ZONA ARQUEOLÓGICA OXTANKAH
Site with architectural style illustrating all the great periods of the Maya civilization in Oxtankah.
The extensive period of occupation of the site is spread throughout the major periods of Mayan civilization: the Late Preclassic (300-50 BC), the Early Classic (250-600 AD) and the Late Classic (600-900 AD). The peak of the city and its socio-political system was during the Early Classic, when the ruling groups had taken control of the smaller settlements in the region. This was the time when the older buildings were expanded and renovated, and the city limits now extended to the island of Tamalcab. The urban centre, 1km inland, consisted of a dozen squares and large hollow spaces(patio hundido) delimited by buildings. The dominant architectural style corresponds to that of the Petén region: sloping walls, rounded corners and apron mouldings. In order to have fresh water, they built wells and chultunes to collect and store rainwater. Navigation was a common and essential activity, along the canals of the region and across the bay of Chetumal, to transit the Caribbean Sea from north to south, along the coastal trade routes that linked the entire Maya area to Central America. When the Spaniards arrived, the city had already been abandoned for four centuries. In the 16th century, the Spaniards built a chapel to the north of the site, part of which still stands today.
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