Chaac
For the region on Io see Chaac-Camaxtli Region Chaac is the name of the Maya rain deity. With his lightning axe, Chaac strikes the clouds and produces thunder, Chaac corresponds to Tlaloc among the Aztecs. Like other Maya gods, Chaac is both one and manifold, four Chaacs are based in the cardinal directions and wear the directional colors. In 16th-century Yucatán, the directional Chaac of the east was called Chac Xib Chaac Red Man Chaac, contemporary Yucatec Maya farmers distinguish many more aspects of the rain and the clouds and personify them as different, hierarchically-ordered rain deities. The Chorti Maya have preserved important folklore regarding the process of rain-making, the rain deities had their human counterparts. According to a Late-Postclassic Yucatec tradition, Chac Xib Chaac was the title of a king of Chichen Itza, among the rituals for the rain deities, the Yucatec Cha-Chaac ceremony for asking for rain is a ceremonial banquet for the rain deities. It includes four boys acting and chanting as frogs, asking for rain and crops was the purpose of 16th-century rituals at the karstic wells, or cenotes, of Yucatán.
Young men and women were lowered into these wells and left to drown there, they were thrown into the wells to be drawn up again, and give oracles. The rain deity is a patron of agriculture, a well-known myth in which the Chaacs have an important role to play is about the opening of the mountain in which the maize was hidden. In Tzotzil mythology, the deity figures as the father of nubile women representing maize. In some versions of the Qeqchi myth of Sun and Moon, Chocl commits adultery with his brothers wife and is duly punished, his tears of regret give origin to the rain. Versions of this show the rain deity Chac in his war-like fury, pursuing the fleeing Sun and Moon. Chaac is usually depicted with a body showing reptilian or amphibian scales, and with a non-human head evincing fangs. In the Classic style, a shell serves as his ear ornament and he often carries shield and lightning-axe, the axe being personified by a closely related deity, god K, called Bolon Dzacab in Yucatec. The Classic Chaac sometimes shows features of the Central Mexican precursor of Tlaloc, a large part of the most important Maya book, the Dresden Codex, is dedicated to the Chaacs, their locations, and activities.
It illustrates the relationship existing between the Chaacs, the Bacabs, and the aged goddess, Ixchel. The main source on the 16th-century Yucatec Maya, Bishop Diego de Landa, combines the four Chaacs with the four Bacabs, the Bacabs were aged deities governing the subterranean sphere and its water supplies. In the Classic period, the king often impersonated the rain deity while the pictogram of the deity can accompany the kings other names
Frederick Catherwood
Frederick Catherwood was an English artist and explorer, best remembered for his meticulously detailed drawings of the ruins of the Maya civilization. He explored Mesoamerica in the mid 19th century with writer John Lloyd Stephens, in 1837, Catherwood was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Honorary member. Thus, they must have made by the native people of the area. Catherwood made visits to Greece, Turkey and Palestine and with Joseph Bonomi the Younger made drawings, during a six-week period in 1833, Catherwood was probably the first Westerner to make a detailed survey of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Catherwood developed a reputation as a topographical artist. He perfected a technique which used the camera lucida and supplied the drawings for the panoramas of Jerusalem. In 1836 he met travel writer John Lloyd Stephens in London and they read the account of the ruins of Copán published by Juan Galindo, and decided to try to visit Central America themselves and produce a more detailed and better illustrated account.
The expedition came together in 1839 and continued through the year and documenting dozens of ruins. Stephens and Catherwood are credited for the rediscovery of the Maya civilization, the expedition resulted in the book Incidents of Travel in Central America and Yucatan, published in 1841, with text by Stephens and engravings based on the drawings of Catherwood. Stephens and Catherwood returned to Yucatan to make further explorations, resulting in Incidents of Travel in Yucatan in 1843, the following year Catherwood published Views of Ancient Monuments in Central America and Yucatan, with 25 colour lithographs from watercolours he made at various ruins. This folio was published in May 1844 simultaneously in London and New York in an edition of 300, some 282 copies are known to survive, mostly held in private collections or libraries. In 1854, Frederick Catherwood was a passenger aboard the steamship Arctic, on 27 September in conditions of poor visibility, the Arctic collided with the French steamer Vesta, and sank with much loss of life, including Catherwood.
The Lost Cities of the Mayas, the Life, fox, Stephen R. Transatlantic, Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships. Cities of Stone, Stephens & Catherwood in Yucatan, 1839-1842, the Ancient Sun Kingdoms of the Americas, Maya, Inca. Von Hagen, Victor W. F. Catherwood, Architect-Explorer of Two Worlds
Concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement that hardens over time. Most concretes used are lime-based concretes such as Portland cement concrete or concretes made with other hydraulic cements, when aggregate is mixed together with dry Portland cement and water, the mixture forms a fluid slurry that is easily poured and molded into shape. The cement reacts chemically with the water and other ingredients to form a matrix that binds the materials together into a durable stone-like material that has many uses. Often, additives are included in the mixture to improve the properties of the wet mix or the finished material. Most concrete is poured with reinforcing materials embedded to provide tensile strength, famous concrete structures include the Hoover Dam, the Panama Canal, and the Roman Pantheon. The earliest large-scale users of technology were the ancient Romans. The Colosseum in Rome was built largely of concrete, and the dome of the Pantheon is the worlds largest unreinforced concrete dome.
Today, large concrete structures are made with reinforced concrete. After the Roman Empire collapsed, use of concrete became rare until the technology was redeveloped in the mid-18th century, concrete is the most widely used man-made material. The word concrete comes from the Latin word concretus, the passive participle of concrescere, from con-. Perhaps the earliest known occurrence of cement was twelve years ago. A deposit of cement was formed after an occurrence of oil shale located adjacent to a bed of limestone burned due to natural causes and these ancient deposits were investigated in the 1960s and 1970s. On a human timescale, small usages of concrete go back for thousands of years and they discovered the advantages of hydraulic lime, with some self-cementing properties, by 700 BC. They built kilns to supply mortar for the construction of houses, concrete floors. The cisterns were kept secret and were one of the reasons the Nabataea were able to thrive in the desert, some of these structures survive to this day.
In the Ancient Egyptian and Roman eras, it was re-discovered that adding volcanic ash to the mix allowed it to set underwater, the Romans knew that adding horse hair made concrete less liable to crack while it hardened, and adding blood made it more frost-resistant. Crystallization of strätlingite and the introduction of pyroclastic clays creates further fracture resistance, german archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann found concrete floors, which were made of lime and pebbles, in the royal palace of Tiryns, which dates roughly to 1400–1200 BC. Lime mortars were used in Greece and Cyprus in 800 BC, the Assyrian Jerwan Aqueduct made use of waterproof concrete
Edzna
Edzná is a Maya archaeological site in the north of the Mexican state of Campeche. The site is open to visitors, the most remarkable building at the plaza is the main temple. Built on a platform 40 m high, it provides an overview of the surroundings. Another significant building located in the plaza is a ball court, two parallel structures make up the ball court. The top rooms of the court were possibly used to store images of the gods associated with the events. Edzná was already inhabited in 400 BC, and it was abandoned c.1500 AD, during the time of occupation, a government was set up whose power was legitimized by the relationship between governors and the deities. In the Late Classic period Edzná was part of the Calakmul polity, Edzná may have been inhabited as early as 600 BC but it took until 200 AD before it developed into a major city. The word Edzná comes from House of the Itzaes, the architectural style of this site shows signs of the Puuc style, even though it is far from the Puuc Hills sites.
The decline and eventual abandonment of Edzná still remains a mystery today, the first organised excavations started in 1958. In 1986, coordinating agencies began to employ Guatemalan refugees in the excavation and this project was funded by various international organizations. Edzna travel guide from Wikivoyage Edzná Photo Essay Edzná on AmazingTemples. com
Masonry
Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar, the term masonry can refer to the units themselves. The common materials of construction are brick, building stone such as marble, granite and limestone, cast stone, concrete block, glass block. Masonry is generally a durable form of construction. However, the used, the quality of the mortar and workmanship. A person who constructs masonry is called a mason or bricklayer, Masonry is commonly used for walls and buildings. Brick and concrete block are the most common types of masonry in use in industrialized nations, Concrete blocks, especially those with hollow cores, offer various possibilities in masonry construction. They generally provide great strength, and are best suited to structures with light transverse loading when the cores remain unfilled. Filling some or all of the cores with concrete or concrete with steel reinforcement offers much greater tensile, the use of material such as bricks and stones can increase the thermal mass of a building and can protect the building from fire.
Masonry walls are resistant to projectiles, such as debris from hurricanes or tornadoes. Extreme weather, under circumstances, can cause degradation of masonry due to expansion. Masonry tends to be heavy and must be built upon a foundation, such as reinforced concrete. Other than concrete, masonry construction does not lend well to mechanization. Masonry consists of components and has a low tolerance to oscillation as compared to other materials such as reinforced concrete, wood. Masonry has high compressive strength under vertical loads but has low tensile strength unless reinforced, the tensile strength of masonry walls can be increased by thickening the wall, or by building masonry piers at intervals. Where practical, steel reinforcements such as windposts can be added, a masonry veneer wall consists of masonry units, usually clay-based bricks, installed on one or both sides of a structurally independent wall usually constructed of wood or masonry. In this context the brick masonry is primarily decorative, not structural, the brick veneer is generally connected to the structural wall by brick ties.
There is typically an air gap between the veneer and the structural wall. Concrete blocks and cultured stones, and veneer adobe are sometimes used in a very similar veneer fashion
Hill
A hill is a landform that extends above the surrounding terrain. It often has a summit, although in areas with scarp/dip topography a hill may refer to a particular section of flat terrain without a massive summit. The distinction between a hill and a mountain is unclear and largely subjective, but a hill is considered to be less tall. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia defines hill as an upland with a height up to 200 m. Today, a mountain is usually defined in the UK and Ireland as any summit at least 2,000 feet high, some definitions include a topographical prominence requirement, typically 100 feet or 500 feet. In practice, mountains in Scotland are frequently referred to as no matter what their height, as reflected in names such as the Cuillin Hills. In Wales, the distinction is more a term of land use, for a while, the U. S. defined a mountain as being 1,000 feet or more tall. Any similar landform lower than this height was considered a hill, the United States Geological Survey, has concluded that these terms do not in fact have technical definitions in the U. S. A hillock is a small hill, other words include knoll and its variant, knowe.
Artificial hills may be referred to by a variety of names, including mound. Various names used to describe types of hill, based on appearance and these include, Drumlin – an elongated whale-shaped hill formed by glacial action. Butte – an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top. Kuppe – a rounded hill or low mountain, typical of central Europe Tor – a rock found on a hilltop, used to refer to the hill. Puy – used especially in the Auvergne, France, to describe a conical volcanic hill, pingo – a mound of earth-covered ice found in the Arctic and Antarctica. For example, Ancient Rome was built on seven hills, protecting it from invaders, in northern Europe, many ancient monuments are sited in heaps. Some of these are structures, but others appear to have hardly any significance. In Britain, many churches at the tops of hills are thought to have built on the sites of earlier pagan holy places. The National Cathedral in Washington, DC has followed this tradition and was built on the highest hill in that city, Hills provide a major advantage to an army, giving them an elevated firing position and forcing an opposing army to charge uphill to attack them
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics.
In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways.
The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, cities, monumental architecture and calendrical systems
Xlapak
Xlapak is a small Maya archaeological site in the Yucatan Peninsula of southeastern Mexico. It is located in the heart of the Puuc region, about 4 kilometres from the site of Labná. It consists of three groups in a valley of the Puuc Hills in Yucatán State, a region of karst limestone forming the only major topographical feature of the peninsula. The closest town is Oxkutzcab, about 30 kilometres to the northeast, the site dates from the Late to Terminal Classic periods and was sited in an area suitable for agriculture. Restoration at Xlapak, and other archaeological sites, was carried out in the first half of the 20th century by the Mexican Instituto de Antropologia e Historia. Further archaeological investigation was carried out in 1965 under the direction of César A. Sáenz, the site core is located in the flat valley bottom, while in the surrounding hills the remains of perishable structures have been found. The main feature of Group 1 is the Palace, which consists of nine rooms with decorated facades, another palace is located in Group 2, it is decorated with columns.
The architecture is an example of the style of the Classic or Fluorescent Puuc, in common with the nearby sites of Sayil, Kabah. Typical of this style are the highly decorated upper portions of the buildings that extend above the ceiling height, the decorations at Xlapak are well preserved and include masks of the Yucatec Maya rain god Chaac
Mesoamerican chronology
Mesoamerican chronology divides the history of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica into several periods, the Paleo-Indian, the Archaic, the Preclassic or Formative, the Classic, and the Postclassic. However, this applies to other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations as well. 3500-2000 BCE During the Archaic Era agriculture was developed in the region, Late in this era, use of pottery and loom weaving became common, and class divisions began to appear. Many of the technologies of Mesoamerica in terms of stone-grinding, drilling. 1800 BCE–200 CE During the Preclassic Era, or Formative Period, large-scale ceremonial architecture, cities, the Olmec civilization developed and flourished at such sites as La Venta and San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán. 200–1000 CE The Classic Era was dominated by numerous independent city-states in the Maya region and featured the beginnings of political unity in central Mexico, regional differences between cultures grew more manifest. The city-state of Monte Albán dominated the Valley of Oaxaca until the late Classic, highly sophisticated arts such as stuccowork, sculptural reliefs, mural painting and lapidary developed and spread during the Classic era.
In the Maya region, numerous city states such as Tikal, Copán, Uxmal, Cobá, each of these polities was generally independent, although they often formed alliances and sometimes became vassal states of each other. The main conflict during this period was between Tikal and Calakmul, who fought a series of wars over the course of more than half a millennium, each of these states declined during the Terminal Classic and were eventually abandoned. This is sometimes seen as a period of increased chaos and warfare, the Postclassic is often viewed as a period of cultural decline. However, it was a time of technological advancement in architecture, metallurgy came into use for jewelry and some tools, with new alloys and techniques being developed in a few centuries. The Postclassic was a period of rapid movement and population growth — especially in Central Mexico post-1200 —, for instance, in Yucatán, dual rulership apparently replaced the more theocratic governments of Classic times, whilst oligarchic councils operated in much of Central Mexico.
Likewise, it appears that the wealthy pochteca and military orders became more powerful than was apparently the case in Classic times and this afforded some Mesoamericans a degree of social mobility. The Toltec for a time dominated central Mexico in the 11th–13th century, the northern Maya were for a time united under Mayapan, and Oaxaca was briefly united by Mixtec rulers in the 11th–12th centuries. The Aztec Empire arose in the early 15th century and appeared to be on a path to asserting dominance over the Valley of Mexico region not seen since Teotihuacan. Spain was the first European power to contact Mesoamerica and its conquistadores, by the 15th century, the Mayan revival in Yucatán and southern Guatemala and the flourishing of Aztec imperialism evidently enabled a renaissance of fine arts and science. Examples include the Pueblan-Mexica style in pottery, codex illumination, and goldwork, the flourishing of Nahua poetry, the Post-Classic continued until the conquest of the last independent native state of Mesoamerica, Tayasal, in 1697.
Mesoamerican civilization was a network of different cultures
Facade
A façade is generally one exterior side of a building, but not always, the front. It is a loan word from the French façade, which means frontage or face. In architecture, the façade of a building is often the most important aspect from a design standpoint, from the engineering perspective of a building, the façade is of great importance due to its impact on energy efficiency. For historical façades, many local zoning regulations or other laws restrict or even forbid their alteration. The word comes from the French foreign loan word façade, which in turn comes from the Italian facciata, from faccia meaning face, the earliest usage recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is 1656. It was quite common in the Georgian period for existing houses in English towns to be given a fashionable new façade, in modern highrise building, the exterior walls are often suspended from the concrete floor slabs. Examples include curtain walls and precast concrete walls, the façade can at times be required to have a fire-resistance rating, for instance, if two buildings are very close together, to lower the likelihood of fire spreading from one building to another.
In general, the systems that are suspended or attached to the precast concrete slabs will be made from aluminium or stainless steel. In recent years more lavish materials such as titanium have sometimes been used, whether rated or not, fire protection is always a design consideration. The melting point of aluminium,660 °C, is reached within minutes of the start of a fire. Firestops for such building joints can be qualified, putting fire sprinkler systems on each floor has a profoundly positive effect on the fire safety of buildings with curtain walls. Some building codes limit the percentage of area in exterior walls. When the exterior wall is not rated, the slab edge becomes a junction where rated slabs are abutting an unrated wall. For rated walls, one may choose rated windows and fire doors, on a film set and within most themed attractions, many of the buildings are only façades, which are far cheaper than actual buildings, and not subject to building codes. In film sets, they are held up with supports from behind.
Within theme parks, they are usually decoration for the interior ride/attraction/restaurant, by Ulrich Knaack, Tillmann Klein, Marcel Bilow and Thomas Auer. ISBN 978-3-7643-7961-2 ISBN 978-3-7643-7962-9 Giving buildings an illusion of grandeur Poole, the article outlines the development of the façade in ecclesiastical architecture from the early Christian period to the Renaissance
Mesoamerican architecture
The distinctive features of Mesoamerican architecture encompass a number of different regional and historical styles, which however are significantly interrelated. Mesoamerican architecture is noted for its pyramids which are the largest such structures. One interesting and widely researched topic is the relation between cosmovision, religion and architecture in Mesoamerica, much seems to suggest that many traits of Mesoamerican architecture were governed by religious and mythological ideas. For example, the layout of most Mesoamerican cities seem to be influenced by the directions and their mythological. Another part of Mesoamerican architecture is its iconography, the monumental architecture of Mesoamerica was decorated with images of religious and cultural significance, and in many cases with writing in some of the Mesoamerican writing systems. Iconographic decorations and texts on buildings are important contributors to the current knowledge of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican society, history.
An important part of the Mesoamerican religious system was replicating their beliefs in concrete tangible forms, the underworld was represented by the direction north and many structures and buildings related to the underworld, such as tombs, are often found in the citys northern half. Mesoamerican architecture is designed to align to specific celestial events. Pyramids and other structures were designed to achieve special lighting effects on the equinoxes or on other days important in the Mesoamerican cosmovision. A famous example is the El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza, much Mesoamerican architecture is aligned to roughly 15° east of north. Vincent H Malmstrom has argued that this is because of a wish to align the pyramids to face the sunset on August 13. Often the most important religious temples sat atop the towering pyramids, while recent discoveries point toward the extensive use of pyramids as tombs, the temples themselves seem to rarely, if ever, contain burials. Residing atop the pyramids, some of over two-hundred feet, such as that at El Mirador, commonly topped with a roof comb, or superficial grandiose wall, these temples might have served as a type of propaganda.
All but the earliest ball courts are masonry structures, the vertical faces, such as those at Chichen Itza and El Tajin, are often covered with complex iconography and scenes of human sacrifice. Although the alleys in early ball courts were open-ended, ball courts had enclosed end-zones, the playing alley may be at ground level, or the ball court may be sunken. Ball courts were no mean feats of engineering, one of the sandstone stones on El Tajins South Ball court is 11 m long and weighs more than 10 tons. Large and often decorated, the palaces usually sat close to the center of a city. Any exceedingly large royal palace, or one consisting of many chambers on different levels might be referred to as an acropolis, archaeologists seem to agree that many palaces are home to various tombs
