The Maya Sites - Hidden Treasures of the Rain Forest: A Traveler's Guide to the Maya Sites on the Yucatán Peninsula, in México and Guatemala

by Christian Schoen

Overview

The Maya Sites - Hidden Treasures of the Rain Forest

A Traveler's Guide to the Maya Sites on the Yucatán Peninsula, in México and Guatemala

2nd Edition, 155 illustrations, 91 in color



This book is a compact guide that contains the 15 main archaeological sites of the ancient Maya civilization on the Yucatán peninsula and also explains the optimal route for visiting these sites. A perfect guide for those travelers who are primarily interested in the most important Maya sites.

The Maya sites to be visited in this way and described in the book:

• Tulum
• Chichen Itzá
• Cobá
• Ek Balam
• Izamal
• Uxmal
• San Gervasio
• Edzná
• Palenque
• Toniná
• Bonampak
• Yaxchilán
• Tikal
• Yaxhá
• El Mirador

In addition, the La Venta Museum Parc in Villahermosa was included in the book, where the traveler will find several monolithic structures of the Olmec culture. The Olmec culture is famous especially for the giant stone heads which they left behind when their civilization disappeared.

The perfect route through the land of the Maya

The route was divided into three parts, which can be visited either sequentially or divided further into individual stages. The three sections are:

• Northern Yucatán Peninsula
• Chiapas and Campeche
• Petén in Guatemala

The modern cities, which are approached on these routes are

• Tulum / Playa del Carmen
• Valladolid
• Merida
• Campeche
• Palenque
• Villahermosa
• Flores

From these starting points or “base camps” one can explore the world of the Maya easily. From a leisurely day trip to a 5-day walk through the Guatemalan jungle, all levels of difficulty are available.

Lists of hotels or restaurants are not part of this book to avoid the inclusion of short-lived information. The authors opinion is that the internet is a much better information source for hotels in a certain city than any printed travel guide.

Instead, chapters about the history, culture, and scribe of the ancient Maya have been included to the book. Special attention was payed for a description of the Maya calender and an in deep explanantion how it works. Finally the traveler will be able to decipher simple date inscriptions found at the Maya sites.

91 color photos, 47 b&w illustrations and tables plus 17 sketch maps illustrate what the traveler will find on site.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783000601422
Publisher:	Christian Schoen
Publication date:	08/15/2018
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.67(d)

About the Author

Christian Schoen was born in Freiburg in Germany. Traveling has always been a special experience for him. The passionate traveler and biologist refers to getting to know other cultures as its lifeblood. On numerous trips through southern Mexico, the highlands of Chiapas and the hot and humid jungles of Guatemala the globetrotter dipped deep into the ancient culture of the Maya. After publishing the highly successful blog project "Amazing Temples and Pyramids", he decided to additionally publish his travel experiences in this book.

Table of Contents

Introduction 9

Section 1 - Routes and Short Descriptions 11

The Standard Route - Yucatán and the Riviera Maya 14

The Exotic Route - Campeche and Chiapas 18

The Adventurous Route - Petén - Guatemala 22

Section 2 –The Maya Sites 25

Region: Yucatán and Quintana Roo 25

Tulum - Turquoise Sea and Temple Ruins 25

Cobá - Ruled by women? 33

Cozumel - Pilgrimage to Ixchel - San Gervasio 39

Ek Balam - The Black Jaguar 43

Chichén Itzá – The star among the Maya sites 48

Izamal – The Magic City 59

Uxmal - Built in One Night 63

Region: Chiapas and Campeche 72

Edzná – The House of the Itzá 72

Palenque - Mysticism in the Mist of the Rainforest 81

The Olmec - La Venta Parc Museum in Villahermosa 93

Toniná –In the Ocosingo-Valley 99

Yaxchilán - On the banks of the Río Usumacinta 105

Bonampak - Murals in the Selva Lacandon 110

Region: Petén in Guatemala 117

Tikal 117

Yaxhá 131

El Mirador - The Jungle Adventure 139

Section 3 - History and culture of the Maya 149

The Homeland of the Ancient Maya - the Mayab 149

Natural Resources in the Ancient Maya World 157

The History of the Maya Civilization 160

The Collapse of the Classical Centers 169

Society and everyday life of the classical Maya 172

Section 4 - The Maya Calendar 175

Introduction 175

Haab – a Calendar for the Solar Year 179

The Tzolkin Calendar 185

The Calendar Round 192

The Long Count in the Maya Inscriptions 194

Numbers and mathematics of the ancient Maya 199

The date in the Maya inscriptions 208

Section 5 - Language and Writing System of the Maya 216

Mayan Languages and their Distribution 216

Cholan - The Language of the Inscriptions 220

Some Features of the Mayan Languages 220

The Writing System of the Maya 229

Epilogue 238

Appendix 239

Further Reading 239

Planning your Travel 241

Index of Figures 244

Index of Tables 246

Index of Maps 246

Acknowledgment 247

The Author 247