Palenque, also anciently known in the Itza Language as Lakamhaʼ, was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that perished in the 8th century. The Palenque ruins date from ca. 226 BC to ca. 799 AD. After its decline, it was overgrown by the jungle of cedar, mahogany, and sapodilla trees, but has since been excavated and restored. It is located near the Usumacinta River in the Mexican state of Chiapas, about 130 km south of Ciudad del Carmen, 150 meters (490 ft) above sea level. It averages a humid 26°C (79°F) with roughly 2,160 millimeters (85 in) of rain a year.
Tikal is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. It is one of the largest archeological sites and urban centers of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala. Situated in the department of El Petén, the site is part of Guatemala's Tikal National Park and in 1979 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Altun Ha is the name given to the ruins of an ancient Mayan city in Belize, located in the Belize District about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Belize City and about 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) west of the shore of the Caribbean Sea. The site covers an area of about 8 square kilometres (3.1 sq mi).
Becan is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Becan is located near the center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the present-day Mexican state of Campeche, about 150 km (93.2 mi) north of Tikal. The Maya sites of Balamku, Calakmul, Chicanna and Xpuhil are nearby. The name Becan was bestowed on the site by archaeologists who rediscovered the site, meaning "ravine or canyon formed by water" in Yukatek Maya, after the site's most prominent and unusual feature, its surrounding ditch.
Coba is an ancient Maya city on the Yucatán Peninsula, located in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo. The site is the nexus of the largest network of stone causeways of the ancient Maya world, and it contains many engraved and sculpted stelae that document ceremonial life and important events of the Late Classic Period of Mesoamerican civilization. The adjacent modern village bearing the same name, reported a population of 1,278 inhabitants in the 2010 Mexican federal census.
Campeche, officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Campeche, is one of the 31 states which, with Mexico City, make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. Located in southeast Mexico, it is bordered by the states of Tabasco to the southwest, Yucatán to the northeast, Quintana Roo to the east, and by the Petén department of Guatemala to the south. It has a coastline to the west with the Gulf of Mexico. The state capital, also called Campeche, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1997. The formation of the state began with the city, which was founded in 1540 as the Spanish began the conquest of the Yucatán Peninsula. The city was a rich and important port during the colonial period, but it declined after Mexico's independence. Campeche was part of the province of Yucatán but split off in the mid-19th century, mostly due to political friction with the city of Mérida. Much of the state's recent economic revival is due to the discovery of petroleum offshore in the 1970s, which has made the coastal cities of Campeche and Ciudad del Carmen important economic centers. The state has important Mayan and colonial sites; however, these are not as well-known or visited as others in the Yucatán.
El Perú, is a pre-Columbian Maya archeological site occupied during the Preclassic and Classic cultural chronology periods. The site was the capital of a Maya city-state and is located near the banks of the San Pedro River in the Department of Petén of northern Guatemala. El Perú is 60 km (37 mi) west of Tikal.
Calakmul is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Campeche, deep in the jungles of the greater Petén Basin region. It is 35 kilometres (22 mi) from the Guatemalan border. Calakmul was one of the largest and most powerful ancient cities ever uncovered in the Maya lowlands.
Río Azul is an archaeological site of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is the most important site in the Río Azul National Park in the Petén Department of northern Guatemala, close to the borders of Mexico and Belize. Río Azul is situated to the southeast of the Azul river and its apogee dates to the Early Classic period.
El Zotz is a Mesoamerican archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the Petén Basin region around 20 kilometres (12 mi) west of the major center of Tikal and approximately 26 kilometres (16 mi) west of Uaxactun. It is so called because of the large number of bats living in caves in the nearby cliffs. The site is located within the San Miguel la Palotada National Park bordering the Tikal National Park in the present-day department of Petén, Guatemala. It is a large Classic Period site and contains many unexcavated mounds and ruins.
Maxcanú is a large town in the western part of the Mexican state of Yucatán; it also functions as the seat for the Maxcanú Municipality. It is located on Federal Highway 180, approximately 62 km (38.5 mi) south of Mérida.
Chicanná was a Maya town that was built during the Classic period. The site was named after its most famous building, Structure II, which means "House of the Serpent Mouth" in Mayan. In the Mayan language chi means "mouth", can means "serpent" and na means "house". The site is located two kilometers west of Becán in the Mexican state of Campeche on the Yucatán peninsula. It is one of 45 other ruin sites located within that area.
Xpuhil Pronounced:/ʃpuχil̥/ is a Maya archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Campeche, in the vicinity of the modern-day town of Xpujil. The area surrounding Xpuhil, along Federal Highway 186, is rich with other Maya sites, including Becan and Calakmul. The name xpuhil means "cat's tail" in reference to a type of vegetation found locally.
Painting in the Americas before European colonization is the Precolumbian painting traditions of the Americas. Painting was a relatively widespread, popular and diverse means of communication and expression for both religious and utilitarian purpose throughout the regions of the Western Hemisphere. During the period before and after European exploration and settlement of the Americas; including North America, Central America, South America and the islands of the Caribbean, the Bahamas, the West Indies, the Antilles, the Lesser Antilles and other island groups, indigenous native cultures produced a wide variety of visual arts, including painting on textiles, hides, rock and cave surfaces, bodies especially faces, ceramics, architectural features including interior murals, wood panels, and other available surfaces. Many of the perishable surfaces, such as woven textiles, typically have not been preserved, but Precolumbian painting on ceramics, walls, and rocks have survived more frequently.
Chactún is the name of an archaeological site of the Mesoamerican Maya civilization in the state of Campeche, Mexico, in the northern part of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The site of approximately 54 acres (22 ha) is located in the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula, between the regions of Rio Bec and Chenes. There are some significant differences that have yet to be explained completely, which distinguish it from some of the other nearby sites.
Balamku is a small Maya archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Campeche. It features elaborate plaster facades dating to the Early Classic period. It has one of the largest surviving stucco friezes in the Maya world. Balamku was first occupied from around 300 BC. Its most important buildings date from AD 300–600.
The Preclassic period in Maya history stretches from the beginning of permanent village life c. 1000 BC until the advent of the Classic Period c. 250 AD, and is subdivided into Early, Middle, and Late. Major archaeological sites of this period include Nakbe, Uaxactun, Seibal, San Bartolo, Cival, and El Mirador.
Dzibanche is an archaeological site of the ancient Maya civilization located in southern Quintana Roo, in the Yucatan Peninsula of southeastern Mexico. Dzibanche was a major Maya city and investigations in the first decade of the 21st century indicate that it was the early capital of the Kan dynasty, which later ruled from the great city of Calakmul. Dzibanche features the earliest known use of the Kaan dynasty emblem glyph.
Xculoc is a village in Campeche, Mexico. This settlement of Maya people is located 20 kilometres south of Uxmal and the same distance west of Sayil.
Kʼàakʼ Chiʼ is a hypothetical archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization, proposed by then 15-year old William Gadoury of Saint-Jean-de-Matha, Quebec in 2016. It is located in the state of Campeche in southern Mexico, in the extreme south of the Yucatán Peninsula. The location was determined by overlaying Maya constellations with a map of the Yucatán Peninsula.
