History of The Maya

The word `Maya` is found in many different languages. The Greeks named one of the stars of Pleiades Maia, which is coincidental as the Maya honoured the cycle of the Pleiades. In Sanskrit Maya means illusion and magic.

When the Spanish arrived to Vera Cruz in Meso-america (the Maya/Aztec home land) in 1519, the locals believed it was the return of Quezcotzal, their Serpent god. Old legends had said that he would return one day from across the water, from the east. He would be a white man and he would be bring down the Aztec civilisation. Cortez and his fleet of Spanish ships certainly did fulfil the prophecy, arriving at just the right time in the calendar as predicted. He and his men murdered the Aztec emperor, then took control. Despite when he arrived to Tenochittlan (now Mexico city), he found a city 5 times larger than London was at the time, he still branded them as savages. He ordered the burning of all their books because he said they were written by the devil.

A Franciscan monk by the name of Diego de Landa carried out the atrocities but guilt affected him and he spent the rest of his life trying to save what valuable documents were left. Cortez and his Catholic men were only doing what they thought was best in the name of their own god. However, the people Cortez took over were not the same people who had built the incredible pyramids and created the magnificent calendar. They had mysteriously disappeared some 600 years before.

Lord Pacal Votan reigned for 52 years. He lived between 603A.D - 683A.D and his home was in Nah Chan Palenque, in what is now Chiapas Mexico.There has been a lot of speculation about this engraved tomb lid as it seems to portray Pacal Votan operating a strange machine. Some observe that it might be a spaceship. He was a great astronomer and mathematician and so it seems that it is more likely that he was operating a time machine! Whatever it means, it certainly adds to the mystery of the Mayan people.

The Maya first appeared in Guatemala 1500 b .c. They then spread throughout southern Mexico, Belize and into parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Classical Maya, the ones who build the pyramids, were around between 300 -800 b.c After that no one knows for sure where they went. Many speculations have been made including theories involving drought, famine, earthquake, civil unrest etc. To this day no one can prove any of the theories. No bodies have ever been found, it seems they simply disappeared. Finding the answers have been made even more difficult by the fact that the Spanish destroyed so many books and valuable documents.

What we do know about these people is that they farmed, growing maize, cocoa, tomatoes, chilli peppers, avocados, bananas, sunflowers and pumpkins. They were great engineers building large underground reservoirs to water their crops. They were elaborate architects creating amazing cities. They never used beasts of burdens or iron or the wheel.

In Lakech is a saying that means `I am another yourself`` it summarises their humanitarian viewpoint.

They were very spiritual people whose daily lives revolved around ritual, honouring the gods for all the abundance in their lives. They went on to develop astronomical charts of great sophistication. They became great mathematicians inventing the concept of zero. The had names for numbers so large, that today we ourselves haven`t even invented such numbers. Their greatest achievement no doubt, is their splendid calendar. They have long since disappeared but the calendar is still here. It wasn’t until the 1980‘s that westerners began to discover the calendar and now as we get so near 2012, the interest in the Mayan calendar has never been greater.

Did the Maya know that one day, people from across the water and all around the world , would embrace their calendar? Isn’t it coincidental that so near to 2012 that millions of people are learning about it?. (Mayan Times)