MAYAN ARCHITECTURE

The first Maya pyramid was built in Uaxactun, Guatemala, just before the birth of Christ. For the next 1,500 years, indigenous architecture matured in an almost continuous evolution towards verticality, abstraction and refinement. This supposed a vast technical base, as the builders lacked steel tools and work animals.

In the ninth century a new horizontal style brought by the altiplano (high plains) people emerged. Spanish colonialists found the last vestiges of that architecture when they arrived in 1520. The conquest ended a creative dialogue between men and the gods that had lasted almost seventeen centuries.

THE TRADITIONAL HOUSE

    

Pre-Hispanic Maya houses were made of perishable organic materials, this being the main reason why no intact examples still exist. Most researchers believe that they were much like the rural houses made today. Since 16th-century Spanish conquerors were mainly interested in the meaning and social power of the more symbolic religious and civic buildings, they paid little attention to the habitats of the common people.

    Originally, Maya houses were built on low platforms that delineated the space of nuclear family plots, including family cemeteries. Usually these solaris (lots) were delineated by albarradas (low walls made of narrowly stacked stone). Each family's lot included their hut, a well, a latrine, a chicken coup, a garden and a rustic-roofed batea (laundry room).

    The house was one rectangular room with rounded corners, no windows, and one central door built to face east. Sometimes there was another door that led to a second hut, used as both a kitchen and a chicken coup. In the traditional kitchens, women would cook on a grill set over three rocks. When the hammocks were hung, the main, single-room house was converted into a dormitory.

    The floor in a Maya home was made of sascab, a foundation of gravel covered with white packed soil. The walls had a wood matrix that was covered with adobe, and then whitened with lime. Occasionally a house would have wooden baseboards.

    Today, the family homes are commonly called palapas, the Maya word for roof. The roof itself is made of shorn wood, which is tied together to form beams. The beams are then thatched with native palm fronds. The Maya had no nails, so all of the joints in the home were tied together with a supple, tropical vine called a liana.

    Aside from these technical characteristics are many ancient customs that are linked to Maya homes. One such example is marriage: when two young sweethearts decide to wed, the entire community usually joins together to build their new home.

REPRESENTATIONS OF HOUSES

Here are various examples in which the ancient Maya depicted their homes.

As they were painted in the codices.

As they were painted in murals.

With decorative elements in stone architecture.

ANATOMY OF THE MODERN MAYAN HOUSE

In this illustration of a Maya house, the components are identified by their Maya names. An interesting fact is that the beelcho (central pole), literally means, 'the mouse path'. The suffix che, means tree.

URBANISM

The Maya archaeological zones are only a part of what were once large religious, commercial and political centers.

    These towns were built along a predetermined axis, with a group of wide-stepped plazas that were linked to platforms on which temples, palaces and pyramids were built. The urban design did not always follow a plan, but often corresponded to the earth's topography, often in accordance with mathematical measurements and magical symbolism.

    In the Yucatan peninsula (Mexico) these cities were built next to great natural water wells called cenotes, and were linked together by long sacbés (white roads) Religious ceremonies were held in the urban centers; ball games were played; and on specific days, a large market was installed.

    The Maya cities were also bureaucratic centers where political, civil and military matters were dealt with.

    Sometime during the Post-Classic period (A.D. 900-1500) ramparts first appeared. The upper classes—made up mostly of nobles and priests—lived in elegant houses inside the walls that formed the ramparts. The common people lived around the acropolis, occupying rustic huts, living in nuclear families and maintaining their cornfields. In its time these fortressed cities would have appeared grand and colorful.

TIKAL, GUATEMALA

Commonly, Maya cities do not appear to have followed a clear plan. Boulevards, plazas, temples and pyramids were all distributed according to whatever was convenient at each site. For example, the topography of Tikal influenced the creation of a center, the north Acropolis, in relation with other important buildings. The homes of the common people were built beyond this large complex.

1.-		North Acropolis
2.-		Temple of the Grand Jaguar
3.-		Temple of the Masks
4.-		Temple of the Inscriptions
5.-		Southern Acropolis
6.-		Plaza of the Seven Temples
7.-		The Lost World
8.-		Temple of the Grand Priest
9.-		Temple of the Bicephalic Serpent
10.-		Twin Pyramids

ARCH-ASTRONOMY

Chichen Itza, Mexico During the days of the equinox (spring and fall), the sun casts seven triangular shadows over the left corner of the pyramid, forming a shade that appears to be the body of a serpent. These shadows, which look as if they are undulating like a snake, end at the foot of the stairs at a sculpture of a snake's head. This event is interpreted as the descent of Kukulcan, the plumed serpent god.

. Dzibilchaltun, Mexico This temple's name means "seven dolls." It is located in the Yucatán and is aligned so that—during the days of the equinox—sunlight passes through the building's doors. The architecture is peculiar for its windows, since other Maya buildings usually have small holes for peering out.

The ancient Maya, like many other great cultures, attempted to connect religion, astronomy and architecture in an attempt to link their knowledge of the heavens with the Earth. The result is that their cities and temples were astronomical instruments, giant diagrams designed to join man with space-time.

    The Maya carefully oriented, designed and constructed their urban centers in accordance with what they considered to be the orbits of the stars; they thought stars were gods. Their cities were timepieces that served—with amazing exactitude—as giant stone calendars for civic, religious and agricultural purposes.

    To achieve this, the Maya measured the rising and setting sun during the solstices and equinoxes, as well as its passing through the zenith. They recorded the cardinal points and data related to other stars, the Moon, planets (mainly Venus) and the constellations.

   Today many cities in the Mundo Maya are being studied by anthropologists and archaeologists; working to decipher the secrets of this geometric and mathematical language, and its relation to the cosmos.

COMPONENTS AND SYMBOLISM

The Maya civilization expressed its cosmovision in architectural language. The Maya designed buildings to be utilitarian as well as symbolic, and constructed them as giant machines meant to maintain and focus divine energy. The purpose for which the pyramids were made—much like the Tibetan mandalas—was to serve as scale models of what they believed to be the Universe.

    Further, the temples contained geodesic data. For example, most of them had nine colonnades, exactly nine layers or levels, and nine steps, all of which represented the nine planes of the celestial existence. This numerology was meant to elevate the ceremonial habitats of the deities—the temples, that is—to their zenith. The pyramid of Kukulcan (the Maya plumed serpent god) at Chichen Itza, Mexico, symbolizes this. It has the exact number of elements that correspond to calendaric measurements.

    The architecture of Chichen Itza's temples appears to have evolved from a peasant's house plan, and after conducting many experiments with rock variations and the integration of sculpted architecture, it features both a pure, linear simplicity and an exuberant, almost-baroque Maya style. Many times Maya architects added elaborate masks to the façades of their buildings, as well as niches and columns with the carved facial representations of deities. Hieroglyphic inscriptions were also placed on rock or wood lintels. The pyramid's internal panels and murals were often made of sculpted or molded stucco.

 

FAÇADE ELEMENTS

Even more elements from commoners were combined in pyramid friezes. For example, the buildings integrated the designs of lattices much like those found today in rural Maya homes.

    Designers also integrated miniature lattices riddled with symbolic snakes, images of animals, flowers and humans. Stone constructions were commonly covered with stucco, which was generally painted red. The temple's crests were constructed with relatively thin walls, which gave the buildings more height, and therefore more presence. It is also thought that these crests may have served as astral points for ancient astronomers. To the ancient Maya, all of these elements—some of which today might look only decorative—formed a mosaic of sacred symbols.

 

HE MAYAN VAULT

The Maya vaults served as roofs for tombs, chambers and other enclosures. They were constructed with consecutive lines of stones stacked vertically and ending in a cap. It is called a "false arch" because the cap is not a wedge. Since the capstone does not make the structure rigid, the Maya could not develop spacious interiors in their temples. Some Maya arches are used as endings on sacbes (white roads) and as passageways in buildings.

TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIONS

CEREMONIAL PLATFORMS. Normally short (four meters maximum), the platforms had carved figures on the sides. A setting for public ceremonies, in the upper part they had altars, incense burners, flags and sometimes a tzompantli, a line of sticks with skulls at the top.

Chichen Itza, Mexico

Uxmal, Mexico

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Chichen Itza, Mexico

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TEMPLES. The rituals for the gods were performed here. The temples sat atop pyramids and had plenty of external decorative designs. They had internal chambers and a sanctuary, which served as an altar. In some cases, the temples had murals and panels carved in stone.

Palenque, Mexico	Tankah, Mexico
. Tulum, Mexico	. Chichen Itza, Mexico

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PALACES. They were situated—alone or in groups—over platforms, inside of the ceremonial centers. They had flat walls, which were decorated with friezes. Their many internal chambers served as habitats for the governing class.

Uaxactun, Guatemala

Kabah, Mexico

. Uxmal, Mexico

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TOWERS. These stone monuments have mainly been found in Campeche, Mexico. Their towers had astronomical functions, serving as calendar markers that used the Sun and Venus. Some of them were also observatories.

Xlabpak, Mexico

Nocuchich, Mexico

. Palenque, Mexico

. Puerto Rico, Mexico

. Chanchen, Mexico

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PYRAMIDS. The Maya only enlarged their buildings on predetermined dates. When this was done, the new structures were simply built on top of existing buildings, which left the previous pyramid intact underneath the newer one.

    The pyramids were composed of step-like foundations (usually nine), and one central staircase that communicates with a temple on the topmost platform.

Coba, Mexico

. El Mirador, Guatemala

. Uxmal, Mexico

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BALL GAMES. A game of cosmic significance. The field is located at the center; at the sides there are lateral slopes that end in walls, on which there are rings for the ball to pass through. Above the walls were platforms for the public and ceremonial temples.

Copan, Honduras

. Zaculeu, Guatemala

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OBSERVATORIES. Observatories did not hold special stargazing equipment, but were constructions used as fixed points for star observation. Sometimes, they also served as astronomical markers, in which case they would be aligned with other markers.

Uaxactun, Guatemala

. Chichen Itza, Mexico

. Dzibilchaltun, Mexico

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OTHER TYPES OF CONSTRUCTIONS. They Maya often built chultunes, underground cisterns used to catch rainwater for drinking. They also built and maintained steam baths for ritual purification rites and medicinal use. A mathematically-advanced culture, the Maya designed and built sewer systems, as well as the well-traced sacbes (white roads)—which were sometimes elevated to avoid flood planes—and which the common people also used as worship trails. Through the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-1500) murals and stalwarts were built, as well as walls that were used to delineate private lots.

    Funerary constructions varied from simple burial sites to very elaborate tombs for the ruling class.

STYLES

The Maya culture was partly defined by its unified architecture. Inside of this widespread vision—and through several different periods and various influences—many regional effects, with their specific characteristics, started to emerge. There is enough consistency of style and engineering to evince that the Maya were linked architecturally.

     The icons featured on the map each represents one of the nine different architectural styles and leads to a pop-up window, which shows the main characteristics of each.

ASSOCIATED ELEMENTS

RED HANDS. Some Maya temples have natural-sized hands painted on the walls, alone or in groups. These designs are known as kab-ul, which means celestial hands, creator and miracle maker. They are attributed to Itzamna, lord of the skies and the king of all of the gods

PHALLUS. The phallus symbol is associated with human fertility rites and Mother Earth's fecundity. They are not very common, having mostly been found in the Puuc region and in city of Chichen Itza, Mexico. The phallus are stone sculptures placed in the internal walls of temples or on raised external spaces.
   At the La Casa de los Falos (the house of the phallus) in Chichen Itza, the phallus are circumcised, which led some investigators of the past to believe that the Maya were the lost tribe of Israel.

CHAC MOOL. It is believed that the Chac Mools—enigmatic figures in impossible positions (their backs are bent unnaturally)—held some kind of object or offering in their hands. For the most part, the statues have been found in Chichen Itza. They originated in the Toltec culture. The Toltecs, people from the high plains, arrived in the Mundo Maya during the Post-Classic period (A.D. 900-1500).

ALTARS were carved stone monuments associated with stelae and open spaces, as well as with the interior of the temples. They have been found in many different shapes and sizes, often carved with stories, which depict historical and mythological events. In some cases, altars are thought to have served as thrones for the rulers.

STELAE. Stelae are carved stone monuments of in bas relief. They were placed alone or grouped in large, wide plazas in front of the pyramids. Usually the stelae featured the carved figure of a ruler, with hieroglyphs referring to the monarch and his dynasty, and historical dates. The stelae were carved at a predetermined time based on a cycle of years, which has made them a useful tool in determining dates for the history of the archaeological site where they were discovered. Generally the stelae were only carved on one side, though occasionally they were also carved on the lateral sides. There are cases, at sites like Copan, Honduras and Quirigua, Guatemala, where large stelae (reaching up to four meters in height) have been found.

Izapa, México.

Xultún, Guatemala.

Yaxha, Guatemala.

Naranjo, Guatemala.

Bonampak, México.

MURAL PAINTINGS. There are not many Maya temples decorated with murals. The most significant buildings, which have mural paintings are in the cities of Uaxactun, Mulchic, Chichen Itza, Tulum and Bonampak. The murals at Bonampak (illustration below) are considered to be the most refined and of the highest quality.

   Murals were painted in frescoes, using a rich palate of colors, which were made from a mineral and vegetable base, using regional clay and plants. The Maya blue, a color similar to turquoise, stands out for its luminosity.

   Generally, the murals represent episodes of war and of religious ceremonies. The murals also include characters identified as rulers. They are an invaluable source of information about the rituals, outfits and the vast paraphernalia linked to the nobility.