mayan Culture

Beauty was a very important part of the Mayan Culture. Though beauty through the Mayans eyes was very different from todays definiton of the the word. To make their heads longer, Mayan babies were squeezed between two pieces of wood. Another thing they did was to break their nose and reshape it, to give it a more hooked shape (Stuart 34). Body peircing and body painting was another big part of how the mayans looked. Most Mayans were tanned and had black hair and eyes. Both men and women had long hair which was braided into two or four braids. They wore very little clothing but, it it was very decorative, with the fanciest peice of clothing being headdresses worn by nobles. Their bodies were painted differently according to tradition and occasion. Priest wore blue, warriors wore red and black, and teenager wore white. (Morley 223).


Morley, Sylvanus G. The Ancient Maya. Stanford University, CA:
Stanford University Press, 1946.

Stuart, George The Mysterious Maya. Washington, D.C.:
The National Geographic Society, 1977.

The Mayan Life

The Maya are one of the most well know of civilizations in mesoamerica. The Mayan originated in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they grew rapidly around A.D. 250 in present day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern belize and western Honduras. They built on the inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, they developed astronomy, a accurate calender system and a advanced language. The Maya were known for elaborate and well decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple pyramids, palaces and observatories which were all built without advanced tools or machines. They were also skilled farmers, they cleared large sections of tropical rain forest and built huge underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were very skilled as weavers and potters, they cleared routes through jungles and swamps to make extensive trade networks with people very distant from them.

Around 300 B.C., the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government which was ruled by nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured kingdoms during the classic period of A.D. 200-900. Their society had many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites which were built around ceremonial sites.

The Mayan society started to decline around A.D. 900 when they were still a very misunderstood culture. The southern Maya abandoned their cities due to loss of resources. When the northern Maya were integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a end, although some areas continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century.