Rio Azul - Lost city of the Maya - 1/3

Deep within the forest in northern Guatemala lie the ruins of Rio Azul, a Maya city that reached one-third the size of Tikal. Discovered and partially explored in the early 1960s. Rio Azul and the surrounding region were more fully investigated between 1983 and 1987.

Remains in the Rio Azul area date from 900 B.C. to A.D. 850. The data indicate that, unlike most Maya cities that have been studied, Rio Azul was a frontier town, an administrative center, with alternating defense and trade-outpost functions. About A.D. 385, the Rio Azul region was conquered and the city founded by Tikal, serving as a Teotihuacan-linked garrison for that capital. Nearly all of the more than seven hundred structures found within Rio Azul were erected between A.D. 390 and 530.

Acres of pavement were laid down around some thirty complexes of residences, temples, and tombs notable for the brightly painted red hieroglyphs and murals on their walls. The elaborate complexes and sumptuous artifacts suggest a city with a heavy proportion of aristocratic families and retainers.

Around A.D. 530, Rio Azul appears to have been suddenly destroyed. The city was abandoned, then reoccupied -- only to stagnate and finally collapse, like many other Classic Maya cities in the late ninth century.

Category:

Education

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• Maya
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• guatemala

[literofcola]

any chance you could let me know if this is available on dvd/vhs, or who did this (i'm assuming nat-geo)

i might use it for an essay if anything good comes from it.

thank you

[guatevideo]

@literofcola This is about National Geographic's magazine from april 1986.

[BAMCHAVA503]

"A calendar nearly as accurate as our own"??

The Mayan calendar is way more accurate and our stupid calendar!! They were the greatest civilization ever!!... You shouldnt even compare us to them...

[guatevideo]

I agree with you.

[BAMCHAVA503]

Thanks... hey did you see that the found some new pyramids in El Mirador, Guatemala??

You should know... its supposed to be the biggest pyramid in the world, even bigger than the ones in Egypt!!

[guatevideo]

We assume that La Danta is the largest pyramid in world.

[guatevideo]

See Down of the Maya's video about La Danta in video responses.

[doomsdaygray]

ya know what happened to the maya? christianity moved in. the great destroyer of most ancient civilizations. lets rape their women and kill their children, but dammit we are going to tame these savages!

[trilobright]

I wish Americans and Canadians knew half as much about the Maya, Tenochtitlan, and Teotihuacan as they do about the Romans and Greeks. The latter may be the history of their ancestors, but the former is the history of their land.

[ottoguillermo1]

@guatevideo discu1pa 1a m01estia, n0 sabes si existe este d0cumenta1 subtitu1ad0 0 que este traducid0 a1 españ01? gracias

[improud2blatin]

muy interesante. en cada grada hay geroglificos

[MineSouthernBorder]

@doomsdaygray The Maya Civilization was long over when the Conquistadors arrived you dumb shit.

Danm get an Education, even the remnants of the Native Peoples of Central America know this.

[Salvus967]

is this from a series? is there other episodes about other historic peoples like this, mad ein the same style as this??

[kukumatz100]

@doomsdaygray well, when it comes to the mayan empire, it died before the christian spaniards reached north america. after it died, the mayan people all had their own little societies with no centralized empire or nation. then the nahuat from mexico migrated south and became the mayas' neighbors. the spanish christians came later.

[drki11joy123]

@WolYou Of course we are more advanced today! Technology-wise at least. But for their time they were EXTREMELY advanced, genius. And what cultures had hard disks and microfilm at the time of the Mayas? lol. I'd truly like to know what you're smoking!