When used about ethnic groups the term "Aztec" refers to several Nahuatl speaking peoples of central Mexico in the postclassic period of Mesoamerican chronology, especially the ethnic group that had a ...
Mayapan is 4.2 square kilometers and has over 4000 structures, most of them residences, packed into this compound within the city walls. Built-up areas extend a half kilometer beyond the city walls in ...
Some archaeologists such as Richard Diehl, argue for the existence of a Toltec archaeological horizon characterized by certain stylistic traits associated with Tula, Hidalgo and extending to other cul ...
The term Mixtec (Mixteco in Spanish) comes from the Nahuatl word mixtecah , "cloud people" . There are many names that the Mixtecs use for naming themselves: ?uù savi, nayívi savi, ?uù davi, nayi ...
The Maya name "Chichen Itza" means "At the mouth of the well of the Itza." This derives from chi', meaning "mouth" or "edge", and ch'en or ch'e'en, meaning "well." Itzá is the name of an ethnic-linea ...
The name Yucatán, also assigned to the peninsula, came from early explorations of the Conquistadors from Europe. There are reliable versions that the name was result from confusion between the Mayan ...
It is located in the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley of the central Mexican highlands. It is surrounded to the west by the snow-covered peaks Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, and Malinche to the north. The summe ...
The name of the state comes from the name of its capital city, Oaxaca. This name comes from the Nahuatl word "Huaxyacac", which refers to a tree called a "guaje" (Leucaena leucocephala) found around t ...
The Nile has been the lifeline of its region for much of human history. The fertile floodplain of the Nile gave humans the opportunity to develop a settled agricultural economy and a more sophisticate ...
"Caracol" is a modern name from Spanish: caracol "snail, shell", but more generally meaning spiral- or volute-shaped— apparently on account of the winding access road that led to the site. Its ancien ...
The Maya site may formerly have been known by the name Zama, meaning City of Dawn because it faces the sunrise. Tulum stands on a bluff facing east towards the Caribbean Sea. Tulúm is also the Yucata ...
Site layout and description Map of the Cobá archeological site.One of two ballgame courts at Cobá.Coba is located around two lagoons. A series of elevated stone and plaster roads radiate from the ce ...
The present name seems to derive from Oxmal, meaning "three times built". This seems to refer to the site's antiquity and the times it had to rebuild. The etymology is disputed; another possibility is ...
Much of the Early Classic history of the city still awaits the archaeologist's trowel. However, from the extent of the surveyed site and the reference to Early Classic rulers in the inscriptional reco ...
Calakmul is a modern name; according to Cyrus L. Lundell, who named the site, In Maya, ca means "two", lak means "adjacent", and mul signifies any artificial mound or pyramid, so Calakmul is the "City ...
