The Mayan world

There are lots of Mayan civilization vestiges in Playa del Carmen and its area.

Mayans left vestiges in 5 states of Mexico : Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Chiapas, Campeche & Tabasco, as well as in 5 different countries of Latin America : Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Salvador.

Yucatan peninsula is truely full of Mayan ruins, small or big. You can even find lovely ruins in Playa del Carmen downtown.

Mayan culture was extremely evolved, quite much more than the European one at the same time.

Mayans built gigantic palacesthat they decorated with wall paintings and stone sculptures. They set an ingenious network of cobblestone roads in the deep jungle.

Mayan culture was the only one of Meso-America to develop a hyeroglyphic writing system, quite accurate and they produces books and parchments. The Mayan art was sophisticated and full of colours. They also represented stars and were gifted engineers and mathematicians.

The organized Mayan civilization disintegrated before the arrival of Spanish Conquerors in the New World. Most of the big cities had been abandoned before 1200 AC. Many theories try to explain this decline, but it seems there had been a full bunch of reasons, particularly a social rising, wars, bad harvests or an overpopulation.

The highly structured social order perhaps collapsed well before the Conquest, but Mayans remained there. Indeed, a few cities were still populated when the Conquerors arrived, as Tulum for example, just one hour away from Playa del Carmen.

Mayans resisted savagely and the Spanish Conquerors needed 173 years to conquest Yucatan.