1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Gulf of Mexico
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The Gulf of Mexico is an ocean basin largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States, on the southwest and south by Mexico, and on the southeast by Cuba. The U. S. states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas border the Gulf on the north, Atlantic and Pacific coasts, or sometimes the south coast, in juxtaposition to the Great Lakes region being the north coast. One of the seven main areas is the Gulf of Mexico basin. The Gulf of Mexico formed approximately 300 million years ago as a result of plate tectonics, the Gulfs basin is roughly oval and is approximately 810 nautical miles wide and floored by sedimentary rocks and recent sediments. It is connected to part of the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Straits between the U. S. and Cuba, and with the Caribbean Sea via the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, with the narrow connection to the Atlantic, the Gulf experiences very small tidal ranges. The size of the Gulf basin is approximately 1.6 million km2, almost half of the basin is shallow continental shelf waters. The basin contains a volume of roughly 2,500 quadrillion liters, the consensus among geologists who have studied the geology of the Gulf of Mexico, is that prior to the Late Triassic, the Gulf of Mexico did not exist. It was created by the collision of plates that formed Pangea. As interpreted by Roy Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox, geologists and other Earth scientists agree in general that the present Gulf of Mexico basin originated in Late Triassic time as the result of rifting within Pangea. The rifting was associated with zones of weakness within Pangea, including sutures where the Laurentia, South American, first, there was a Late Triassic-Early Jurassic phase of rifting during which rift valleys formed and filled with continental red beds. Second, as rifting progressed through Early and Middle Jurassic time and it was at this time that tectonics first created a connection to the Pacific Ocean across central Mexico and later eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. This flooded the basin created by rifting and crustal thinning to create the Gulf of Mexico. While the Gulf of Mexico was a basin, the subsiding transitional crust was blanketed by the widespread deposition of Louann Salt. Initially, during the Late Jurassic, continued rifting widened the Gulf of Mexico and progressed to the point that sea-floor spreading, at this point, sufficient circulation with the Atlantic Ocean was established that the deposition of Louann Salt ceased. During the Late Jurassic through Early Cretaceous, the occupied by the Gulf of Mexico experienced a period of cooling. The subsidence was the result of a combination of stretching, cooling. Initially, the combination of stretching and cooling caused about 5–7 km of tectonic subsidence of the central thin transitional
3.
Spanish language
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Spanish —also called Castilian —is a Romance language that originated in the Castile region of Spain, with hundreds of millions of native speakers around the world. It is usually considered the worlds second-most spoken native language after Mandarin Chinese and it is one of the few languages to use inverted question and exclamation marks. Spanish is a part of the Ibero-Romance group of languages, which evolved from several dialects of Vulgar Latin in Iberia after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century. Beginning in the early 16th century, Spanish was taken to the colonies of the Spanish Empire, most notably to the Americas, as well as territories in Africa, Oceania, around 75% of modern Spanish is derived from Latin. Greek has also contributed substantially to Spanish vocabulary, especially through Latin, Spanish vocabulary has been in contact from an early date with Arabic, having developed during the Al-Andalus era in the Iberian Peninsula. With around 8% of its vocabulary being Arabic in origin, this language is the second most important influence after Latin and it has also been influenced by Basque as well as by neighboring Ibero-Romance languages. It also adopted words from languages such as Gothic language from the Visigoths in which many Spanish names and surnames have a Visigothic origin. Spanish is one of the six languages of the United Nations. It is the language in the world by the number of people who speak it as a mother tongue, after Mandarin Chinese. It is estimated more than 437 million people speak Spanish as a native language. Spanish is the official or national language in Spain, Equatorial Guinea, speakers in the Americas total some 418 million. In the European Union, Spanish is the tongue of 8% of the population. Spanish is the most popular second language learned in the United States, in 2011 it was estimated by the American Community Survey that of the 55 million Hispanic United States residents who are five years of age and over,38 million speak Spanish at home. The Spanish Constitution of 1978 uses the term castellano to define the language of the whole Spanish State in contrast to las demás lenguas españolas. Article III reads as follows, El castellano es la lengua española oficial del Estado, las demás lenguas españolas serán también oficiales en las respectivas Comunidades Autónomas. Castilian is the official Spanish language of the State, the other Spanish languages as well shall be official in their respective Autonomous Communities. The Spanish Royal Academy, on the hand, currently uses the term español in its publications. Two etymologies for español have been suggested, the Spanish Royal Academy Dictionary derives the term from the Provençal word espaignol, and that in turn from the Medieval Latin word Hispaniolus, from—or pertaining to—Hispania
4.
Mexico
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Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a federal republic in the southern half of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States, to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean, to the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea, and to the east by the Gulf of Mexico. Covering almost two million square kilometers, Mexico is the sixth largest country in the Americas by total area, Mexico is a federation comprising 31 states and a federal district that is also its capital and most populous city. Other metropolises include Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla, Toluca, Tijuana, pre-Columbian Mexico was home to many advanced Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Olmec, Toltec, Teotihuacan, Zapotec, Maya and Aztec before first contact with Europeans. In 1521, the Spanish Empire conquered and colonized the territory from its base in Mexico-Tenochtitlan, Three centuries later, this territory became Mexico following recognition in 1821 after the colonys Mexican War of Independence. The tumultuous post-independence period was characterized by instability and many political changes. The Mexican–American War led to the cession of the extensive northern borderlands, one-third of its territory. The Pastry War, the Franco-Mexican War, a civil war, the dictatorship was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution of 1910, which culminated with the promulgation of the 1917 Constitution and the emergence of the countrys current political system. Mexico has the fifteenth largest nominal GDP and the eleventh largest by purchasing power parity, the Mexican economy is strongly linked to those of its North American Free Trade Agreement partners, especially the United States. Mexico was the first Latin American member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and it is classified as an upper-middle income country by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country by several analysts. By 2050, Mexico could become the fifth or seventh largest economy. The country is considered both a power and middle power, and is often identified as an emerging global power. Due to its culture and history, Mexico ranks first in the Americas. Mexico is a country, ranking fourth in the world by biodiversity. In 2015 it was the 9th most visited country in the world, Mexico is a member of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G8+5, the G20, the Uniting for Consensus and the Pacific Alliance. Mēxihco is the Nahuatl term for the heartland of the Aztec Empire, namely, the Valley of Mexico, and its people, the Mexica and this became the future State of Mexico as a division of New Spain prior to independence. It is generally considered to be a toponym for the valley became the primary ethnonym for the Aztec Triple Alliance as a result. After New Spain won independence from Spain, representatives decided to name the new country after its capital and this was founded in 1524 on top of the ancient Mexica capital of Mexico-Tenochtitlan
5.
Caribbean Sea
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The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere. The entire area of the Caribbean Sea, the islands of the West Indies. The Caribbean Sea is one of the largest seas and has an area of about 2,754,000 km2, the seas deepest point is the Cayman Trough, between the Cayman Islands and Jamaica, at 7,686 m below sea level. The Caribbean coastline has many gulfs and bays, the Gulf of Gonâve, Gulf of Venezuela, Gulf of Darién, Golfo de los Mosquitos, Gulf of Paria, the Caribbean Sea has the worlds second biggest barrier reef, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef. It runs 1,000 km along the coasts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, the name Caribbean derives from the Caribs, one of the regions dominant Native American groups at the time of European contact during the late 15th century. During the first century of development, Spanish dominance in the region remained undisputed, from the 16th century, Europeans visiting the Caribbean region identified the South Sea as opposed to the North Sea. The Caribbean Sea had been unknown to the populations of Eurasia until 1492, at that time the Western Hemisphere in general was unknown to Europeans. Following the discovery of the islands by Columbus, the area was colonised by several Western cultures. As of 2015 the area is home to 22 island territories, the International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Caribbean Sea as follows, On the North. In the Windward Channel – a line joining Caleta Point and Pearl Point in Haïti, in the Mona Passage – a line joining Cape Engano and the extreme of Agujereada in Puerto Rico. From Galera Point through Trinidad to Galeota Point and thence to Baja Point in Venezuela, note that, although Barbados is an island on the same continental shelf, it is considered to be in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean Sea. The Caribbean Sea is an oceanic sea largely situated on the Caribbean Plate, the Caribbean Sea is separated from the ocean by several island arcs of various ages. The youngest stretches from the Lesser Antilles to the Virgin Islands to the north east of Trinidad, the larger islands in the northern part of the sea Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico lie on an older island arc. The geological age of the Caribbean Sea is estimated to be between 160 and 180 million years and was formed by a fracture that split the supercontinent called Pangea in the Mesozoic Era. It is assumed the proto-caribbean basin existed in the Devonian period, in the early Carboniferous movement of Gondwana to the north and its convergence with the Euramerica basin decreased in size. The next stage of the Caribbean Seas formation began in the Triassic, powerful rifting led to the formation of narrow troughs, stretching from modern Newfoundland to the west coast of the Gulf of Mexico which formed siliciclastic sedimentary rocks. In the early Jurassic due to powerful marine transgression, water broke into the present area of the Gulf of Mexico creating a vast shallow pool, the emergence of deep basins in the Caribbean occurred during the Middle Jurassic rifting. The emergence of these marked the beginning of the Atlantic Ocean
6.
Peninsula
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A peninsula is a piece of land surrounded by water on the majority of its border, while being connected to a mainland from which it extends out. Examples include the upper and lower peninsulas of the state of Michigan, the surrounding water is usually understood to be continuous, though not necessarily named as a single body of water. Peninsulas are not always named as such, one can also be a headland, cape, island promontory, bill, point, a point is generally considered a tapering piece of land projecting into a body of water that is less prominent than a cape. A river which courses through a very tight meander is also said to form a peninsula within the loop of water. In English, the plural of peninsula is peninsulas or, less commonly, peninsulas can be found on coastlines and in smaller bodies of water throughout the world, ranging in scale from square meters to millions of square kilometers. Theres the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe, and in Southern Europe theres the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian Peninsula, south America has the Brunswick Peninsula, and Antarctica has the Antarctic Peninsula. In Africa, theres the Horn of Africa, and in Australia, asia has the 3 largest peninsulas in the world, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Peninsula, and the Indochinese Peninsula
7.
Isthmus of Tehuantepec
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The Isthmus of Tehuantepec is an isthmus in Mexico. It represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean, prior to the opening of the Panama Canal, it was a major shipping route known simply as the Tehuantepec Route. The name is taken from the town of Santo Domingo Tehuantepec in the state of Oaxaca, the isthmus includes the part of Mexico lying between the 94th and 96th meridians west longitude, or the southeastern parts of Veracruz and Oaxaca, including small areas of Chiapas and Tabasco. The states of Tabasco and Chiapas are east of the isthmus, with Veracruz, at its narrowest point, the isthmus is 200 km across from gulf to gulf, or 192 km to the head of Laguna Superior on the Pacific coast. The Sierra Madre breaks down at this point into a broad, plateau-like ridge, whose elevation, the northern side of the isthmus is swampy and densely covered with jungle, which has been a greater obstacle to railway construction than the grades in crossing the sierra. The whole region is hot and malarial, except for the open elevations, the annual rainfall on the Atlantic or northern slope is 3,960 mm and the maximum temperature about 35 degrees Celsius in the shade. The Pacific slope has a light rainfall and dryer climate, the narrowness of the isthmus, and the gap in the Sierra Madre, allow the trade winds from the Gulf of Mexico to blow through to the Pacific. This wind is known as the Tehuano, the region has one of the best wind resources in Mexico, with several wind farms. The population is composed almost wholly of indigenous Zapotec peoples, the women are the traders in Tehuantepec and do little menial work. The cuisine of the region is based upon traditional foods and ingredients, dishes may range from simple to elaborate, most dishes incorporate maize and moles. Common items include tamales made with iguana, chicken, beef or armadillo, guetabingui, Garnachas topped with dried queso Oaxaca, and pozol, a maize-based soup. Since the days of Hernán Cortés, the Tehuantepec isthmus has been considered a favorable route, first for an interoceanic canal and its proximity to the axis of international trade gives it some advantage over the Panama route. The Isthmus of Panama, however, is narrower, making for a shorter traversal. The 1853 Gadsden Purchase treaty included a provision allowing the U. S. to transport mail and trade goods across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec via a plank road and railroad. The 1859 McLane-Ocampo Treaty, which Benito Juárez signed but was never ratified by the United States Congress, when the great cost of a canal across the isthmus compelled engineers and capitalists to give it up as impracticable, James B. Eads proposed to construct a quadruple track ship-railway, and the scheme received serious attention for some time, then came projects for an ordinary railway, and several concessions were granted by the Mexican government for this purpose from 1857 to 1882. In the latter year the Mexican government resolved to undertake the construction on its own account. In 1888 this contract was rescinded, after 108 km of road had been completed, the next contract was fruitless because of the death of the contractor, and the third failed to complete the work within the sum specified
8.
Geography
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Geography is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, the features, the inhabitants, and the phenomena of Earth. The first person to use the word γεωγραφία was Eratosthenes, Geography is an all-encompassing discipline that seeks an understanding of the Earth and its human and natural complexities—not merely where objects are, but how they have changed and come to be. It is often defined in terms of the two branches of geography and physical geography. Geography has been called the world discipline and the bridge between the human and the physical sciences, Geography is a systematic study of the Earth and its features. Traditionally, geography has been associated with cartography and place names, although many geographers are trained in toponymy and cartology, this is not their main preoccupation. Geographers study the space and the temporal database distribution of phenomena, processes, because space and place affect a variety of topics, such as economics, health, climate, plants and animals, geography is highly interdisciplinary. The interdisciplinary nature of the approach depends on an attentiveness to the relationship between physical and human phenomena and its spatial patterns. Names of places. are not geography. know by heart a whole gazetteer full of them would not, in itself and this is a description of the world—that is Geography. In a word Geography is a Science—a thing not of mere names but of argument and reason, of cause, just as all phenomena exist in time and thus have a history, they also exist in space and have a geography. Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main fields, human geography and physical geography. The former largely focuses on the environment and how humans create, view, manage. The latter examines the environment, and how organisms, climate, soil, water. The difference between these led to a third field, environmental geography, which combines physical and human geography. Physical geography focuses on geography as an Earth science and it aims to understand the physical problems and the issues of lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, pedosphere, and global flora and fauna patterns. Physical geography can be divided into broad categories, including, Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns. It encompasses the human, political, cultural, social, and it requires an understanding of the traditional aspects of physical and human geography, as well as the ways that human societies conceptualize the environment. Integrated geography has emerged as a bridge between the human and the geography, as a result of the increasing specialisation of the two sub-fields. Examples of areas of research in the environmental geography include, emergency management, environmental management, sustainability, geomatics is concerned with the application of computers to the traditional spatial techniques used in cartography and topography
9.
Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The combined population of Central America is between 41,739,000 and 42,688,190, Central America is a part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently, these disasters have resulted in the loss of many lives. In the Pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west. Soon after Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish began to colonize the Americas, the seven states finally became independent autonomous states, beginning with Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, followed by El Salvador, then Panama, and finally Belize. Middle America is usually thought to comprise Mexico to the north of the 7 states of Central America as well as Colombia, usually the whole of the Caribbean to the north-east and sometimes the Guyanas are also included. According to one source, the term Central America was used as a synonym for Middle America as recently as 1962, in Brazil, Central America comprises all countries between Mexico and Colombia, including those in the Caribbean. Mexico, in whole or in part, is included by British people. For the people living in the 5 countries formerly part of the Federal Republic of Central America there is a distinction between the Spanish language terms América Central and Centroamérica, in the Pre-Columbian era, the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Most notable among these were the Mayans, who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the Aztecs, following Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish sent many expeditions to the region, and they began their conquest of Maya territory in 1523. Soon after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado commenced the conquest of northern Central America for the Spanish Empire. Beginning with his arrival in Soconusco in 1523, Alvarados forces systematically conquered and subjugated most of the major Maya kingdoms, including the Kiche, Tzutujil, Pipil, and the Kaqchikel. By 1528, the conquest of Guatemala was nearly complete, with only the Petén Basin remaining outside the Spanish sphere of influence, the last independent Maya kingdoms – the Kowoj and the Itza people – were finally defeated in 1697, as part of the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1538, Spain established the Real Audiencia of Panama, which had jurisdiction over all land from the Strait of Magellan to the Gulf of Fonseca. This entity was dissolved in 1543, and most of the territory within Central America then fell under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia Real de Guatemala. This area included the current territories of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, the president of the Audiencia, which had its seat in Antigua Guatemala, was the governor of the entire area
10.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
11.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
12.
Nahuatl
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Nahuatl, known historically as Aztec, is a language or group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by an estimated 1.5 million Nahua peoples, all Nahuan languages are indigenous to Mesoamerica. Nahuatl has been spoken in central Mexico since at least the seventh century CE and it was the language of the Aztecs who dominated what is now central Mexico during the Late Postclassic period of Mesoamerican history. This early literary language based on the Tenochtitlan variety has been labeled Classical Nahuatl, today, Nahuan languages are spoken in scattered communities, mostly in rural areas throughout central Mexico and along the coastline. There are considerable differences among varieties, and some are mutually unintelligible, Huasteca Nahuatl, with over one million speakers, is the most-spoken variety. They have all been subject to varying degrees of influence from Spanish, No modern Nahuan languages are identical to Classical Nahuatl, but those spoken in and around the Valley of Mexico are generally more closely related to it than those on the periphery. Nahuan languages exhibit a complex morphology characterized by polysynthesis and agglutination, through a very long period of coexistence with the other indigenous Mesoamerican languages, they have absorbed many influences, coming to form part of the Mesoamerican language area. Many words from Nahuatl have been borrowed into Spanish, and since diffused into hundreds of other languages, most of these loanwords denote things indigenous to central Mexico which the Spanish heard mentioned for the first time by their Nahuatl names. English words of Nahuatl origin include avocado, chayote, chili, chocolate, atlatl, coyote, peyote, axolotl, as a language label, the term Nahuatl encompasses a group of closely related languages or divergent dialects within the Nahuan branch of the Uto-Aztecan language family. The Mexican Instituto Nacional de Lenguas Indígenas recognize 30 different individual varieties within the language group labeled Nahuatl, the Ethnologue recognizes 28 varieties with separate ISO codes. Sometimes the label also is used to include the Pipil language of El Salvador, within Mexico the question of whether to consider individual varieties to be languages or dialects of a single language is highly political. This article focuses on describing the history of the group. For details on individual varieties or subgroups, see the individual articles, in the past, the branch of Uto-Aztecan to which Nahuatl belongs has been called Aztecan. From the 1990s onward, the alternative designation Nahuan has been used as a replacement especially in Spanish-language publications. The Nahuan branch of Uto-Aztecan is widely accepted as having two divisions, General Aztec and Pochutec, General Aztec encompasses the Nahuatl and Pipil languages. Pochutec is a scantily attested language, which became extinct in the 20th century, other researchers have argued that Pochutec should be considered a divergent variant of the western periphery. Nahuatl denotes at least Classical Nahuatl together with related languages spoken in Mexico. The inclusion of Pipil into the group is debated, current subclassification of Nahuatl rests on research by Canger, Canger and Lastra de Suárez
13.
Chicxulub crater
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The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is located near the town of Chicxulub, after which the crater is named and it was formed by a large asteroid or comet about 10 kilometres in diameter, the Chicxulub impactor, striking the Earth. The crater is more than 180 kilometers in diameter and 20 km in depth and it makes the feature the third of the largest confirmed impact structures on Earth. The crater was discovered by Antonio Camargo and Glen Penfield, geophysicists who had been looking for petroleum in the Yucatán during the late 1970s, Penfield was initially unable to obtain evidence that the geological feature was a crater and gave up his search. Later, through contact with Alan Hildebrand in 1990, Penfield obtained samples that suggested it was an impact feature, evidence for the impact origin of the crater includes shocked quartz, a gravity anomaly, and tektites in surrounding areas. Penfields job was to use data to scout possible locations for oil drilling. In the data, Penfield found a huge underwater arc with extraordinary symmetry in a ring 70 km across and he then obtained a gravity map of the Yucatán made in the 1960s. A decade earlier, the same map suggested a feature to contractor Robert Baltosser. Penfield found another arc on the peninsula itself, the ends of which pointed northward, Pemex disallowed release of specific data but let Penfield and company official Antonio Camargo present their results at the 1981 Society of Exploration Geophysicists conference. That years conference was underattended and their report attracted scant attention, coincidentally, many experts in impact craters and the K–Pg boundary were attending a separate conference on Earth impacts. Although Penfield had plenty of data sets, he had no rock cores or other physical evidence of an impact. He knew Pemex had drilled exploratory wells in the region, in 1951, one bored into what was described as a thick layer of andesite about 1.3 kilometres down. This layer could have resulted from the heat and pressure of an Earth impact. Penfield tried to secure site samples, but was told such samples had been lost or destroyed, when attempts at returning to the drill sites and looking for rocks proved fruitless, Penfield abandoned his search, published his findings and returned to his Pemex work. At the same time, in 1980, geologist Walter Alvarez and his father, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Luis Walter Alvarez and their evidence included greenish-brown clay with surplus iridium containing shocked quartz grains and small weathered glass beads that looked to be tektites. Thick, jumbled deposits of rock fragments were also present, thought to have been scoured from one place. Such deposits occur in locations but seem concentrated in the Caribbean basin at the K–Pg boundary. So when Haitian professor Florentine Morás discovered what he thought to be evidence of an ancient volcano on Haiti, tests on samples retrieved from the K–Pg boundary revealed more tektite glass, formed only in the heat of asteroid impacts and high-yield nuclear detonations
14.
Cretaceous
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The Cretaceous is a geologic period and system that spans 79 million years from the end of the Jurassic Period 145 million years ago to the beginning of the Paleogene Period 66 Mya. It is the last period of the Mesozoic Era, the Cretaceous Period is usually abbreviated K, for its German translation Kreide. The Cretaceous was a period with a warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites and rudists, during this time, new groups of mammals and birds, as well as flowering plants, appeared. The Cretaceous ended with a mass extinction, the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs. The end of the Cretaceous is defined by the abrupt Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary, the name Cretaceous was derived from Latin creta, meaning chalk. The Cretaceous is divided into Early and Late Cretaceous epochs, or Lower and Upper Cretaceous series, in older literature the Cretaceous is sometimes divided into three series, Neocomian, Gallic and Senonian. A subdivision in eleven stages, all originating from European stratigraphy, is now used worldwide, in many parts of the world, alternative local subdivisions are still in use. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds of the Cretaceous are well identified. No great extinction or burst of diversity separates the Cretaceous from the Jurassic and this layer has been dated at 66.043 Ma. A140 Ma age for the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary instead of the usually accepted 145 Ma was proposed in 2014 based on a study of Vaca Muerta Formation in Neuquén Basin. Víctor Ramos, one of the authors of the study proposing the 140 Ma boundary age sees the study as a first step toward formally changing the age in the International Union of Geological Sciences, due to the high sea level there was extensive space for such sedimentation. Because of the young age and great thickness of the system. Chalk is a type characteristic for the Cretaceous. It consists of coccoliths, microscopically small calcite skeletons of coccolithophores, the group is found in England, northern France, the low countries, northern Germany, Denmark and in the subsurface of the southern part of the North Sea. Chalk is not easily consolidated and the Chalk Group still consists of sediments in many places. The group also has other limestones and arenites, among the fossils it contains are sea urchins, belemnites, ammonites and sea reptiles such as Mosasaurus. In southern Europe, the Cretaceous is usually a marine system consisting of competent limestone beds or incompetent marls
15.
Maya civilization
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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, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also 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 also 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, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems
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Guatemala
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With an estimated population of around 15.8 million, it is the most populated state in Central America. Guatemala is a democracy, its capital and largest city is Nueva Guatemala de la Asunción. The territory of modern Guatemala once formed the core of the Maya civilization, most of the country was conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century, becoming part of the viceroyalty of New Spain. Guatemala attained independence in 1821 as part of the Federal Republic of Central America, from the mid to late 19th century, Guatemala experienced chronic instability and civil strife. Beginning in the early 20th century, it was ruled by a series of dictators backed by the United Fruit Company, in 1944, authoritarian leader Jorge Ubico was overthrown by a pro-democratic military coup, initiating a decade-long revolution that led to sweeping social and economic reforms. A U. S. -backed military coup in 1954 ended the revolution, from 1960 to 1996, Guatemala endured a bloody civil war fought between the US-backed government and leftist rebels, including genocidal massacres of the Maya population perpetrated by the military. As of 2014, Guatemala ranks 31st of 33 Latin American and Caribbean countries in terms of the Human Development Index, Guatemalas abundance of biologically significant and unique ecosystems includes a large number of endemic species and contributes to Mesoamericas designation as a biodiversity hotspot. The country is known for its rich and distinct culture. The name Guatemala comes from the Nahuatl word Cuauhtēmallān, or place of many trees and this was the name the Tlaxcaltecan soldiers who accompanied Pedro de Alvarado during the Spanish Conquest gave to this territory. The first evidence of habitation in Guatemala dates back to 12,000 BC. Evidence, such as obsidian arrowheads found in parts of the country. There is archaeological proof that early Guatemalan settlers were hunters and gatherers, pollen samples from Petén and the Pacific coast indicate that maize cultivation had been developed by 3500 BC. Sites dating back to 6500 BC have been found in the Quiché region in the Highlands, archaeologists divide the pre-Columbian history of Mesoamerica into the Preclassic period, the Classic period, and the Postclassic period. Until recently, the Preclassic was regarded as a period, with small villages of farmers who lived in huts. This period is characterized by urbanisation, the emergence of independent city-states and this lasted until approximately 900 AD, when the Classic Maya civilization collapsed. The Maya abandoned many of the cities of the lowlands or were killed off by a drought-induced famine. The cause of the collapse is debated, but the Drought Theory is gaining currency, supported by such as lakebeds, ancient pollen. A series of prolonged droughts, among other such as overpopulation, in what is otherwise a seasonal desert is thought to have decimated the Maya
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Honduras
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Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a republic in Central America. It has at times referred to as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras. Honduras was home to several important Mesoamerican cultures, most notably the Maya, the Spanish introduced Roman Catholicism and the now predominant Spanish language, along with numerous customs that have blended with the indigenous culture. Honduras has the worlds highest murder rate, Honduras spans about 112,492 km2 and has a population exceeding 8 million. Its northern portions are part of the Western Caribbean Zone, as reflected in the areas demographics and culture. Honduras is known for its natural resources, including minerals, coffee, tropical fruit, and sugar cane, as well as for its growing textiles industry. Honduras literally means depths in Spanish, the name could either refer to the bay of Trujillo as an anchorage, fondura in the Leonese dialect of Spanish, or to Columbuss alleged quote that Gracias a Dios que hemos salido de esas Honduras. It was not until the end of the 16th century that Honduras was used for the whole province, prior to 1580, Honduras only referred to the eastern part of the province, and Higueras referred to the western part. Another early name is Guaymuras, revived as the name for the dialogue in 2009 that took place in Honduras as opposed to Costa Rica. In pre-Columbian times, modern Honduras was part of the Mesoamerican cultural area, in the west, the Maya civilization flourished for hundreds of years. The dominant state within Hondurass borders was in Copán, Copán fell with the other Lowland centres during the conflagrations of the Terminal Classic in the 9th century. The Maya of this civilization survive in western Honduras as the Chorti, remains of other Pre-Columbian cultures are found throughout the country. On 30 July 1502 Columbus sent his brother Bartholomew to explore the islands and Bartholomew encountered a Mayan trading vessel from Yucatán, carrying well-dressed Maya and a rich cargo. Bartholomews men stole whatever cargo they wanted and kidnapped the elderly captain to serve as an interpreter in what was the first recorded encounter between the Spanish and the Maya. In March 1524, Gil González Dávila became the first Spaniard to enter Honduras as a conquistador, followed by Hernán Cortés, bringing forces down from Mexico. Much of the conquest was done in the two decades, first by groups loyal to Cristóbal de Olid, and then by those loyal of Francisco Montejo. In addition to Spanish resources, the conquerors relied heavily on armed forces from Mexico—Tlaxcalans, resistance to conquest was led in particular by Lempira, and many regions in the north never fell to the Spanish, notably the Miskito Kingdom. After the Spanish conquest, Honduras became part of Spains vast empire in the New World within the Kingdom of Guatemala, Trujillo and Gracias were the first city-capitals
18.
Chiapas
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Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 122 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutiérrez, other important population centers in Chiapas include Ocosingo, Tapachula, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Comitán and Arriaga. Chiapas has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the south, in general, Chiapas has a humid, tropical climate. In the north, in the area bordering Tabasco, near Teapa, in the past, natural vegetation at this region was lowland, tall perennial rainforest, but this vegetation has been destroyed almost completely to give way to agriculture and ranching. Rainfall decreases moving towards the Pacific Ocean, but it is abundant enough to allow the farming of bananas. Chiapas is home to the ancient Mayan ruins of Palenque, Yaxchilán, Bonampak and it is also home to one of the largest indigenous populations in the country with twelve federally recognized ethnicities. Much of the history is centered on the subjugation of these peoples with occasional rebellions. The last of these rebellions was the 1994 Zapatista uprising, which succeeded in obtaining new rights for indigenous people, the official name of the state is Chiapas. The name derives from Chiapan or Tepechiapan, the name of an indigenous population, the term, from Nahuatl, may mean sage seed hill or water below the hill. After the Spanish arrived, they established two cities called Chiapas de los Indios and Chiapas de los Españoles, with the name of Provincia de Chiapas for the area around the cities, the first coat of arms of the region dates from 1535 as that of the Ciudad Real. Chiapas painter Javier Vargas Ballinas designed the coat of arms. Hunter gatherers began to occupy the valley of the state around 7000 BCE. The oldest archaeological remains in the seat are located at the Santa Elena Ranch in Ocozocoautla whose finds include tools, in the pre Classic period from 1800 BCE to 300 CE, agricultural villages appeared all over the state although hunter gather groups would persist for long after the era. There is speculation that these were the forefathers of the Olmec, migrating across the Grijalva Valley and onto the plain of the Gulf of Mexico to the north. One of these peoples ancient cities is now the site of Chiapa de Corzo. This is three hundred years before the Mayans developed their calendar, the descendants of Mokaya are the Mixe-Zoque. During the pre Classic era, it is known that most of Chiapas was not Olmec, olmec-influenced sculpture can be found in Chiapas and products from the state including amber, magnetite, and ilmenite were exported to Olmec lands. The Olmecs came to what is now the northwest of the looking for amber with one of the main evidences for this called the Simojovel Ax
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Chichen Itza
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Chichen Itza was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya people of the Terminal Classic period. The archaeological site is located in Tinúm Municipality, Yucatán State, Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Late Classic through the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of styles, reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc. Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities and it was likely to have one of the mythical great cities, or Tollans. The city may have had the most diverse population in the Maya world, the ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and the sites stewardship is maintained by Mexicos Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. The land under the monuments had been privately owned until 29 March 2010, Chichen Itza is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico, an estimated 1.4 million tourists visit the ruins every year. The Maya name Chichen Itza means At the mouth of the well of the Itza and this derives from chi, meaning mouth or edge, and chen or cheen, meaning well. Itzá is the name of an group that gained political. One possible translation for Itza is enchanter of the water, from its, sorcerer, the name is spelled Chichén Itzá in Spanish, and the accents are sometimes maintained in other languages to show that both parts of the name are stressed on their final syllable. Other references prefer the Maya orthography, Chichen Itza and this form preserves the phonemic distinction between ch and ch, since the base word cheen begins with a postalveolar ejective affricate consonant. The word Itza has a high tone on the a followed by a glottal stop, evidence in the Chilam Balam books indicates another, earlier name for this city prior to the arrival of the Itza hegemony in northern Yucatán. While most sources agree the first word means seven, there is debate as to the correct translation of the rest. This earlier name is difficult to define because of the absence of a standard of orthography. This name, dating to the Late Classic Period, is recorded both in the book of Chilam Balam de Chumayel and in texts in the ruins. Chichen Itza is located in the portion of Yucatán state in Mexico. The northern Yucatán Peninsula is arid, and the rivers in the interior all run underground, there are two large, natural sink holes, called cenotes, that could have provided plentiful water year round at Chichen, making it attractive for settlement. Of the two cenotes, the Cenote Sagrado or Sacred Cenote, is the most famous, according to post-Conquest sources, pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac. Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910, a study of human remains taken from the Cenote Sagrado found that they had wounds consistent with human sacrifice
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Tulum
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Tulum is the site of a pre-Columbian Mayan walled city serving as a major port for Cobá. The ruins are situated on 12-meter tall cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have resulted in high fatalities, disrupting the society. One of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites, Tulum is today a popular site for tourists and this Maya site may formerly have been known by the name Zama, meaning City of Dawn, because it faces the sunrise. Tulum stands on a bluff facing east toward the Caribbean Sea, tulúm is also the Yucatan Mayan word for fence, wall or trench. The walls surrounding the site allowed the Tulum fort to be defended against invasions, Tulum had access to both land and sea trade routes, making it an important trade hub, especially for obsidian. From numerous depictions in murals and other works around the site, Tulum had an estimated population of 1,000 to 1,600 inhabitants. Tulum was first mentioned by Juan Díaz, a member of Juan de Grijalvas Spanish expedition of 1518, the first detailed description of the ruins was published by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in 1843 in the book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. As they arrived from the sea, Stephens and Catherwood first saw a building that impressed them greatly. They made accurate maps of the walls, and Catherwood made sketches of the Castillo. Stephens and Catherwood also reported an early classic stele at the site and this has been interpreted as meaning that the stele was likely built elsewhere and brought to Tulum to be reused. Work conducted at Tulum continued with that of Sylvanus Morley and George P. Howe and they worked to restore and open the public beaches. Through these later investigations done by Sanders and Miller, it has determined that Tulum was occupied during the late Postclassic period around AD1200. The site continued to be occupied until contact with the Spanish was made in the early 16th century, by the end of the 16th century, the site was abandoned completely. Tulum has architecture typical of Maya sites on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula and this architecture is recognized by a step running around the base of the building which sits on a low substructure. Doorways of this type are usually narrow with columns used as if the building is big enough. As the walls flare out there are two sets of molding near the top. The room usually contains one or two windows with an altar at the back wall, roofed by either a beam-and-rubble ceiling or being vaulted
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Uxmal
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Uxmal is an ancient Maya city of the classical period in present-day Mexico. It is considered one of the most important archaeological sites of Maya culture, along with Palenque, Chichén, and Calakmul in Mexico, Caracol and Xunantunich in Belize, and Tikal in Guatemala. It is located in the Puuc region and is considered one of the Maya cities most representative of the dominant architectural style. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its significance and it is located 62 km south of Mérida, capital of Yucatán state in Mexico. Its buildings are noted for their size and decoration and its buildings are typical of the Puuc style, with smooth low walls that open on ornate friezes based on representations of typical Maya huts. These are represented by columns and trapezoidal shapes, entwined snakes and, in many cases two-headed snakes are used for masks of the rain god, Chaac, its big noses represent the rays of the storms. Feathered serpents with open fangs are shown leaving from the human beings. Also seen in cities are the influences of the Nahua. These were integrated with the elements of the Puuc tradition. The present name seems to derive from Oxmal, meaning three times built and this seems to refer to the sites antiquity and the times it had to rebuild. The etymology is disputed, another possibility is Uchmal which means what is to come, by tradition, this was supposed to be an invisible city, built in one night by the magic of the dwarf king. While much work has been done at the popular tourist destination of Uxmal to consolidate and restore buildings, little in the way of serious archeological excavation, the citys dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population is a rough guess. Most of the major construction took place while Uxmal was the capital of a Late Classic Maya state around 850-925 AD. After about 1000 AD, Toltec invaders took over, and most building ceased by 1100 AD, Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 A. D. by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family and it was the most powerful site in western Yucatán, and for a while, in alliance with Chichen Itza, dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200, no new major construction seems to have made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmals ally Chichen Itza. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined, Uxmal was dominant from 875 to 900 CE. The site appears to have been the capital of a state in the Puuc region from 850-950 CE
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Indigenous peoples
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Groups are usually described as indigenous when they maintain traditions or other aspects of an early culture that is associated with a given region. Not all indigenous peoples share such characteristics, Indigenous societies are found in every inhabited climate zone and continent of the world. Estimates put the population of indigenous peoples from 220 million to 350 million. The adjective indigenous is derived from the Latin word indigena, which is based on the root gen- to be born with a form of the prefix in in. Any given people, ethnic group or community may be described as indigenous in reference to some particular region or location that they see as their tribal land claim. Other terms used to refer to indigenous populations are aboriginal, native, original, james Anaya, former Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, has defined indigenous peoples as living descendants of pre-invasion inhabitants of lands now dominated by others. They are culturally distinct groups that find themselves engulfed by other settler societies born of forces of empire, throughout history, different states designate the groups within their boundaries that are recognized as indigenous peoples according to international or national legislation by different terms. Their ability to influence and participate in the policies that may exercise jurisdiction over their traditional lands. The presence of external laws, claims and cultural mores either potentially or actually act to constrain the practices and observances of an indigenous society. These constraints can be observed even when the society is regulated largely by its own tradition. They may be imposed, or arise as unintended consequence of trans-cultural interaction. They may have an effect, even where countered by other external influences. This definition has some limitations, because the definition applies mainly to pre-colonial populations, the primary impetus in considering indigenous identity comes from the post-colonial movements and considering the historical impacts on populations by the European imperialism. Greek sources of the Classical period acknowledge the existence of indigenous people. These peoples inhabited lands surrounding the Aegean Sea before the subsequent migrations of the Hellenic ancestors claimed by these authors, the disposition and precise identity of this former group is elusive, and sources such as Homer, Hesiod and Herodotus give varying, partially mythological accounts. However, it is clear that cultures existed whose indigenous characteristics were distinguished by the subsequent Hellenic cultures, greco-Roman society flourished between 250 BC and 480 AD and commanded successive waves of conquests that gripped more than half of the globe. The rapid and extensive spread of the various European powers from the early 15th century onwards had an impact upon many of the indigenous cultures with whom they came into contact. The Canary Islands had an indigenous population called the Guanches whose origin is still the subject of discussion among historians, the United Nations estimates that there are over 370 million indigenous people living in over 70 countries worldwide
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Maya peoples
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The Maya people are a group of Indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. They inhabit southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, the pre-Columbian Maya population was approximately eight million. There were a seven million Maya living in this area at the start of the 21st century. Guatemala, southern Mexico and the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize, El Salvador, one of the largest groups of modern Maya can be found in Mexicos Yucatán State and the neighboring states of Campeche, Quintana Roo and in Belize. These peoples commonly identify themselves simply as Maya with no further ethnic subdivision and they speak the language which anthropologists term Yucatec Maya, but is identified by speakers and Yucatecos simply as Maya. Among Maya speakers, Spanish is commonly spoken as a second or first language, linguists refer to the Maya language as Yucatec or Yucatec Maya to distinguish it from other Mayan languages. This norm has often been misinterpreted to mean that the people are also called Yucatec Maya, that refers only to the language. Maya is one language in the Mayan language family, thus, to refer to Maya as Mayans would be similar to referring to Spanish people as Romantics because they speak a language belonging to the Romance language family. Confusion of the term Maya/Mayan as an ethnic label occurs because Maya women who use traditional dress identify by the ethnic term mestiza, the Yucatáns indigenous population was first exposed to Europeans after a party of Spanish shipwreck survivors came ashore in 1511. One of the sailors, Gonzalo Guerrero, is reported to have taken up with a woman and started a family. Later Spanish expeditions to the region were led by Córdoba in 1517, Grijalva in 1518, from 1528 to 1540, several attempts by Francisco Montejo to conquer the Yucatán failed. His son, Francisco de Montejo the Younger, fared almost as badly when he first took over, while holding out at Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza was conquered by 1570, in 1542, the western Yucatán Peninsula also surrendered to him. Historically, the population in the half of the peninsula was less affected by. In the 21st century in the Yucatán Peninsula, between 750,000 and 1,200,000 people speak Mayan, however, three times more than that are of Maya origins, hold ancient Maya surnames, and do not speak Mayan languages as their first language. Matthew Restall, in his book The Maya Conquistador, mentions a series of letters sent to the King of Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries. The noble Maya families at that time signed documents to the Spanish Royal Family, surnames mentioned in letters are Pech, Camal, Xiu, Ucan, Canul, Cocom. A large 19th-century revolt by the native Maya people of Yucatán, for a period the Maya state of Chan Santa Cruz was recognized as an independent nation by the British Empire, particularly in terms of trading with British Honduras
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Mestizo
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The term was used as an ethnic/racial category in the casta system that was in use during the Spanish Empires control of their New World colonies. Mestizos are usually considered to be mixed Spaniards by the crown of Spain, the term mestizaje - taking as its root mestizo or mixed - is the Spanish word for miscegenation, the general process of mixing ancestries. To avoid confusion with the usage of the term mestizo. In colonial Venezuela, pardo was more commonly used instead of mestizo, pardo means being mixed without specifying which mixture, it was used to describe anyone born in the Americas whose ancestry was a mixture of European, Amerindian, and Black African. In colonial Brazil most of the population was mestiço in the original Iberian definition of the word. In the Philippines, which was a colony of Spain, the term came to refer to a Filipino with any foreign ancestry especially whites. In Canada, the Métis people is a community composed of those who possess combined European, in Saint Barthélemy, the term mestizo refers to people of mixed European and East Asian ancestry. The Spanish word mestizo is from Latin mixticius, meaning mixed and its usage has been documented as early as 1275, to refer to the offspring of an Egyptian and a Jew. This term was first documented in English in 1582 and it is related to the particular racial identity of historical non-white Amerindian-descended Hispanic and Latino American communities in an American context. In English-speaking Canada, Canadian Métis, as a loanword from French, refers to persons of mixed French, in the United States, Métis Americans and Mestizo Americans are two distinct racial and ethno-racial identities, as reflected in the use of French and Spanish loanwords, respectively. The latter was listed as a mestizo de sangley in birth records of the 19th century, with sangley as a reference to the Hokkiense word for business. Mestizo, mestiço, métis, mestís, Mischling, meticcio, mestiezen, mestee, in the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish developed an extremely vast complex system of racial hierarchy, which was used for social control and which also determined a persons standing in society. There were three categories of race during the initial period of colonization of the Americas by the Spanish, White Spaniard, Amerindian. During the Spanish colonial era, a myriad of terms were created to differentiate these racial mixtures, by the end of the colonial period in 1821, over one hundred sub-categories of possible variations of mixture existed, but official church and civil records were maintained with few categories. Church baptismal and marriage registers and civil records used the terms español, castizo, mestizo, mulato, and indio. As time went on, a system of hierarchy, the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas developed where society was divided based on race, wealth. Mestizo – a person of mixed White European and Amerindian ancestry, in theory, and as depicted in eighteenth-century Mexican casta paintings, español status could also be attained by people of mixed origin who consistently had intermarried with Europeans. Such cases might include the offspring of a parent and one Peninsular or criollo parent
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States of Mexico
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The United Mexican States is a federal republic composed of 31 states and Mexico City. According to the Constitution of 1917, the states of the federation are free, each state has its own congress and constitution. Mexico City is currently being reformed to have the rights of a state. The states of the Mexican Federation are free, sovereign, autonomous and they are free to govern themselves according to their own laws, each state has a constitution that cannot contradict the federal constitution, which covers issues of national competence. Since states have autonomy, each has its own civil and penal codes. In addition, the federation makes up a constituency in which 32 senators are elected by the method of proportional representation, Federal Deputies, however, do not represent the states, but rather the citizens themselves. The Chamber of Deputies and the Senate together comprise the Congress of the Union, the states are internally divided into municipalities. Each municipality is autonomous in its ability to elect their own council, the council is headed by a mayor elected every 3 years with no possibility of immediate reelection. Each municipality has a composed of councilors in terms of population size. The council is responsible, in most cases, to all utilities required for its population. This concept, which arises from the Mexican Revolution, is known as a free municipality. In total there are 2438 municipalities in Mexico, the state with the highest number of municipalities is Oaxaca, with 570, Mexico City has a special status within the federation, being a federal district. Until January 2016, Mexico City was officially called Federal District and it is the seat of government of the Union and the capital of the United Mexican States. Mexico City was separated from the State of Mexico, of which it was the capital, on November 18,1824, as such, it did not belong to any state in particular but to all. Therefore, it was the president of Mexico, in representation of the federation, with full autonomy, Mexico City would have its own constitution – it previously had only an organic law called Statute of Autonomy – and its boroughs became municipalities. Until the ratification of Mexico Citys constitution, it is divided for administrative purposes into 16 delegacionesor boroughs. *Mexicos post agency, Correos de México, does not offer an official list, various competing commercially devised lists exist. The list here reflects choices among them according to these sources, on September 27,1821, after three centuries of Spanish rule, Mexico gained independence
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Campeche
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Campeche, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Campeche, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It has a coastline to the west with the Gulf of Mexico, the state capital, also called Campeche, was declared a World Heritage Site in 1997. The formation of the state began with the city, which was founded in 1540 as the Spanish began the conquest of the Yucatán Peninsula, during the colonial period, the city was a rich and important port, but declined after Mexico’s Independence. Campeche was part of the province of Yucatán but split off in the mid-19th century, today, much of the state’s economic comeback is due to the finding of petroleum offshore in the 1970s, which has made the coastal cities of Campeche and Ciudad del Carmen important economic centers. The state has important Mayan and colonial sites but they are not as well known or visited as others in the Yucatán. The states executive power rests in the governor of Campeche and the legislative power rests in the Congress of Campeche which is a legislature composed of 35 deputies. The state of Campeche is located in southeast Mexico, on the west side of the Yucatan Peninsula, the territory is 56,858. 84km2, which is 2. 6% of Mexico’s total. It borders the states of Yucatán, Quintana Roo and Tabasco, with the country of Belize to the east, Guatemala to the south and the Gulf of Mexico to the west. Politically, it is divided into municipalities, Calkiní, Calakmul, Campeche, Candelaria, Champotón, Ciudad del Carmen, Escárcega, Hecelchakán, Hopelchén, Palizada. Campeche is a flat area of Mexico with 523 km of shoreline on the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the surface is of sedimentary rock much of which is from marine origin, the area with the highest elevations is near the borders with Guatemala and Quintana Roo. Notable elevations include Cerro Champerico, Cerro los Chinos, Cerro El Ramonal, Cerro El Doce, however, these hills are separated by large expanses of lower flat land. In the south of the municipality of Champotón begin a series of rolling hills known as the Sierra Alta or Puuc and these have only an average altitude of between forty and sixty meters with some reaching 100 meters. There other areas of rolling hills, near the city of Campeche with main ones known as Maxtum, Boxol. Another set is called the Sierra Seybaplaya in the center of the state, away from the coast, these rainforests are interspersed with savannah areas and along the coast are accompanied by areas with sand dunes, mangrove wetlands and estuaries. Species that can be found in the various rainforests include huapaque, cedar, pukte, sapote, dyewood, dzalam and it also includes a number of precious tropical hardwoods such as red cedar, mahogany, ciricote and guayacán. Along the coastal areas, palms such as the coconut. The main wildlife species in the state are the jaguar, ocelot, puma, deer, wild boar, raccoon, hare, ring-tailed cat, there are many bird species including the chachalaca, ducks, quail, pelican, toucan, buzzard and many more
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Quintana Roo
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Quintana Roo, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Quintana Roo, is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, make up the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into ten municipalities and its capital city is Chetumal and it is located in Southeastern Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. Quintana Roo has a coastline to the east with the Caribbean Sea and it also claims territory which gives it a small border with Guatemala in the southwest of the state, although this disputed area is also claimed by Campeche. The Sian Kaan biosphere reserve is located in the state. The statewide population is expanding at a rapid rate due to the construction of hotels, many immigrants come from Yucatán, Campeche, Tabasco, and Veracruz. On February 1,2015, Quintana Roo officially adopted a new zone, Southeastern, which is five hours behind Coordinated Universal Time. Reasons cited for the change include coordination of air travel, banking operations, and more daylight hours, the area that makes up modern Quintana Roo was long part of Yucatán, sharing its history. With the Caste War of Yucatán, which started in the 1840s, the independent Maya nation of Chan Santa Cruz was based on what is now the town of Felipe Carrillo Puerto. For decades it maintained independence, having separate trade and treaty relationships with British Honduras. Quintana Roo was made a territory of Mexico by decree of President Porfirio Díaz on November 24,1902 and it was named after an early patriot of the Mexican Republic, Andrés Quintana Roo. The Mexican army succeeded in defeating most of the Maya population of the region during the 1910s, in 1915 the area was again declared to be legally part of the state of Yucatán. Quintana Roo was granted statehood within the United Mexican States on October 8,1974 and it is the Mexican Republics youngest state. According to the Köppen climate classification, much of the state has a tropical wet, the mean annual temperature is 26 °C. The hottest months are April and August where the high is 33 °C while January is coldest month with an average low of 17 °C. Extreme temperatures can range from low of 10 °C in the coldest months to 36 °C in the hottest months, Quintana Roo averages 1,300 mm of precipitation per year, which falls throughout the year, though June to October are the wetter months. Hurricanes can occasionally hit the areas during the hurricane season. The State of Quintana Roo is divided into 11 municipalities, each headed by a municipal president, Quintana Roo ranks sixth among Mexican states according to the United Nations Human Development index. The Yucatán Peninsula is one of the most forested areas of the world in terms of mass per hectare
28.
Belize
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Belize, formerly British Honduras, is an independent country on the eastern coast of Central America. Belize is bordered on the north by Mexico, on the south and west by Guatemala and its mainland is about 290 km long and 110 km wide. Belize has an area of 22,800 square kilometres and a population of 368,310 and it has the lowest population density in Central America. The countrys population growth rate of 1. 87% per year is the second highest in the region, Belizes abundance of terrestrial and marine species and its diversity of ecosystems gives it a key place in the globally significant Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. Belize has a society, composed of many cultures and languages that reflect its rich history. English is the language of Belize, with Belizean Kriol being the unofficial language. Over half the population is multilingual, with Spanish being the second most common spoken language, Belize is considered a Central American and Caribbean nation with strong ties to both the Latin American and Caribbean regions. Belize is a Commonwealth realm, with Queen Elizabeth II as its monarch, Belize is known for its September Celebrations, its extensive coral reefs, and punta music. The origin of the name Belize remains unclear, the earliest known record of the name appears in the journal of the Dominican priest Fray José Delgado, dating to 1677. Delgado recorded the names of three rivers that he crossed while travelling north along the Caribbean coast, Rio Soyte, Rio Xibum. The names of these waterways, which correspond to the Sittee River, Sibun River and it is likely that Delgados Balis was actually the Mayan word belix, meaning muddy-watered. Others have suggested that the name derives from a Spanish pronunciation of the name of the Scottish buccaneer Peter Wallace, there is no proof that Wallace settled in this area and some scholars have characterized this claim as a myth. Writers and historians have suggested other possible etymologies, including postulated French. Many aspects of this culture persist in the area despite nearly 500 years of European domination, prior to about 2500 BC, some hunting and foraging bands settled in small farming villages, they later domesticated crops such as corn, beans, squash, and chili peppers. A profusion of languages and subcultures developed within the Maya core culture, between about 2500 BC and 250 AD, the basic institutions of Maya civilisation emerged. The peak of this occurred during the classic period, which began about 250 AD. The Maya civilisation spread across what is now Belize around 1500 BC, the recorded history of the middle and southern regions is dominated by Caracol, an urban political centre that may have supported over 140,000 people. North of the Maya Mountains, the most important political centre was Lamanai, in the late Classic Era of Maya civilisation, as many as 1 million people may have lived in the area that is now Belize
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Chicle
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Chicle is a natural gum traditionally used in making chewing gum and other products. It is collected from several species of Mesoamerican trees in the Manilkara genus, including M. zapota, M. chicle, M. staminodella, and M. bidentata. The tapping of the gum is similar to the tapping of latex from the tree, zig-zag gashes are made in the tree trunk. It is then boiled until it reaches the correct thickness, locals who collect chicle are called chicleros. The word chicle comes from the Nahuatl word for the gum, tziktli, alternatively, chichle may have come from the Mayan word tsicte. Chicle was well known to the Aztecs and to the Maya, the ancient word is still used in the Americas, chicle being a common term for it in Spanish and chiclete being the Portuguese term. The word has also exported to other languages such as Greek. Both the Aztecs and Maya traditionally chewed chicle and it was chewed as a way to stave off hunger, freshen breath, and keep teeth clean. Chicle was also used by the Maya as a filling for tooth cavities, historically, the Adams Chewing Gum Company was a prominent user of this ingredient in the production of chewing gum. Since it was the buyer of Guatemalan chicle, the government was forced to create a massive aid program for growers. By the 1960s, most chewing gum companies had switched from using chicle to butadiene-based synthetic rubber which was cheaper to manufacture, only a handful of small gum companies still use chicle, including Glee Gum, Simply Gum, and Tree Hugger Gum
30.
Agave fourcroydes
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Henequen is an agave, a plant species native to southern Mexico and Guatemala. It is reportedly naturalized in Italy, the Canary Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Hispaniola, the Cayman Islands, the leaves of Agave fourcroydes yield a fiber also called henequen, which is suitable for rope and twine but not of as high a quality as sisal. Alternative spellings are Henequin and Heniquen and it is the major plantation fiber agave of eastern Mexico, being grown extensively in Yucatán, Veracruz, and southern Tamaulipas. It is also used to make licor del henequén, a traditional Mexican alcoholic drink, the plant appears as a rosette of sword-shaped leaves 1.2 to 1.8 meters long, growing out of a thick stem that may reach 1.7 meters. The leaves have regularly spaced teeth 3–6 mm long and a terminal spine 2–3 cm long, like sisal, A. fourcroydes is a sterile hybrid, the ovaries never produce seeds. The plant does produce bulbils that may be planted, but commercial growers prefer to use the frequent suckers, which develop more quickly
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Tourism
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Tourism is travel for pleasure or business, also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the travellers country, Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a countrys balance of payments. Today, tourism is a source of income for many countries. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.03 trillion in 2011, the ITB Berlin is the worlds leading tourism trade fair. The word tourist was used by 1772 and tourism by 1811. It is formed from the tour, which is derived from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, to turn on a lathe. Tourism is an important, even vital, source of income for many regions and it also creates opportunities for employment in the service sector of the economy associated with tourism. This is in addition to goods bought by tourists, including souvenirs, in 1936, the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours. Its successor, the United Nations, amended this definition in 1945 and it includes movements for all purposes. In 1981, the International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism defined tourism in terms of particular activities chosen and undertaken outside the home, in this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful journey. The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited, by contrast, traveler is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the values underpinning these distinctions. International tourist arrivals reached 1.035 billion in 2012, up from over 996 million in 2011, the World Tourism Organization reports the following ten destinations as the most visited in terms of the number of international travellers in 2016. International tourism receipts grew to US$1.2 trillion in 2014, based upon air traffic, the MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reports the following cities as the top ten most popular destinations of international tourism worldwide. MasterCard reports the following cities as the top ten biggest earners on international tourism worldwide in 2015, as early as Shulgi, however, kings praised themselves for protecting roads and building waystations for travelers. During the Roman Republic, spas and coastal resorts such as Baiae were popular among the rich, pausanias wrote his Description of Greece in the 2nd century AD. In ancient China, nobles sometimes made a point of visiting Mount Tai and, on occasion, the Islamic hajj is still central to its faith and Chaucers Canterbury Tales and Wu Chengens Journey to the West remain classics of English and Chinese literature. The 10th- to 13th-century Song dynasty also saw secular travel writers such as Su Shi, under the Ming, Xu Xiake continued the practice
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Riviera Maya
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The Riviera Maya is a tourism and resort district in Mexico. It straddles the coastal Highway 307 along the Caribbean coastline of the state of Quintana Roo, the Riviera Maya was originally called the Cancun–Tulum corridor, but in 1999 it was renamed as the Riviera Maya with the aid of Lic. Miguel Ramón Martín Azueta who at the time was the president of Solidaridad. Government development plans include establishing a number of medium-sized cities of ~200,000 inhabitants within the Riviera Maya with initial planning spanning 20 years. Target areas for urbanization include the towns and villages of, Puerto Morelos, the Riviera Maya), Puerto Aventuras, Akumal, Chemuyil and this barrier reef system is the second longest in the world. Activities at the most visited locations include jet-skiing, snorkeling, scuba diving, swimming in cenotes, swimming with dolphins, zip-lining, horse riding, sailing, the mean annual temperature is 24–25 °C. Groundwater and therefore cenote water temperatures are 25 °C year round, coastal waters range from 26 °C in January to 29 °C in August. The Riviera Maya is completely within the state of Quintana Roo on the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, the terrain is flat and covered by low tropical jungle. The geology is high purity carbonates down to a depth of 0.5 -1.5 km below the surface, mean annual rainfall is 1.5 m per year and the efficient infiltration results in the complete absence of any surface rivers. As is common in karst, underground networks have formed by dissolution. The whole of the Yucatan Peninsula is underlain by a density stratified coastal aquifer system with a lens shaped fresh water body floating on top of intruding saline water. The formation of caves within this coastal carbonate aquifer is principally associated with carbonate dissolution at the water contact within the aquifer. Large sections of the mangrove swamps that lie behind the beaches. Most tourists to the Riviera Maya arrive through Cancún International Airport, about 20 kilometres north of Tulum, a new international airport was announced. In March 2011, the bidding for construction contracts was to be concluded, as of April 2014, all projects related with the Tulum Airport are no longer available through official sites. The high speed train is now the main project for the area
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Playa del Carmen
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Playa del Carmen is a city located along the Caribbean Sea in the municipality of Solidaridad, in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is a popular tourist area in eastern Mexico, Playa del Carmen features a wide array of tourist activities due to its geographical location in the Riviera Maya. It has also been the destination of PGA Tour golf tournaments, Playa del Carmen is located within the Riviera Maya, which runs from south of Cancún to Tulum and the Sian Kaan biosphere reserve. Playa is a stop for cruise ships which dock at the nearby Calica quarry docks. The Xcaret Eco Park, a Mexican-themed eco-archaeological park, is a popular tourist destination located just south of the town in Xcaret. In October 2005, Hurricane Wilma passed directly over Playa del Carmen, fortunately, most of the damage was relatively superficial and repaired within a few weeks of the storm. Hurricane Wilma arrived from the Caribbean Sea, passing over Cozumel before making landfall in Playa del Carmen and it then moved north along the Mexican coast, hitting Cancún especially hard. Originally a small fishing town, tourism to Playa del Carmen began with the ferry service to Cozumel, an island across the Cozumel Channel. Playa del Carmen has recently undergone rapid development with new luxury residential condominium buildings, restaurants, boutiques. Tourist activity in Playa del Carmen centers on Quinta Avenida, or Fifth Avenue, a pedestrian walkway located just one or two blocks inland from the beach, Fifth Avenue is lined with hundreds of shops, bars and restaurants. There are many boutique hotels on and just off Fifth Avenue. Playacar is a residential and tourist development in Playa del Carmen just south of the urban area. Most of the hotels, the aviary and the golf course are located in this development. The city is home to Inter Playa del Carmen, a club founded in 1999, which competes in the south group of the Segunda División Profesional. The OHL Classic at Mayakoba is a PGA Tour golf tournament held at El Camaleón Golf Club since 2007, the telenovela Peregrina takes place in Playa del Carmen. The Real Housewives of Vancouver featured Playa del Carmen in two episodes, the Amazing Race has shot on location in Playa del Carmen. The Celebrity Mole was set in the Playa del Carmen area, UK Reality Series Geordie Shore featured Playa del Carmen. Playa del Carmen is host to several annual events the largest being The BPM Festival
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Xcaret
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Xcaret is a Maya civilization archaeological site located on the Caribbean coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. The site was occupied by the pre-Columbian Maya and functioned as a port for navigation, some of the sites original structures are contained within a modern-day tourism development, the privately owned Xcaret Eco Park. Xcaret means small inlet in Mayan and its name comes from its situation next to a small inlet that in the past served as a strategic location for navigation and commerce for the Maya. The original name of the site was pole, from the root pol that means merchandise or deal of merchants, Xcaret has many reserves that are open to the public. The constructions of the Late Post-Classical period are situated along the coast, the site had a wall, but unlike the one in Tulum that was open towards the ocean, the wall at Xcaret defended the site from assaults coming from the sea. The wall may also have served to divide the ground of the interior from the swampy ground closer to the coast. Xcaret was inhabited at the time of the first stage of the Spanish incursion of Alonso Dávila, in 1548, Juan Nunez was put in charge of Xcaret. At this time, a Spanish chapel was built and this implies that Xcaret remained an important settlement. The thatched roof of the chapel has disintegrated, but the walls remain standing, the INAH divides the architectural formations into several different groups. There are documents which suggest that Xcaret was one of the most active and these documents make mention of marriages between the Pole rulers and the people of Cozumel. These marriages were likely for political advances, they imply that Xcaret was politically important, during archaeological explorations led by archaeologist María José,135 human remains were found in the chapel. These findings suggest that the people of Xcaret are more related to contemporary Maya peoples than ancient peoples
35.
Xelha
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Xelha is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, located on the eastern coastline of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the present-day state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. The etymology of the name comes from Yukatek Maya, combining the roots xel. The lagoon and inlet at Xelha has been turned into a water theme park known as Xel-Ha Park. The site of Xelha is located south of the township of Playa del Carmen, in the state of Quintana Roo. It was probably not fully abandoned until the 19th Century, a stela with an Early Classic date of 9.6.10.0.0 from Xel-Ha was discovered in 1841 by Stephens and Catherwood. Xelha was one of key ports of the Maya city of Coba, others included Tancah. The location of Xelha was used as a base by Spanish forces and he set about establishing what was intended to be the first Spanish settlement on the peninsula, which he named Salamanca de Xelha after his birthplace in western Spain, Salamanca. However, the supplies he had brought soon proved inadequate to the task of sustaining the venture, despite attempts to commandeer and raid neighboring Maya settlements for food, his fledgling settlement lost some fifty men within the first two months to disease and privation. In an action reminiscent of Hernán Cortés, Montejo ordered the scuttling of his ships in the face of growing discontent, eventually Montejos forces stabilised sufficiently for him to mount explorations from his temporary encampment, heading out with some 125 men north towards Ecab near Cape Catoche. The sortie returned several months later after losing half of his men in a battle against the Maya near Ake, and to disease. The 65 conquistadores who had left behind at Salamanca de Xelha fared no better with many being massacred in Maya raids. This also failed to gain any foothold, and within eighteen months of Montejos first landfall in Yucatán, the encampment at Salamanca de Xelha and the eastern coast were abandoned
36.
Sediment
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For sediment in beverages, see dregs. For example, sand and silt can be carried in suspension in water and on reaching the sea be deposited by sedimentation. Sediments are most often transported by water, but also wind, beach sands and river channel deposits are examples of fluvial transport and deposition, though sediment also often settles out of slow-moving or standing water in lakes and oceans. Desert sand dunes and loess are examples of transport and deposition. Glacial moraine deposits and till are ice-transported sediments, sediment can be classified based on its grain size and/or its composition. Sediment size is measured on a log base 2 scale, called the Phi scale, composition of sediment can be measured in terms of, parent rock lithology mineral composition chemical make-up. This leads to an ambiguity in which clay can be used as both a size-range and a composition, sediment is transported based on the strength of the flow that carries it and its own size, volume, density, and shape. Stronger flows will increase the lift and drag on the particle, causing it to rise, rivers and streams carry sediment in their flows. This sediment can be in a variety of locations within the flow and these relationships are shown in the following table for the Rouse number, which is a ratio of sediment fall velocity to upwards velocity. If the upwards velocity is less than the settling velocity, but still high enough for the sediment to move, it will move along the bed as bed load by rolling, sliding. If the upwards velocity is higher than the velocity, the sediment will be transported high in the flow as wash load. As there are generally a range of different particle sizes in the flow, sediment motion can create self-organized structures such as ripples, dunes, antidunes on the river or stream bed. These bedforms are often preserved in rocks and can be used to estimate the direction. Overland flow can erode soil particles and transport them downslope, the erosion associated with overland flow may occur through different methods depending on meteorological and flow conditions. If the initial impact of rain droplets dislodges soil, the phenomenon is called rainsplash erosion, if overland flow is directly responsible for sediment entrainment but does not form gullies, it is called sheet erosion. If the flow and the substrate permit channelization, gullies may form, glaciers carry a wide range of sediment sizes, and deposit it in moraines. The overall balance between sediment in transport and sediment being deposited on the bed is given by the Exner equation and this expression states that the rate of increase in bed elevation due to deposition is proportional to the amount of sediment that falls out of the flow. This can be localized, and simply due to obstacles, examples are scour holes behind boulders, where flow accelerates
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Carbonate rock
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Carbonate rocks are a class of sedimentary rocks composed primarily of carbonate minerals. The two major types are limestone, which is composed of calcite or aragonite and dolostone, which is composed of the mineral dolomite. Calcite can be dissolved by groundwater or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors including the water temperature, pH. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. When conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together or it can fill fractures, karst topography and caves develop in carbonate rocks because of their solubility in dilute acidic groundwater. Cooling groundwater or mixing of different groundwaters will also create conditions suitable for cave formation, marble is the metamorphic carbonate rock. Rare igneous carbonate rocks exist as intrusive carbonatites and even rarer volcanic carbonate lava
38.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
39.
Dolomite
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Dolomite is an anhydrous carbonate mineral composed of calcium magnesium carbonate, ideally CaMg2. The term is used for a sedimentary carbonate rock composed mostly of the mineral dolomite. An alternative name used for the dolomitic rock type is dolostone. Most probably the mineral dolomite was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1768, nicolas-Théodore de Saussure first named the mineral in March 1792. The mineral dolomite crystallizes in the trigonal-rhombohedral system and it forms white, tan, gray, or pink crystals. Dolomite is a carbonate, having an alternating structural arrangement of calcium and magnesium ions. It does not rapidly dissolve or effervesce in dilute hydrochloric acid as calcite does, solid solution exists between dolomite, the iron-dominant ankerite and the manganese-dominant kutnohorite. Small amounts of iron in the give the crystals a yellow to brown tint. Manganese substitutes in the structure also up to three percent MnO. A high manganese content gives the crystals a rosy pink color, lead, zinc, and cobalt also substitute in the structure for magnesium. The mineral dolomite is closely related to huntite Mg3Ca4, because dolomite can be dissolved by slightly acidic water, areas of dolomite are important as aquifers and contribute to karst terrain formation. Modern dolomite formation has been found to occur under conditions in supersaturated saline lagoons along the Rio de Janeiro coast of Brazil, namely, Lagoa Vermelha. It is often thought that dolomite will develop only with the help of sulfate-reducing bacteria, however, low-temperature dolomite may occur in natural environments rich in organic matter and microbial cell surfaces. This occurs as a result of magnesium complexation by carboxyl groups associated with organic matter, vast deposits of dolomite are present in the geological record, but the mineral is relatively rare in modern environments. Reproducible, inorganic low-temperature syntheses of dolomite and magnesite were published for the first time in 1999, the general principle governing the course of this irreversible geochemical reaction has been coined breaking Ostwalds step rule. There is some evidence for an occurrence of dolomite. One example is that of the formation of dolomite in the bladder of a Dalmatian dog. In 2015, it was discovered that the direct crystallization of dolomite can occur from solution at temperatures between 60 and 220 °C
40.
Evaporite
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Evaporite is a name for a water-soluble mineral sediment that results from concentration and crystallization by evaporation from an aqueous solution. There are two types of deposits, marine, which can also be described as ocean deposits, and non-marine. Evaporites are considered sedimentary rocks and are formed by chemical sediments, although all water bodies on the surface and in aquifers contain dissolved salts, the water must evaporate into the atmosphere for the minerals to precipitate. For this to happen, the body must enter a restricted environment where water input into this environment remains below the net rate of evaporation. This is usually an arid environment with a basin fed by a limited input of water. When evaporation occurs, the water is enriched in salts. Marine evaporites tend to have thicker deposits and are usually the focus of extensive research. They also have a system of evaporation, when scientists evaporate ocean water in a laboratory, the minerals are deposited in a defined order that was first demonstrated by Usiglio in 1884. The first phase of the experiment begins when about 50% of the water depth remains. At this point, minor carbonates begin to form, the next phase in the sequence comes when the experiment is left with about 20% of its original level. At this point, the mineral gypsum begins to form, which is followed by halite at 10%. Kieserite may also be included, which often make up less than four percent of the overall content. However, there are approximately 80 different minerals that have been reported found in evaporite deposits, common minerals that are found in these deposits include blödite, borax, epsomite, gaylussite, glauberite, mirabilite, thenardite and trona. Non-marine deposits may also contain halite, gypsum, and anhydrite and this, however, does not make non-marine deposits any less important, these deposits often help to paint a picture into past Earth climates. Some particular deposits even show important tectonic and climatic changes and these deposits also may contain important minerals that help in todays economy. Thick non-marine deposits that tend to form where evaporation rates will exceed the inflow rate. The inflow also has to occur in a basin, or one with restricted outflow, so that the sediment has time to pool. Primary examples of this are called saline lake deposits, examples of modern non-marine depositional environments include the Great Salt Lake in Utah and the Dead Sea, which lies between Jordan and Israel
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