Maya: Did you mean...?

Temple of the Ways, Maya city of Chacchoben, c. 700 CE. The altar, in the center of the temple, purposefully resembles a mouth and received sacrificial offerings. This temple continued to be used as a place of worship for centuries after...

Jade was a highly-esteemed material in many Mesoamerican cultures, making it a valued regional trade good and first choice for objects of religious and artistic value such as masks, ceremonial axeheads, figurines, and jewellery. Jade, because...

K'inich Janaab' Pakal (23 March 603 CE - 31 March 683 CE) was the Maya king of Palenque in the modern-day State of Chiapas, Mexico. Also known as Pacal (which means 'shield') and Pacal the Great, he is most famous for raising the city of...

Kapilavastu (“Place of Kapila”) is the name of the city where Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha, l. c. 563-483 BCE) grew up and lived for the first 29 years of his life before leaving to pursue the spiritual path which led to his enlightenment...

A belief in an afterlife was central to every major civilization of the ancient world and this encouraged the recognition of the reality of ghosts as the spirits of the departed who, for one reason or another, either returned from the realm...

The ruins of San Gervasio — located on the island of Cozumel in Mexico — were once an important site of pilgrimage to Maya people who lived from c. 1000-1650 CE. A sanctuary of the Maya goddess Ix Chel used to be located at this...

The Maya glyph for Tikal. From a stela in the Archaeological Museum of Tikal.

A Maya diving figure from a lid of a ceramic vessel. Mexico, c. 1000-1100 CE. (St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri)

This carved limestone relief, dated 23 August 783 CE, depicts three scribes being presented as prisoners to a Maya ruler. The captives are identified as scribes by the stick-bundle the first one holds (the traditional implements of scribes...

Colonnaded halls were very popular among the Maya along Mexico's eastern coast in Pre-Columbian times. At San Gervasio, located on the Mexican island of Cozumel, one can see this Maya "palace" structure in full-view. This structure has benches...