Why We Chose the Mayan Ruins as One of the Seven Wonders
Nov. 16, 2006 — -- The remarkable accomplishments of the Maya were developed independently from those that arose in regions outside the Western Hemisphere.
Their culture, as exemplified in the pyramids at Chichen Itza, represents ancient New World civilizations as a whole, and thus especially merits selection as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
The Maya civilization is the most famous of the pre-Columbian cultures -- and with good reason.
The Maya are considered to have been the most highly developed indigenous people of the Western Hemisphere.
Their culture reached its height during the Classic period (AD 300-900), and during that time, the Maya used sculpture more extensively for architectural decoration than any other pre-Columbian civilization.
Maya art is considered to be the most highly refined in technique and design of any known before the arrival of the Spanish in the New World.
The many refined aspects of Maya civilization led scholars to believe for many years that the Mayas had a peaceful culture.
This had to be revised after evidence was uncovered about bloodletting practices, including human sacrifices, and the vivid depiction of human sacrifice in the painted murals found at Bonampak in the late 1940s.
In addition to the construction of massive pyramids, the most distinctive Maya achievements were in abstract mathematics and astronomy.
Maya astronomy was one of the most developed in the world for its time, and Maya astronomers could make difficult calculations, such as finding the day of the week of a particular calendar date many thousands of years in the past (or future).
They also used the concept of zero, an advanced mathematical concept that evolved in only one other area of the world.
And the Maya civilization was one of the few in the world to independently invent writing, examples of which can be seen in glyphs carved into stone that have survived for about two millennia.
Chichen Itza is the best-known and the most visited of the Maya sites in Mexico.
It is built at a meeting point for Maya and Toltec cultures, and incorporates aspects of both, including the Feathered Serpent deity that has become famous in the Mesoamerican world.
Johan Reinhard is a National Geographic explorer-in-residence.
Related Stories
ABC News Live