Mayapan rises as Yucatan capital

1250

In the Yucatan after the decline of Chichen Itza, the walled city of Mayapan became the dominant political center of the postclassic Maya. Its concentric limestone streets and scaled-down replicas of older pyramids housed a council of lineages under the Cocom family. The city's architecture consciously imitated the great buildings of Chichen Itza, suggesting that the Cocom rulers claimed legitimacy through visual continuity with the past.