Mayan Culture Mexico Riviera Maya

The Maya people were spread out over a territory of about 500 thousand square kilometers, covering the present-day Mexican states of Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Chiapas and Campeche, and the Central American countries of Guatemala, Belize, the western portion of El Salvador and Honduras. Their origins go back some 5000 years, or perhaps further, although the first recorded settlements are more recent, as in Guatemala, around 2500 B.C. or in Yucatan, dating from 1600 B.C.

From a historian's point of view, the evolution of the Maya people is divided into three main periods : the Pre-classic (1600 B.C. - 250 A.D.), the Classic (250 - 900 A.D.) and the Post classic (900 - 1542). Each represents a different phase in the development that characterized the social and cultural activities of the different Maya groups up to their conquest by the Spaniards in 1548. The first contact between the two occurred much earlier, in 1511, when an expedition arrived in the area where the sole survivors were Jeronimo de Aguilar, who would later become a guide and interpreter for Hernan Cortes, and Gonzalo Guerrero, the first Spaniard to become integrated into everyday Maya life. Dating from its collapse under Spanish domination, the Maya people would retreat to the jungle where they continued to evolve in silence up to the present. For this reason, it cannot be said that the Maya culture is a dead culture; to the contrary, it survives in its people, in the form of legends, sayings and customs which keep the magic and knowledge of a millennial wisdom alive.

The Maya culture left an enormous cultural legacy, developing a unique architecture, the design of jewelry and ceramics, the construction of an advanced written language, and an amazing knowledge of mathematics and astronomy, more advanced than that of European civilization at the time.

Archaeology

 Even though the Maya culture remains present in the Riviera Maya, through the many indigenous communities still found here which preserve the traditions, religion and social structure of the Maya people, the splendor of ancient Maya civilization is most evident in the numerous archaeological sites in this area. It is through the pyramids, "pelota " ( ball ) playing fields, sculpted stone pillars, plazas and temples that some of the mysteries still surrounding one of America's most important cultures have been partially deciphered.