Mayapan in Yucatan, Mayan language derives from the words: Mayab, which is the name of the Yucatan Peninsula to before the conquest; ma 'refers not negative; ya'ab, long, pretty, rich and bread which means flag, banner or pennant, which apparently translates as: the flag of the Mayan.

Cultural Importance: The walled city of Mayapan is considered the last great capital of culture Maya Postclassic (1200-1450 AD.). It covers an area of 4 km², in which there are approximately 4,000 structures and is believed the city had a population of 12,000 inhabitants. On-site and through the architecture you can see the strong influence of Chichen Itza is an example of this is the main building or better known as Castle of Kukulcan, which is equal to Chichen Itza that only smaller. In the Central Plaza civic, administrative and religious buildings, as well as the residences of the ruling class they are. It is built on foundations of buildings with columned halls, temples and oratories with an altar at the back and feast at the sides. They are also representative round buildings known as observatories and small shrines. Mayapan was inhabited since the beginning of our era until the fall of the city around 1450 d. C. It is known that people lived around the site since the Preclassic and Early Classic (300 BC. BC-600 AD.).

Roughly halfway between Maní and Mérida, the ruins of Mayapán, the most powerful city in the Yucatán from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, sit right beside the road. According to Maya chronicles, it was one of the three cities (the others being Chichén Itzá and Uxmal) that made up the League of Mayapán, which exercised control over the entire peninsula from around 987 to 1185. The league broke up when the Cocom dynasty of Mayapán attacked and overwhelmed the rulers of an already declining Chichén Itzá, establishing themselves as sole controllers of the peninsula. However, archeological evidence suggests that Mayapán was not a significant settlement until the thirteenth century. The rival theory has Mayapán founded around 1263, after the fall of Chichén Itzá.

Mayapán was a huge city by the standards of the day, with a population of some 12,000 on a site covering five square kilometres, in which traces of more than four thousand buildings have been found. Rulers of subject cities were forced to live here, perhaps even as hostages, where they could be kept under control. This hegemony was maintained until 1441, when Ah Xupan, a Xiu leader from Uxmal, finally led a rebellion that succeeded in overthrowing the Cocom and destroying their city thus paving the way for the tribalism that the Spanish found on their arrival and facilitating considerably the Conquest. As the priests no longer dominated here (hence the lack of great ceremonial centres), what grew instead was a more genuinely urban society: highly militaristic, no doubt, but also far more centralized and more reliant on trade than previous Maya culture.

Opening hours Monday to Sunday from 8:00 to 17:00 hours.

Yucatan INAH Center 01 (999) 9 44 00 33 9 44 00 43 44 40 68 and 9.

To access Mayapan archaeological site, it is part of the city of Merida, where should take State Road No. 18. From the municipal seat of Tecoh is necessary to move to the town of Telchaquillo, which is far Mayapan 1.5 kilometers where It is the archaeological site.