MAYAN

ARCHITECTURE

Mayan architecture is as characteristic as the Greek, Roman or Gothic. It has local variations; but fundamentally it is of a unique beauty.

It has been suggested that the Mayan hay hut, with its strongly tilted two sided roof, was the arched stone buildings prototype, something which could be probable. The common people's hay hut, identical for two thousand years, is rectangular, with rounded ends, and is 6.70 meters long by 3.65 meters wide.

The walls are made of mud or stone covered wood poles, and are not taller than 2.20 meters. On top of these a stick structure rests and is another 3.50 to 4.50 meters tall. These hold together the strongly tilted, two sided hay roof.

On the mural paintings and facade decorations belonging to the Classic Era these houses are represented, and even the foundations of a house were found under one of the oldest floors in the Uaxactun palace.

The similarity between the hay roofed houses and the stone buildings is notable. This similarity suggests that the roofs' slope gave place in the begining to the idea of the sticking-out stoned dome roof.

The materials for the stone constructions were very abundant, in the shape of very easy to work limestone material, that when burnt provides lime, and many deposists of these stones exist which they used in the mix.

Given the ancient Mayas' great intelligence and the profound religious fervor, it was inevitable that they create their own religious architecture. Outside of their internal economic attentions, they did not have another activity that consumed their time and energies so much as the architecture did.