Mayapan is a Pre-Columbian Maya site a couple of kilometers south of the town of Telchaquillo in Municipality of Tecoh, approximately 40 km south-east of Mérida and 100 km west of Chichen Itza; in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Mayapan was the political and cultural capital of the Maya in the Yucatán Peninsula during the Late Post-Classic period from the 1220s until the 1440s. Estimates of the total city population are 15,000–17,000 people, and the site has more than 4,000 structures within the city walls, and additional dwellings outside.
Uxmal is an ancient Maya city of the classical period located in present-day Mexico. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture, along with Palenque, Chichen Itza and Calakmul in Mexico, Caracol and Xunantunich in Belize, and Tikal in Guatemala. It is located in the Puuc region of the western Yucatán Peninsula, and is considered one of the Maya cities most representative of the region's dominant architectural style. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its significance.
The Maya peoples are an ethnolinguistic group of indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya civilization was formed by members of this group, and today's Maya are generally descended from people who lived within that historical region. Today they inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, and Honduras. "Maya" is a modern collective term for the peoples of the region; however, the term was not historically used by the indigenous populations themselves. There was no common sense of identity or political unity among the distinct populations, societies and ethnic groups because they each had their own particular traditions, cultures and historical identity.
Maní is a small city in Maní Municipality in the central region of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Mexican state of Yucatán. It is about 100 km to the south south-east of Mérida, Yucatán, some 16 km east of Ticul. The village of Tipikal lies 6 km to the east.
The Itza are a Maya ethnic group native to the Péten region of northern Guatemala and parts of Belize. The majority of Itza are inhabitants of the city of Flores on Lake Petén Itzá, and nearby portions of Belize where they form an ethnic minority.
Hunac Ceel Cauich was a Maya general from Telchaquillo who conquered Chichen Itzá and founded the Cocom dynasty. While the rulers of Chichen Itzá were in part descendants of Toltec outsiders who might have been disliked for being foreign oppressors or the war a simple one of conquest, the Maya history attributes the cause of the war to the theft of a wife of a powerful ruler by a power lord.
Napuc Chi, often known by his title Ah Kin Chi was a Yucatec Maya noble from Maní. Other names used in source texts for this individual include Chi Ah Kin and Kinchil Coba. He was general-in-chief of the army of Tutul-Xiu, king of Maní, and won a good military reputation during the war against the Spaniards, whom he defeated in several battles. When Tutul Xiu submitted to the Spanish conquerors, he sent envoys to all the caciques in Yucatan, to invite them to make peace also; and for this purpose Ah Kin Chi and other noblemen were directed to visit King Cocóm at Zotuta, and this chief received them with apparent regard, entertaining them with a splendid hunting party and banquet, at the end of which all the envoys were beheaded by order and in presence of Cocóm. Ah Kin Chi was the only one spared, in order to make him suffer what they considered the most ignominious punishment, that of cutting his eyes out and scalping him. In this condition he was taken to the Mani frontier and left there until some Indians took him before his king. He died a few months afterward. In 1599 the king of Spain gave a pension of $200 to Gaspar Antonio Chi, son of Ah Kin Chi and grandson of Tutul Xiu.
Ah Canul was the name of a Maya Kuchkabal of the northwest Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.
Ah Kin Chel was the name of a Maya chiefdom or Kuchkabal of the northern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century.
Can Pech was the name of a Maya chiefdom of the southwestern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. Can Pech was south of Ah Canul and north of Chakán Putum, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1517 the population of the capital city Campeche was approximately 36,000.
Chakán Putum was the name of a Mayan chiefdom of the southwestern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century. It was named after the capital city Chakan Putum. The city had approximately 8000 houses. It was a major port.
The Cocom or Cocomes were a Maya family or dynasty who controlled the Yucatán Peninsula in the late Postclassic period. Their capital was at Mayapan. The dynasty was founded by Hunac Ceel, and was overthrown sometime between 1440 and 1441 by Ah Xupan of the Xiu lineage.
Cupul or Kupul, was the name of a Maya chiefdom at time of the Spanish conquest of Yucatán. Cupul was one of the most extensive and densely populated Maya provinces on the Yucatán Peninsula. It was formed in the mid-fifteenth century after the fall of Mayapan and reached its maximum power during the sixteenth century, at the time of their own Spanish conquest led by the adelantado Francisco de Montejo. According to the Encyclopedia Yucatán in time, the Mayan voice ku-pul, means that throws the bouncing, giving a connotation referring to the Mayan ballplayers that existed in the region.
Hocabá-Homún, Hokabá-Homún or Hocabá was the name of a Maya Kuchkabal of the northwestern Yucatán Peninsula, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
Tutul-Xiu, also Tutul Xiues or Mani, was the name of a Mayan chiefdom of the central Yucatán Peninsula with capital in Maní, before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century.
The League of Mayapan was a confederation of Maya states in the Postclassic period of Mesoamerica on the Yucatan peninsula.
A kuchkabal, also known as an ah kuch-kab or ah cuch-cab, was a system of social and political organisation common to Maya polities of the Maya Lowlands, in the Yucatán Peninsula, during the Mesoamerican Postclassic. There were somewhere between 16 and 24 kuchkabalo'ob in the 16th century. Kuchkabal may also refer to a ruling family.
Ah Suytok Tutul Xiu or Ah Zuytok Tutul Xiu was the spiritual leader of the Maya Tutul Xiu people. Founder of the city of Uxmal in the 7th century, he was from the Nonohual. Nonohual's location is unknown, but was probably in Peten, it also might have been another name for Potonchán in Tabasco or Tula. He was also known by his nickname coconut kaba or "Hun Uitzil Chac".
Ah Mekat Tutul Xiu established an alliance between Uxmal, Chichen Itza and Mayapan in the span of thirteen years. He founded the League of Mayapan; a confederation between the Maya in Yucatán. Other than the three capitals, it included the manors of Izamal, Tulum, Ichpatún, the Cocom and others. This alliance existed from 987 to 1461. In 1194, the Itza for the second time abandoned Chichén Itzá to settle in the Petén. Later, Hunac Ceel would separate the Itza from the rest of the League.
Sotuta Municipality (In the Yucatec Maya Language: “turning water” is one of the 106 municipalities in the Mexican state of Yucatán containing 613.15 square kilometres of land and located roughly 98 kilometres southeast of the city of Mérida.
) was the last known ruler of the Mayan chiefdom of Tutul-Xiu when it was part of the League of Mayapan.