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The peoples and cultures which comprised the Maya civilization spanned more than 2,500 years of Mesoamerican history, in the Maya Region of southern Mesoamerica, which incorporates the present-day nations of Guatemala and Belize, much of Honduras and El Salvador, and the southeastern states of Mexico from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec eastwards, including the entire Yucatán Peninsula.
Map of Mayan language migration routes. Before 2000 BC, the Maya spoke a single language, dubbed proto-Mayan by linguists. [266] Linguistic analysis of reconstructed Proto-Mayan vocabulary suggests that the original Proto-Mayan homeland was in the western or northern Guatemalan Highlands, although the evidence is not conclusive. [267]
Xunantunich (Mayan pronunciation: [ʃunanˈtunitʃ]) is an Ancient Maya archaeological site in western Belize, about 70 miles (110 km) west of Belize City, in the Cayo District. Xunantunich is located atop a ridge above the Mopan River , well within sight of the Guatemala border – which is 0.6 miles (1 km) to the west. [ 1 ]
Maya ruins of Xunantunich. The Maya ruins of Belize [1] [2] include a number of well-known and historically important pre-Columbian Maya archaeological sites. Belize is considered part of the southern Maya lowlands of the Mesoamerican culture area, and the sites found there were occupied from the Preclassic (2000 BCE–200 CE) until and after the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.
A panorama of the Mayapan excavations from the top of the Castle of King Kukulcan. The ethnohistorical sources – such as Diego de Landa's Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan, compiled from native sources in the 16th century – recount that the site was founded by Kukulcan (the Mayan name of Quetzalcoatl, the Toltec king, culture hero, and demigod) after the fall of Chichen Itza.
Palace of the Masks detail. 2002 photo Map of the Kabah Maya archeological zone. The most famous structure at Kabah is the "Palace of the Masks", the façade decorated with hundreds of stone masks of the long-nosed rain god Chaac; it is also known as the Codz Poop, meaning "Rolled Matting", from the pattern of the stone mosaics. [1]
For these reasons, the researchers believe that the walls were instead a way to help the inhabitants of the region get around, essentially an ancient Mayan “Google Maps,” they said.
The city layout pattern and architecture of Valeriana matches that of the Chactún-Tamchen area to the southeast of the site. [2] The city contains multiple plazas, temple pyramids, a ballgame court, and a dammed reservoir.