Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Maya Architecture
Ancient Maya architecture is a mixed bag of incredible accomplishments and severe limita-
tions. The Maya's great buildings are both awesome and beautiful, with their aesthetic at-
tention to intricately patterned facades, delicate 'combs' on temple roofs, and sinuous
carvings. These magnificent structures, such as the ones found in the sophisticated urban
centers of Tikal, El Mirador and Copán, were created without beasts of burden (except for
humans) or the luxury of the wheel. Once structures were completed, experts hypothesize,
they were covered with stucco and painted red with a mixture of hematite and most prob-
ably water.
Although formal studies and excavations of Maya sites in Guatemala have been ongoing
for more than a century, much of their architectural how and why remains a mystery. For
example, the purpose of
chultunes,
underground chambers carved from bedrock and filled
with offerings, continues to baffle scholars. And while we know that the Maya habitually
built one temple on top of another to bury successive leaders, we have little idea how they
actually erected these symbols of power. All the limestone used to erect the great Maya cit-
ies had to be moved and set in place by hand - an engineering feat that must have deman-
ded astronomical amounts of human labor.
Mary Ellen Miller's well-illustrated
Maya Art and Architecture
paints the full picture from gigantic temples to in-
tricately painted ceramics.
