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In Search of the Lost Empire of the Maya
National Geographic ^ | Erik Vance Photographs by David Coventry

Posted on 08/13/2016 6:43:09 PM PDT by MtnClimber

The ambitious Snake kings used force and diplomacy to create the most powerful alliance in their culture’s history.

The ancient city of Holmul isn’t much to look at. To the casual observer it’s just a series of steep, forested hills in the middle of the jungle in northern Guatemala, near the Mexican border. The jungle here in the Petén Basin is thick and warm but drier than you might expect. And silent, except for the drum of cicadas and the occasional calls of howler monkeys.

Take a closer look, and you may notice that most of these hills are arranged in massive rings, like travelers huddled around a fire on a cold night. An even closer look reveals that parts of the hills are made of cut stone, and some have tunnels carved into their sides. In fact they’re not hills at all but ancient pyramids, left to decay after the collapse of the Maya civilization a millennium ago.

The site was a thriving settlement during the Classic Maya period (A.D. 250-900), a time when writing and culture flourished throughout what is today Central America and southern Mexico. But it also was a time of political upheaval: Two warring city-states were locked in perennial conflict, grappling for supremacy. For a brief period one of those city-states prevailed and became the closest thing to an empire in Maya history. It was ruled by the Snake kings of the Kaanul dynasty, which until just a few decades ago no one even knew existed. Thanks to sites around this city-state, including Holmul, archaeologists are now piecing together the story of the Snake kings.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalgeographic.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: guatemala; maya; mayans
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To: combat_boots

Tulum is the original beach house


61 posted on 08/13/2016 8:34:58 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway - "Enjoy Yourself" ala Louis Prima)
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To: Vendome

62 posted on 08/13/2016 8:41:46 PM PDT by combat_boots (MSM: We lie to you sheep at the slaughterhouse to keep you calm during slaughter)
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To: JBW1949
I never made it down to Tulum...I’ve heard it is a great visit also...It’s on the coast, isn’t it???

My husband and I visited Tulum several years ago, when we were on a cruise that had a day long stop in Cozumel.

Tulum has no pyramids. However, the whole city is laid out in a mathematical grid, and only the priests knew how to use the buildings as a guide to when to plant, harvest crops, get pregnant, and guide ships in to port from the open ocean. The priests were master mathematicians and astronomers.

Tulum is definitely worth visiting, if you ever get a chance.

63 posted on 08/13/2016 8:54:04 PM PDT by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/)
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To: combat_boots

The last scene of “Against All Odds” was shot there...


64 posted on 08/13/2016 8:57:10 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway - "Enjoy Yourself" ala Louis Prima)
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To: combat_boots

65 posted on 08/13/2016 8:57:56 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously-you won't live through it anyway - "Enjoy Yourself" ala Louis Prima)
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To: MtnClimber

“I wonder if the markings were not for a fer de lance or a jumping pitviper marking. They are vicious and present in central america, but I am not aware of diamond back rattlesnake territory ranging to there or even much into Mexico.”

I’m in Belize and have killed a rattler on the front porch, but my rock missed the fer de lance (known locally as the Tommy Goff) earlier in the tool shed.

http://consejo.bz/belize/snakes/snakes.html


66 posted on 08/13/2016 9:22:30 PM PDT by BwanaNdege
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To: JBW1949

I have seen and formed the option it was comet.


67 posted on 08/13/2016 10:15:14 PM PDT by razorback-bert (Due to the high price of ammo, no warning shot will be fired.)
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To: ckilmer

Pop. Bomb was hustler Paul Ehrlich.

A fun read from back then was Sex vs Civilization by
Elmer Pindell.
Societies are severely harmed when problem makers
outbreed problem solvers.


68 posted on 08/13/2016 11:38:16 PM PDT by Rockpile (GOP legislators-----caviar eating surrender monkeys.)
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To: MtnClimber

This site makes Tikal look like gumdrops (I did some exploratory surveys (1966) around the outer areas of Tikal and got to climb to the top of Temple IV which overlooked the Peten.

We heard that other large complexes lay further out, but couldn’t see them because of the high jungle tree growth, so could be one of them.

Congrats to the archaeologists for this great find.


69 posted on 08/14/2016 2:22:13 AM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
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To: disndat

Gone as in deceased or gone as in kicked? He will be missed here.


70 posted on 08/14/2016 3:47:27 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: combat_boots

Are the full color tapestries at Tulum still in existence?


71 posted on 08/14/2016 3:51:31 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: MtnClimber

My wife is Guatemalan so I have been to Guatemala a few times to visit her family. I been able to go to several Mayan sites from the Classical Era: Tikal, Copan and Ceibal. Great experience.


72 posted on 08/14/2016 5:51:11 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: PIF

kicked


73 posted on 08/14/2016 6:03:38 AM PDT by disndat
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To: PIF

kicked


74 posted on 08/14/2016 6:05:00 AM PDT by disndat
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To: garjog

That’s an Aztec picture, though, not Mayan. The Aztecs probably made the Maya look like pikers in the bloodthirsty category.


75 posted on 08/14/2016 6:15:03 AM PDT by Campion (Halten Sie sich unbedingt an die Lehre!)
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To: PIF

Don’t know...


76 posted on 08/14/2016 11:02:44 AM PDT by combat_boots (MSM: We lie to you sheep at the slaughterhouse to keep you calm during slaughter)
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To: ckilmer
How could they be so stupid?

How different is this than the war on poverty, global warming, Black lives matter, European invitation of Muslims to resettle? Stupid is a human trait.

77 posted on 08/14/2016 11:49:47 AM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (behind enemy lines)
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To: disndat
Climate change sure has been around a long time.

I've often wondered HOW some people think they can predict the weather pattern for the next day, year, eon.
This planet has been around some BILLIONS of years with all kinds of weather, volcanoes, storms and whatnot. So, given that we've had "weather" predictors for only a few thousand years, AT LEAST, there is no way that anyone really has a clue what's going to happen in the future.

Who knows? There might be a planetary collision happening right now a zillion light years from here which will eventually affect our earthly weather pattern.

Oh well, no sense worrying.

78 posted on 08/14/2016 12:16:06 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: JBW1949
The great pyramid at Chichen Itza has a wall going down the steps to the top and has a snake head at the bottom...
On the equinox, the sun casts a shadow of the corners of the pyramid along that wall and forms perfect diamonds along the wall depicting a rattlesnake’s markings...Only happens on that day that it is perfectly aligned...
Remarkable...

Yes, it is.
There have been geniuses in humanity ever since there have been humans. You know there had to have been a genius hunter and a genius with finding herbs and making hunter's meat tasty. The same for those humans who lived on islands and had to deal with water, fish and a small amount of land.

The Egyptians, Indians, Sumerians, Chinese...all old cultures which left us things produced by the geniuses of their time.

All remarkable. And WE landed on the MOON. THAT was a dream of humanity for a long time. ALSO remarkable.

79 posted on 08/14/2016 12:21:05 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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To: ckilmer
I wonder what the future folks will think of our 50 million aborted babies. THAT tells them what our culture thought was important and what was "disposable."

If they are smart they will call this culture sick, godless and doomed by our own self righteousness and pride.

80 posted on 08/14/2016 12:24:44 PM PDT by cloudmountain
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