The old Maya city of Calakmul is now a biosphere reserve in the state of Campeche in Mexico. In the south, it is in the middle of the Yucatán Peninsula. In 2002, UNESCO named the place a World Heritage Site. The Calakmul Mayan ruins are in the southern part of Mexico. They are the remains of an ancient Mayan city that was very important.
Calakmul Campeche Mexico, includes:
Where is Calakmul Mexico
Calakmul ruins are in the middle of a tropical forest in Tierras Bajas. The city was an important part of this area’s history for more than 1,200 years. It also has buildings that have been well taken care of and show how people used to live in a Maya capital. The land is also in a place where there are many different kinds of animals. This is the third biggest in the world. From the middle of Mexico to the Panama Canal, it includes all subtropical and tropical ecosystems. It now has a new look and is bigger.
Ancient Mayan City
The ancient Mayan city of Calakmul, Campeche, is now 3000 hectares in size. The new land is 331,397 hectares, and a buffer zone of 391,788 hectares is all around it. When you add these two areas together, they are the same size as the whole Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. This land used to be a farm, but now it’s mostly empty and full of tropical forest. From about 1100 B.C. to 1000 A.D., it was the center of the area. The Maya culture hit its highest point.
The relationship also ended in a very dramatic way. Because of this, almost everyone left towns that used to be very busy. Since then, almost no one has been in that area. So, it’s a unique record of a culture that has been around for a long time. It can be used to learn about archaeology and ecology, and the results can be shown.
It was in the middle of the second biggest tropical forest in the Americas. The only jungle bigger than this one is the Amazon jungle in South America. People have done a lot in this area to change and work with the way things are. It doesn’t look like a good place for a city to grow at first glance. There is evidence that people lived on the land and that the number of people there grew. Society has gotten more complicated over time, and now the government runs it.
Calakmul History
One of the most powerful Maya dynasties was the Kaan. It was the second biggest archaeological site after Calakmul. People lived there during the Late Classic time. In the area, there are also the ruins of dozens of other old towns. Some of these places are big cities with big stone buildings and monuments. The past’s cultural landscape is very rich and well cared for.
It has the remains of towns and many other things. It has defensive systems, quarries, and water management features like reservoirs and man-made aguadas, or water ponds. Agricultural terraces and other changes to the land that help with production and other ways to make a living.
Calakmul Ruins
When the ruins of Calakmul and Uxul were dug up, stucco friezes and mural paintings were found on some of the large temple pyramids and palaces. As well as the burials of kings and other people from the upper class, who were buried with a wide range of body decorations and other things.
Like masks made of jade that are hard to understand, ear spools, and pots with a lot of different colors. Hieroglyphs on stelae, altars, and other parts of buildings tell us important things about how the land was organized and about the country’s political history. Certain inscriptions provide information about the Maya civilization that has not been discovered elsewhere.
Some of the sites they looked at had writings, information about how buildings and cities were set up, pottery styles, tool kits, and things used at funerals. A few of them have been dug up, and some of the objects that were there have been found. This shows that there were a lot of trading networks and that people in close-by areas shared goods and ideas. They also show how the area has changed over time.
Calakmul Campeche
The “Peten style” is what most of the big buildings look like. But in the northeast of the area, a different style of architecture grew during the Late Classic period (about 600–900 A.D.). This style is known for its towers and stone mosaics that are used to decorate the fronts of buildings, such as the so-called “zoomorphic” entrances.
Rio Bec had a unique style that many different people liked. As seen by the fact that its main parts were used as far away as El Tigre in the Candelaria river basin and Kohunlich in the state of Quintana Roo after 800 A.D. To find out how much these different architectural styles have changed over time, more research needs to be done.
It shows how the political scene is changing, including the role of the Kaan dynasty and its alliances and wars with other countries. It’s also hard to figure out why the Classic Maya civilization fell apart in the 9th and 10th centuries. Old forests in Calakmul show how nature works by the way the plants are set up and how they grow together. Because they show that people have been changing the natural world for a long time.
Most of them have to do with how the Maya used to farm and take care of their forests. They are made up of many different things, like how people choose what to keep and how natural systems change over time. Native people who still live in the area and use traditional methods to run their businesses show how the ancient Mayans lived.
In a certain part of the Earth’s crust, wet and almost-wet tropical forests grow. It doesn’t rain here for part of the year, and the ground is karst. Because of the way the environment is, like having less water and moisture, fires, hurricanes, and karst soils. It’s hard to find water and moisture. Here, plants and animals that live in wetlands have learned how to stay alive even when it’s dry.
Because of these things, the ecosystem in the Calakmul Tropical Forest might be one of the most stable on the continent. In a world where the weather is changing, this could help protect different kinds of life. Still, it is very important to get water from that place. It’s important because it’s home to many unique and rare species that are in danger of going extinct.
Campeche History
A lot of wild animals live there as well. Campeche is home to an old Maya city called Calakmul. The government protects the tropical forests that are all around it. Many different kinds of animals live there. The Mayans loved these things and showed it in their paintings, pottery, sculptures, rituals, food, and other forms of art.
People think that some of the species are in danger or at risk. The property has more types of mammals than any other place in the Mayan area. Two of the three types of primates that live in Mexico live there. Five of the six species are wildcats, and two of the four species have teeth. Because the property is in the Selva Maya, it is an even better place for people to meet and talk.
From an ecological point of view, it has ecological corridors that link the forests in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. This helps protect biodiversity and helps species develop ecological and evolutionary processes that are dynamic and change over time. Because they can move around in this big ecosystem, this makes it easier for species to adapt to climate change.
They also help keep populations of species going that need a lot of space. Same with animals that don’t move. Like butterflies, parrots, waterfowl, bats, and large predators that can move around a lot, like the jaguar, puma, and several birds of prey. The area is different from others because it hasn’t changed much over time.
The Maya culture grew quickly in an unfriendly tropical forest. This is clear because there are a lot of ruins they left behind. The research is important because it helps us learn about many different parts of Maya culture and how it has changed in the central lowlands of the Yucatan peninsula.
Archaeological sites in the area show that there was a lot of population growth and social complexity between 500 B.C. and 1000 A.D. No less than 1,500 years. It depends on how well people learn to handle hard things. It fits with how both culture and technology are improving. These can be seen in architecture, stone monuments, hieroglyphic writing, and the fine arts.
Calakmul Facts
Calakmul is the most important site in the area. In Calakmul, there are 120 memorial stelae that are carved and have hieroglyphs on them. This shows a lot about how the land was divided and the political history of the area. Some of these kinds of monuments can also be found in large or medium-sized cities like La Muneca, Uxul, Oxpemul, Balakbal, Champerico, Altamira, and Cheyokolnah.
Some of the best examples of Maya monumental architecture in the world can be found at the archaeological sites on the property. The style of most buildings in the city center is called “peten.” On the other hand, only the northeast corner of the property has the Rio Bec style. Places with palaces and big temple pyramids like Calakmul, Yaxnohcah, and Balakbal show the first.
This shows how society got more complicated during the Pre-Classic and Early Classic periods. The false pyramid temples show the second change, which happened in the Late Classic period. Most of the time, they look like twin towers because of the stone mosaics on their fronts. The writing on their coins shows that the Kaan were one of the most powerful royal families.
During the Classic period, it was in charge of the area’s politics. During the Late Classic era, the Kaan moved their capital city from Dzibanché to Calakmul. In the future, research should show whether or not the government was run by the Kaan dynasty. Its culture has changed in different ways that show how it has helped and hurt neighboring countries.
Calakmul Biosphere Reserve
These tropical forests are great examples of how to protect biodiversity in terms of species, structures, and ecological functions because they have so many ecological elements and features. Some of the species have been able to come back thanks to “aguadas” and “chultunes,” which are downturns that hold water. The Mayans used these to store water, and these tropical animals still need them to survive.
The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve was set up to protect this area of nature in 1989. Not much has really changed. This means that the property is very good for the environment and the culture. The Maya are one of the most important groups from the past, and they still live where they grew up. When people use water or plant trees, they still think about them.
Campeche Facts
Over 1,500 years ago, people started living there. It’s a great way to show how a culture grows and changes over time. All of the other archaeological sites in the area were based around Calakmul. At some point in the past, they lived in the area around the ancient Maya City. Calakmul thought it was a good idea to put up signs. There are different ways to look at these signs.
You can see them in the way buildings look and in the way people talk about their lives, ideas, and beliefs. The way they interact with each other in their social, family, political, and religious lives is also different. Even though they are from different times, the archaeological sites on the property show that they are connected to Calakmul both in space and in time.
Campeche Yucatan
All of the archeological sites on the property, including Calakmul, were part of a network of settlements. They used what was around them to farm and cut down trees. This is still visible in places like channels, raised fields, and reservoirs. The Campeche Yucatan is safe because it is in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. Since 1989, it has been a natural area that is kept safe.
The Federal Government of Mexico takes care of the property and the area around it. People who care about natural heritage make up the National Commission of Natural Protected Areas. In Mexico, it is known as the Comisión Nacional de Reas Naturales Protegidas, or CONANP.
The care of nature is in the hands of this group. Protecting cultural heritage is the job of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Almost all of the land on the property is owned by the government. It also shows where and what has been dug up.
The Federal Law on Monuments and Archaeological, Artistic, and Historical Zones, which was passed in 1972, already gives them protection. The property has all the legal tools it needs to be taken care of. It has things that are both cultural and natural. But the way things are run needs to change in some ways. How agencies work together, how skills are built, and how resources are used.
Natural and cultural resources on the property must also be kept in good condition and managed. It is also required to make and use a single management plan for the whole property. This way, both natural and cultural heritage can be protected, managed, and shown off in the same way.