What were the Mayans like?

1. Maya civilization is an outstanding representative of ancient Indian civilization in Central America and ancient Indian civilization in America, named after Indian Maya. Mainly distributed in southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and western Honduras and El Salvador. It was formed around 2500 BC, and an early slave country was established around 400 BC. It flourished in the 3rd to 9th centuries, declined in the 65438+5th century, was finally destroyed by Spanish colonists, and then disappeared in the tropical jungle for a long time.

/kloc-began to attract academic attention at the end of 0/8. At the end of 19, a number of important sites were excavated, and the modern archaeological research of Mayan civilization began. Since the 1950s, research has made rapid progress, forming a special Maya study, which is an important field of world archaeology and historical research. Scholars have different opinions about the development stage of Mayan civilization. According to the division of American archaeologist N Hammond, it can be divided into three stages: pre-classical, classical and post-classical.

The pre-classical period is the formation period of Mayan culture, from about 2500 BC to 250 AD. Settled agricultural life has emerged in the Peten Basin in the middle of Yucatan Peninsula and its surrounding valleys, with corn and beans as the main crops. An early sacrificial center composed of earthen platforms and altars has also been established. Since then, the country has sprouted and hieroglyphics have appeared.

In the classical period (about 250 ~ 900 AD), Maya culture entered its heyday, and hundreds of large-scale cities and residents were self-reliant small city-states, which had not yet formed a unified country. The hieroglyphics and calendar characters used in each state are the same, and the urban planning, architectural style and production level are roughly the same. Most of the main sites are located in the central tropical rain forest area, and the sacrificial centers such as Tikal, Wahatong, Negras, Piedras, palenque, Copan and Kirigua have formed large-scale buildings. Tikal site is composed of hundreds of pyramid-shaped temples with magnificent weather, with an urban area of 50 square kilometers and an estimated population of about 40,000. At this time, there are a large number of stone pillars engraved with age inscriptions. Generally, a stone pillar is built every 5 years, 10 years or 20 years to become a unique timing pillar. Around 800 ~ 900, these sacrificial centers were suddenly abandoned, and Mayan civilization declined sharply. 1 1 century later, the center of Mayan civilization began to gradually shift to the limestone lowland plain in the north.

Post-classical culture (about 1000 ~ 1520) has a strong Mexican style. The Toltecs from Mexico conquered Yucatan Peninsula and made Chen Chi their capital. There are stone colonnades, "sacred wells" and stadiums offering sacrifices to the living, as well as astronomical observatories and the best-preserved pyramid-shaped Taiwan Province Temple, where Quezalkoyatel, the god of Gechar, is enshrined. Since then, Maya Pan in the north has replaced Itza in Chen Chi as the center of post-classical culture. During this period, the art of pottery and sculpture was rough, and the secular culture rose, which brought a militant wind. The rulers of Mayapan allied themselves with other city-states and established their own rule by force. 1450, Mayapan was burned down due to internal rebellion, and the culture tended to decline after a hundred years. From 1523 to 1524, Spanish colonists took advantage of the situation to occupy Yucatan Peninsula from Mexico, and the Mayan civilization was completely destroyed.

Maya civilization basically belonged to Neolithic Age and Bronze Age, and tools and weapons were made of stone and wood. Gold and copper were only used at the end of the classical period, and iron was never used. Agricultural technology is simple, extensive farming, no fertilization, no livestock, and later irrigation. Handmade products include all kinds of pottery, cotton fabrics and so on. There is a trade exchange relationship between different villages and regions. Maya's architectural engineering reached the level of the ancient world, and they could carve hard stones. This building is famous for its rigorous layout and magnificent structure. Its pyramid-shaped platform temple is made of waste and mud, covered with slate or adobe, and has stone steps leading to the top of the tower. Its sculptures, painted pottery and murals are of high artistic value. The famous Bonanpak mural shows noble ceremony, war and triumph, and the characters are varied and lifelike, which is one of the treasures of the world mural art.

Mayan civilization has made great achievements in astronomy and mathematics. Through long-term observation of astronomical phenomena, we have mastered the solar eclipse cycle and the running laws of the sun, moon and Venus. At the end of the pre-classical period, we created two calendars, the solar calendar and the holy calendar. The former is one year 13 months, 20 days a month and 260 days a year. The latter is one year 18 months, 20 days a month, plus 5 days of death, 365 days a year, every 4 years 1 day. Remember the names of the sun and the moon in two calendars every day, and repeat them every 52 years, which is more accurate than the calendars used in Greece and Rome at the same time. Mathematically, Maya used the concept of "0" more than 800 years earlier than Europeans, and counted in decimal system. Another unique creation of Mayan civilization is the hieroglyphic system, whose characters are composed of complex graphics, which are generally engraved on stone buildings such as altars, stairs and stone pillars. Seal cutting and writing require long-term training. At present, there are about 800 characters, but most of them have not been successfully interpreted except for time symbols and a few names and utensils. At that time, he also used bark paper and deerskin to write books, mainly about history, science and ceremonies, which are still unreadable.

In the early Mayan civilization, settlements were formed around the sacrificial center, and in the classical period, city-states were formed. Each city-state had its own dynasty. The ruling class of society is priests and nobles, and the king is hereditary, in charge of religious etiquette and stipulating the date of farming. The lower members of the commune are ordinary agricultural laborers and craftsmen from all walks of life. At the bottom of society are slaves, generally from prisoners of war, criminals and debtors, who can buy and sell freely. Mayan countries are similar to the primary slave countries in the ancient world in social development, but there is no detailed information on the specific situation.

Maya believed in religion, and their cultural life was full of religious color. They worship the gods of sun, rain, valley, death, god of war, wind and valley. The sun god is above the gods and is regarded as the embodiment of God. In addition, worship ancestors and believe that the soul is immortal. Mayan countries also manage religious affairs. The capital is a religious center.

2. In 1502, Columbus sailed to America for the last time, only 10 years after he first discovered the "New World". The ship docked in the Gulf of Honduras. In the local market, a beautifully made pottery basin attracted Columbus' attention. The seller told him that this beautiful pottery basin came from Maya. This magical name was first introduced to the ears of Europeans.

Almost 10 years later, a ship from Panama to Santo Domingo was shipwrecked, and 12 survivors landed on Yucatan Peninsula. Two weeks later, they met the Mayans by chance, and five of them became victims on the Mayan altar. Survivors who escaped returned to Spanish-occupied areas and told their adventures with lingering fear. The first encounter between Europeans and Mayans was thus fixed as a historical picture.

15 19, the Spanish explorer (robber) Hernando Cortes led the Spanish army to sweep across Mexico and conquered the Aztec empire in the heyday of civilization, "uprooting a culture, just like a passerby casually breaking off a sunflower on the roadside". At this time, the Mayan civilization is coming to an end, but there are still some small Mayan countries on Yucatan Peninsula. 1526, a Spanish expedition (bandits) tried to establish a Spanish colony through violence and forced Christianity. The unyielding Maya fought guerrilla warfare for more than 100 years until 1697, when the last Mayan city-state was destroyed by Spanish gunfire. /kloc-Europeans in the 0 th and 6 th centuries were blinded by ignorance, prejudice and greed. They could see nothing but glittering gold. Driven by narrow religious feelings, the invaders searched everywhere for historical relics and then piled them up and burned them. In this barbaric way, the "pagan" culture was systematically eliminated. 1562 In July, in the central square of Manny, Father Diego de Landa, a Spanish priest, personally burned thousands of ancient Mayan manuscripts, story albums and writings. In addition, he smashed countless gods and altars. He proudly recorded: we searched a lot of books, all superstitious things, Satan's lies. All we have to do is light a torch and burn them. The local indigenous people watched helplessly, their hearts ached and they were very sad. It's not just "aborigines" who are heartbroken! Later, people who want to explore the truth of ancient culture and history all felt the pain of this cultural catastrophe!

The splendid and magical Mayan civilization sank into the dark depths of history, and the world lost a great civilization from then on. The Mayans had only three manuscripts, but they all escaped bad luck because they lived abroad. Perhaps this is the "keyhole" of ancient Maya, leaving the world with the last glimpse of its civilization hall. After the bonfire of colonial conquest gradually subsided in the16th century, the ancient Maya was completely forgotten by the world together with other Indian civilizations. After nearly 200 years, Europeans who claimed to be the new owners of America trumpeted the lie that "Indians were uncivilized" and called their colonial crime of destroying civilization "fulfilling the mission of spreading civilization". Until the end of 18, due to the development of the Enlightenment and the improvement of historical vision, western talents became interested in American civilization that they had ignored for 200 years. The footsteps of strangers echoed in the depths of Maya's sleeping forest. Travelers come here to look for the legendary magic and beauty, come here to pursue a lonely world, and archaeologists want to find a lost civilization.

"If human beings want to see their own smallness, they don't need to look up at the stars; It is enough to look at the ancient culture that has existed, prospered and disappeared in front of us. " -hiram

From south to north, the remains of great civilizations are constantly being discovered: palenque, Copan, Tikal ... the Millennium ancient cities that shocked the world are awakened; The 20-story pyramid, the stone altar decorated with exquisite relief, the observatory for observing the movement of celestial bodies ... the incredible magnificent building made the world hold its breath. Mayan archaeology has made great achievements in the past two centuries. Although there are still countless mysteries, a lost Mayan world has finally been recovered bit by bit. Now we know that Maya is a region, a nation and a civilization, distributed in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and the western part of El Salvador, with the northernmost latitude of 22 degrees and the southernmost latitude of 14 degrees, all belonging to tropical areas. The central and southern parts are dense tropical rainforests, while the Yucatan Peninsula in the north is very dry, with shrubs and almost no surface water.

The four ancient civilizations were all bred in the big river basin: Egypt has the Nile, the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, India has the Huan River and the Indus River, and Babylon has the Euphrates River and the Tigris River; Mayan civilization did not originate from river plains, but rose in barren volcanic highlands and dense tropical rain forests. Nature is so harsh on the Mayans that in order to survive, they have to constantly compete with the wild tropical jungle for land and space. They have no metal tools, no horses, cows, pigs, sheep, and unicycle. Their productivity level only stays in the Stone Age, but they have cultivated such dazzling flowers in the garden of world civilization.

Maya never had a unified and powerful empire, and the whole Maya region was divided into hundreds of city-states. However, Mayan countries traditionally belong to the same cultural circle in terms of language, religion and customs. Generally speaking, Mayan civilization can be divided into three periods, with BC 1500- AD 300 as the pre-classical period or formation period, AD 300-900 as the classical period, and AD 900-16th century as the post-classical period.

People found that Maya civilization had many similarities with other ancient civilizations in Mexico, so scholars speculated that there might be an older civilization, which was the same origin of Maya and these Mexican civilizations.

There is an old legend among Mexican people: Raventa people lived in the dense forests of ancient times. They live in a fairyland-just like this beautiful city with a highly developed civilization. 1938, a giant stone statue of 1 1 was accidentally discovered in the legendary forest of the Rivanta nationality, with the heaviest weight of 20 tons. Scholars have discovered two important sites, Ravenna and Tres Sapotus, and the "grandmother" of Chinese and American civilization has appeared. However, it was not until more than 20 years later, with the discovery of another important site, Sanlorenzo, that the Onimak civilization was finally confirmed by academic circles.

The place where the Cox River in Coetzee flows into the Gulf of Mexico is Olmec's legendary hometown, where there are abundant aquatic plants and many rivers. Olmec means "the land of rubber" because it is rich in rubber. Olmec civilization appeared in the coastal area of the Gulf of Mexico around 1300 BC. It is the earliest advanced civilization in Mexico and is recognized as the "mother of culture" in Central America by academic circles. From 900 BC to the first 400 BC, in this wet, low-lying and rainy swamp in the Gulf of Mexico, in the core of Lavaine, a 5-square-kilometer-high earthen platform stood temples and altars ... and the most distinctive temple form in the United States also appeared at this time-at the top of the tower on the 10 floor, there was a magnificent temple, and the whole building looked just like it.

Compared with the temple, the giant stone head of Lavaine is even more amazing. These heads as high as 1.8 meters are carved from a whole piece of basalt, with thick lips, a flat nose, deep and indifferent almond-shaped eyes and weird helmets on their heads. Strangely, the facial features of these heads are not like Indians in Central America at all, but like black people in Africa. This huge stone head is the most typical symbol of Olmec civilization and the earliest memorial sculpture in America, which is called Olmec head. Another feature of Olmec civilization is that it likes to make all kinds of precious ritual vessels, religious utensils and decorations with jade and emerald. The most common jade carving is a statue with the characteristics of jaguar head. Jaguar is the fiercest animal in the area, and is regarded as the master of the world by Olmecs. (caption: Olmec stone head)

All the traditions initiated by Olmec civilization have been inherited by Central American civilization. From theocracy, pyramid temples, monuments and altars, to hieroglyphics, calendar system, jaguar worship and living sacrifice to gods, all these constitute the foundation of ancient Central American culture. Even the rubber ball death game they created and their love for jade, cocoa beans and Quetta Chalphoenix were accepted and inherited by other Indian peoples.

A thousand years have passed. Around 300 BC, the decline of Olmec civilization was interrupted, leaving only a legacy. However, the torch of civilization has not been extinguished. It has been taken over by other nations and continues to shine in the jungles and gullies of China and the United States. When Olmec's afterglow gradually disappeared in the aura of Mayan civilization, the Mayan era came.

The earliest pottery in Maya area was around 1500 BC, which marked the beginning of the pre-classical period. At this time, India's "agricultural revolution" has won a great victory. After thousands of years of cultivation, a weed in the valley has become a sweet and nutritious food, that is, corn. With this "hard core" crop, the Mayans settled down, made pottery and stored corn. The Mayans ate relatively little meat, and their main food was corn. They call themselves corn people, and their civilization is also called "corn civilization". Camilla Huyu, located in the suburb of Guatemala, flourished at the end of pre-classicism. Because it controls the black ochre mining area about 20 kilometers away, it has developed into the main distribution center and processing place of this raw material; In addition, it was a dual hub for controlling the trade routes of jade articles between the East and the West and the feather trade routes of Quetta Chalphoenix in the north and south, so it became the largest city in the early Maya. Developed in the later period of Olmec, this monument is engraved with relief images and age inscriptions, and now it has become the most important cultural relic of Mayan civilization. Camilla Huyu granite stele is the most exquisite carving work of Maya in pre-classical period, and the overwhelming dragon rhyme palindromes on the stele are actually similar to the ornamentation of bronze wares in Shang and Zhou Dynasties in China.

During the two or three hundred years before and after A.D., the main features of Mayan civilization have been developed and formed in southern Maya cities such as Huyu and Camilla. A great era that will illuminate the history of human civilization has set sail.

Palenque, located in the inland rain forest of Yucatan Peninsula in eastern Mexico, is the first classical Mayan city rediscovered by Europeans. Before that, the entire Mayan civilization was as ethereal and distant as the moon in the clouds. It was at the end of 18 that a European named Calderon accidentally discovered this ancient relic in the jungle. A stone stirred up a thousand waves, and a wave of searching for Mayan ruins set off.

Palenque is located on a hill between high mountains, with its back against the Madre Mountain and facing the lush plains of the Gulf of Mexico. It is less than 25 kilometers away from the Usumacinta River and the Blue Bay is hundreds of miles away. Palenque is the most beautiful Mayan city in classical times, and people even call it "Athens of America". The central square of palenque is not closed, except for the palace in the east and the inscription pyramid in the south, which is open to the west and north. The lush tropical jungle extends from the edge of the square to the distance. Many other beautiful temples and houses are located in the foothills of Lin Mang in the east of the square. Palenque failed to carve stone tablets, but all its buildings were decorated with exquisite gypsum sculptures and limestone slab reliefs, which earned it the reputation of "Sculpture City". Under the blue sky and white clouds, those exquisite buildings are dotted in the tropical jungle where green waves are surging. Hollow roofs rise above stocky square stone houses, and colorful plaster sculptures make them look extremely rich. Warm lime and colorful reliefs overflow with pleasant brilliance in the sun, making palenque like a string of colored gems embedded in tropical shade. Everywhere in palenque, there are traces of the prosperity of mankind. The most famous "Inscription Temple" stands at the top of a 9-level megalithic pyramid. There are five doors in the temple, and three walls of a hall are engraved with 6 17 hieroglyphics, which is one of the longest Mayan inscriptions, hence the name Inscription Temple. The first riddle of Mayan culture was solved here.

During the period of 1950, Mexican archaeologist Luz Louilier, while inspecting the temple of inscriptions, found that the inner wall extended all the way below the ground, and noticed that there was a hook eye around a large stone slab on the floor, which might be used to ascend to heaven. When he slowly lifted the big stone slab, he suddenly found a stone passage extending underground. It took Luz three years to finally clear this passage that extends down about 20 meters. At the end of the passage, a heavy door stands quietly. Lutz opened the door, and under the flickering light, the most amazing scene in Mayan archaeological history appeared: a king's mausoleum and his huge sarcophagus were lying in front of him! The tomb is10m long, 4m wide and 7m high. The reliefs on the four walls represent the nine night gods in Mayan mythology (also known as the nine gods of the underworld). The whole sarcophagus is carved from a huge stone with a length of 5 meters and a width of 3 meters. The figure inside is the founder of the prosperous dynasty-King Pacal. On the same huge coffin cover, there is an extremely fine and perfect bas-relief, which shows Pacal lying on a huge death mask and slowly falling into the underworld. However, people who advocate Mayan civilization say that it clearly depicts a pilot driving a spaceship! Description: This emerald mask comes from the tomb of King Pacal of palenque, and it retains the true face of the king. In Mayan belief, jade is a symbol of life)

Before the tomb of Pacal was discovered in the inscription pyramid, people always thought that Maya had no powerful royal power, and the pyramid-shaped temple was just a temple, unlike the Egyptian pyramid, which was the tomb of the king. However, these fallacies were swept away by the rediscovered Pacal Mausoleum, which told people for the first time that there were powerful dynasties and famous kings in the Mayan city-states!

Tikal was the largest city-state in the Mayan classical period, when the center of Mayan civilization had moved from the south to the middle. In 292 A.D., King Jaguars Claw started a dynasty and made great achievements. This powerful Mayan king laid a solid foundation for Tikal's hegemony in the next 60 or 70 years. After him, "The King of the Curly Nose" and "The King of the Storm" pushed Tikal to the peak of prosperity and ushered in the first prosperous period. However, in the mid-6th century, due to the impact of the great migration wave in northern Mexico, great political turmoil occurred in Tikal, the dynasty was in turmoil, and urban construction was once stopped. 100 years later, Tikal came back to life. From the end of the century to the whole eighth century, Tikal stood out again, and three powerful kings appeared one after another: King Akagao, King Jacqueline and King Chitan. The beautiful Tikal city seen in today's archaeological excavation was built in the era of peace and prosperity of these three kings. During the second boom, Tikal City covered an area of over 65 square kilometers, with 50,000 residents and more than 3,000 pyramids, altars and stone tablets. The affected area is 500 square kilometers in Fiona Fang, which controls nearly 2 million people. In its central area alone, there are more than a dozen great pyramids and more than 50 small temples; They are distributed around with the ancient central square as the core, as well as palaces decorated with embossed colored paintings and markets surrounded by corridors. Several stone roads on the ground connect the religious center.

The pyramids, which look amazing and dangerous, are Tikal's main architectural achievements. In the sapphire-clear sky, a series of pyramids have pierced Lin Mang's dense net and confronted each other in the gorgeous tropical sun, shining brightly. What is even more amazing is the amazing design of the Tikal Pyramid with a slope of 70 degrees. Its shape is as steep as Gothic religion in Europe, so some people call it "jungle cathedral". It is along these dizzying steep stone steps that Mayan priests-usually Mayan kings-step by step entered the temple decorated with towering "crowns" at the top of the pyramid, as if rising into the sky, where they communicated with the gods and gained the power beyond the secular; There, they also observed the stars, made calendars, and became the gods of the world in the eyes of thousands of Mayans in Qian Qian. There, God and the king became one. (Description: The Pyramid Temple in Tikal)

In the central square of Tikal, there are dozens of monuments called "stone tablets and ceremonial ceremonies" by scholars. They were neatly arranged and recorded natural phenomena, political events and major religious ceremonies at that time. The earliest piece was carved in 292 AD, and the latest piece was carved in 869 AD, and then it suddenly stopped. At the same time, the once powerful Tikal suddenly disappeared and was inexplicably abandoned in the jungle. In 835 AD, the construction of palenque Pyramid Temple stopped. In 889 AD, the temple group project under construction in Tikal was interrupted. In 909 AD, the last Mayan city also stopped more than half of the stone pillar construction ... Throughout the 9th century, hundreds of city-states in the central lowlands were suddenly abandoned one after another, and those prosperous cities were almost simultaneously annihilated and instantly deserted. Without any explanation, the splendid civilization in the classical period came to an abrupt end, and a magnificent historical drama came to an abrupt end.

The Maya who created countless miracles packed their bags and abandoned their comfortable homes, familiar streets, squares, temples and palaces. Some of them migrated to the wilderness in the northern Yucatan Peninsula, and the rest dispersed into the jungle and disappeared. No one came back. Those abandoned cities gradually collapsed, tropical rainforests made a comeback, vegetation climbed the stone steps and windowsills, young trees sprouted and grew in the cracks of bricks, and the stones cracked after the rattan nails were thick. No one has set foot on the ground of those courtyards and the stone steps of the pyramids. They left, but left an eternal mystery for future generations.

Why did the Mayans abandon the city? Volcanic eruption? Earthquake? Hurricane? Plague? Or peasant uprising? Frequent civil wars? Foreign invasion? Business route transfer? ..... put forward various speculations, but the evidence is insufficient. In recent years, the "ecological crisis theory" seems to be the final answer to this puzzle.

Although Mayan civilization is an urban civilization, it is based on corn agriculture. Since ancient times, Mayan farmers have adopted a very primitive "Milpa" farming method: they first cut down all the trees, dried them for a period of time, set them on fire before the rainy season, and covered the barren rainforest soil with plant ash as fertilizer. Plant one crop at a time, then lay fallow for 1-3 years, or even as long as 6 years in some places, and then plant again after the vegetation grows luxuriantly. When the civilization flourished in the classical period, the population increased greatly, and the pressure of agriculture became greater and greater, people destroyed more forests in order to open up wasteland, and at the same time shortened the time of body farming as much as possible. However, as a result, soil fertility declined and corn production became less and less. After the great development of population, Mayan civilization is facing serious problems of deterioration of ecological environment and exhaustion of living resources. As the main population, people have no food to eat, and the social situation has plummeted. More seriously, under the theocratic system, the Maya royal family and priests blamed all these "signs of decline" on God's dissatisfaction. They built more temples and prayed more frequently and solemnly, hoping to turn Gankun around with their divine power. Of course, the result of this is to waste more manpower and material resources that have been occupied until they fall into a vicious circle of incorrigible. With the serious shortage of agricultural production and supply, the highly developed Mayan classical culture began to collapse. When the barren land around the city was connected, hunger forced the Mayans to abandon the city. After a hundred years of decline and turmoil, all the city-states in the central lowlands were lost in the tropical jungle, and green plants quietly covered everything, like hiding an ancient secret.

Maya classical civilization declined, and all central lowland countries have become a thing of the past. However, in the arid limestone plain of Yucatan Peninsula in the north, some new Mayan city-states rose again, forming the Mayan civilization in the post-classical period, but they never reached the glory of the classical period. A Mayan tribe, the Mayans in Pudong, established the most famous city-states of Issa and Smal in the post-classical period.

Issa, Chen Chi is located in the northern Yucatan Peninsula, which means "Spring across from Issa tribe". This country was originally founded by Maya before 10 century. Around 987 AD, the Toltecs in the north took control of this area and tried to turn it into a replica of Tula, the capital of the Toltecs. The huge remains of Chen Chi Issa that we see now are the combination of Maya and Toltec cultural patterns. Its architecture not only shows the introversion and calmness of the Mayans, but also shows the sturdiness and grandeur of the Toltecs. Stimulated by foreign cultures, the declining Mayan civilization was revived.

In the center of Issa, Chen Chi, there stands a pyramid temple with an area of more than 3,000 square meters, named Ku Courquin Temple. Ku Ku Ku Kun, the Quetzalcoatl, is the main god in the traditional culture of Tortek, which is composed of Quetzalcoatl's feathers and rattlesnakes. It is regarded as a great organizer, the founder of the city and the father of mathematics, metallurgy and astronomy. Legend has it that it brought civilization and enlightenment to the people. In addition, it is also in charge of agriculture, harvest and rainfall, which is of great natural significance in the arid Yucatan Peninsula. Kuerkun Pyramid is about 30 meters high, surrounded by 9 1 steps, which adds up to 364 steps. Together with the Quetzalcoatl Temple at the top of the tower, * * * has 365 steps, which just symbolizes 365 days of a solar year. The geometric design and orientation of this ancient building are comparable to the precise calibration of Swiss clocks and watches, creating a mysterious and dramatic effect: every year at the sunset of vernal equinox and autumnal equinox, the side walls of a group of steps in the north will form a zigzag seven-segment isosceles triangle under the sunlight, and the snake head carved at the bottom is like a python swimming from the top of the tower to the earth, symbolizing that Quetzalcoatl wakes up at vernal equinox, climbs out of the temple and returns at autumnal equinox. Every time this illusion lasted for 3 hours and 22 minutes, every minute was not bad.

Chen Chi Issa has an observatory named "Spiral Tower" with it as the midpoint. On the north-south axis of Issa, Chen Chi, there are two giant eyes in primitive nature. The south well is a drinking well, and the north well is a sacred well for the Maya to worship the gods. Legend has it that in every dry year, the Mayans will go to the holy well under the leadership of priests, praying for the god at the bottom of the well to calm down and offer rich sacrifices, even including the beautiful girls who are alive. 1877, the American explorer Edward H. Thompson salvaged this sacred well-a black hole full of dirty water, stones and rotten grass and dead wood accumulated over thousands of years. As a result, he won a great victory! From the smelly mud at the bottom of the well, a long-awaited treasure appeared, including jade, gold ornaments, vases, Maojian, jade bowls, black stone grass, accompanied by the bones of a girl, which proved that ancient legends were actually true historical facts. Description: The Chen Chi Issa Observatory, known as the "Spiral Tower", is unique among Mayan buildings. Tower height12.5m, built on a two-story platform, with spiral stairs and cloisters inside and a semicircular roof. )

Chen Chi Issa flourished in112nd century and 1224. The Ithaca dynasty in this city-state was overthrown by the Cocan people and never recovered. After defeating the Yicha people, the Kokang people defeated Smal and overwhelmed their neighbors, becoming the overlord of Yucatan Peninsula. Cocoon man built Maya Pancheng, hence the name of Maya. But in 144 1 year, Smal led the weak city-states to unite against the hegemonic rule of Maya Pan, and burned Maya Pan in one fell swoop. Maya declined because of the war. The sunset in Maya slowly extinguished the last afterglow.

The Mayan civilization began to lose its luster in the 9th century. The invasion of Spanish colonists gave a final blow to the fragmented Mayan world in the post-classical period, and the spiritual world that supported the civilized system and the books that recorded them were lost. At present, there are still nearly 2 million Mayans living in the land of their ancestors and using nearly 25 Mayan languages, but they know almost nothing about the past history. They are silent with the ruins in the depths of the jungle, and the isomorphism has become a distant figure of lost civilization.

Maya created splendid culture. They created a complete pictographic ideographic system, consisting of 850 figures and symbols, which can express meaning and mark sounds. These 850 symbols constitute more than 20,000 words, and the writing order is usually from left to right and from top to bottom. In addition to corn, Maya also planted many crop varieties, including tomatoes, pumpkins, kidney beans, sweet potatoes and peppers. Cash crops include cotton, cocoa, tobacco, agave and indigo. Their animals are dogs, bees and turkeys.

The Mayan calendar is the most perfect calendar in the world, and their calendar system consists of three calendars, namely, the divine calendar, the solar calendar and the secular calendar. The God Calendar, also known as Zalkin Calendar, consists of 20 images of gods and numbers from 1 to 13, and it lasts for 260 days every year. Just like heavenly stems and earthly branches in China, it is constantly matched and combined, and 260 combination icons are obtained, representing 260 days. The solar calendar is based on astronomical calculations. A year is divided into 18 months, with 20 days in each month and 5 days as the death day, so there are 365 days in the whole year. After long-term observation and careful calculation, the Maya, who are good at astrological observation, revised the length of a year to 365.4438+029 days, which is less than one thousandth of the absolute length of 365.438+098 days measured scientifically today! Surprisingly, when God