The Mayan culture prospered for about two thousand years in what is now Beliz, Guatemala, western Honduras, El Salvador and the five Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Tabasco, Quintana Roo, and Yucatan. The region occupied by the Maya People was about 193,000 square miles in area and is referred to cooperatively as El Mundo Maya (The Maya World.)
The Mayan people were expert weavers and temple builders who left behind treasures of archaeological sites for many coming generations to admire. These Mayan people made their living by hunting, fishing and agriculture. They were a Linguistic Group which is one of the largest in the Americas and is divided into about 69 languages including the Huastec, Yucatec, Western Maya, and Eastern Maya groups.
There is brilliance in the Maya culture that is well appreciated specially in the area of architecture and ornamentation of their cities. These Mayan cities were the center of power for the king-priests who administered the compliance, the honor and the manpower of the people who believed in them.
The growth of the Mayan culture and cities evolved during different times. The beginning of the Mayan culture construction was developed in the highlands. During the Classical Period, between 250 and 900 A.D., the lowlands witnessed the thriving of great cities such as Takal, located in the heart of the Guatemalan Peten. After the Classic Period, the inspired desire moved to the plains and low plateaus of the south end of the Yucatan peninsula, where the Puuc cities saw their flash of glory.
Each Maya city had a unique style, although constituency and epochs lent them certain general features. The ruins of their cities appear suddenly in the middle of thick jungles yet their engineering workmanship guaranteed the supply of necessities and water to the populace. They also had the most advance calendar system of those days, and an ample and complex network of roads that crossed all of the land for keeping communications and commerce and they had an interchange open to all Maya centers. Most of the names of the old Mayan cities have been forgotten as the ones used today were made up by explorers, missionaries, travelers and archaeologists.
Many of the palaces contain two three and even five story buildings. The emphasis was put in height and verticality which gives an imposing touch to the cities. It is said that the constructors wanted to come closer to Heaven and to their gods in this way, and in doing it, they raised the tallest buildings in ancient America.
Decorating with molded stucco reached a high degree of perfection. Stucco was a very fine paste made of lime with a bit of which was in turn applied over stone supports anchored to the walls, ceilings or crests. The interior side of the walls were covered with stucco and then painted.
For thousands of years, the Yucatec Maya has been the dominant Mayan language throughout the Yucatan Peninsula, including Yucatan, Campethe and Quintana Roo. The Maya language was documented in the ancient hieroglyphs of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilizations at several archaeological sites and may be as much as 5,000 years old. Still at the 2000 census there were 799,696 people in the Mexico that spoke this language.
Ralph L. Roys, a Maya ethno historian, wrote that sixteen native Maya states occupied most of the Yucatan Peninsula in the early 16th century and that this population was "remarkably uniform in language, customs and fundamental political ideas." Historians have indicated that most of todays Campeche was ruled by four native states when the Spaniards first arrived in 1517; Acalan-Tixcel, Chanputun (Champoton,) Campech (Ah Kin Pech) and Ah Canul. Acalan was primarily occupied by the Chontal Indians and the other three states were Yucatec Mayan nations.
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