Maya cities after the European invasion

I think most cities that were still present when the Spanish arrived were replaced by Spanish towns, in some cases the Maya buildings were even used as quarry for Spanish buildings. Mérida, Campeche, Flores and Quetzaltenango are examples of cities that were built on the site of Maya cities.

No? Actually there is one, namely the town of Izamal, it is exactly build on top of Mayan ruins, using material from the Mayan buildings. It was never a lost city, although it was semi abandoned, afaik. It was still used as a holy place when the Spanish arrived, but it was not a city as such I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) there are still ruins of old temples in the middle of the town.

Edited by Jams - 04-Sep-2008 at 16:19

I better mention this one, that may also answer your question somewhat:

Edited by Jams - 04-Sep-2008 at 20:49

Sorry, "those really big cities had been abonded," please delete the word"not", handwriting mistake

While the cities the Spanish encountered werent even close to those of the classical and post classical period, they still kept a a big deal of their architecture legacy. We can know this because while the Spaniards destroyed every building to create their own, the working force was still native, and churches, haciendas and  missions built in the period had very distinctive Mayan features.




You can see the obvious similarities, there's also the extensive use of Mayan blue in religous murals. So, if we have no idea how big where the mayan cities, or how they looked like at the time of the conquest, we can safetly assume that part of the classical culture was preserved in those cities, that even architecture style carried off to the colonial period.

Mayans didnt "dissapear", they went through a socio-political restructuring, and their culture was still alive and kicking when the Spanish arrived.

Originally posted by Jams Interesting perspective. So you think that the Maya designs can be seen in the "Spanish" buildings? I haven't thought about that, and I haven't read anything about it, I'm afraid!

Edited by pinguin - 17-Sep-2008 at 22:44

That's a pretty building. Where is it?

beautiful.

Originally posted by Jams Pinguin, I'm not sure what you mean? Those two women look Native American, and they play violin?

Yes, there are many. Perhaps the better known is the Andes Music, that is fusion between Native Inca and European. Remember the tune of "Condor Pasa" of Simon and Garfunkel? Well, that's the idea.