Màayapáan

Mayapan, whose name means the standard of the Maya people, was the walled capital of the Yucatan Maya in the Late Postclassic, southeast of Merida, with more than four thousand buildings and perhaps 17,000 people. After the revolt against Chichen Itza in 1221, lords led by the general Hunac Ceel built the city and gave the throne to the Cocom family, who ruled through a council of nobles for more than two hundred years.

Its principal sanctuary was the Temple of Kukulcan, a four-sided, nine-terraced pyramid modelled on the Castillo of Chichen Itza and set beside the Cenote Ch'en Mul, with serpent balustrades.

In 1441 Ah Xiu Xupan of the rival Xiu family rose against the Cocom and slaughtered nearly the whole lineage; the capital was sacked and burned. By about 1461 the city was empty and Yucatan had split into warring city-states.