Research Paper On The Mayan Pyramids
Everything was perfectly planned out. As the calendar says, they have to sacrifice one of their own to please the Gods. The Mayan people would get together as a whole to practice their religious ceremony at the temple. The Mayan and Aztec civilizations are two ancient civilizations that were located near Central and South America. The Mayan civilization was more remarkable than the Aztecs because of their advanced knowledge.
They believed in paying back the Gods. In their culture they did this with human sacrifice and inside the temples that is exactly what they did. The Mesoamericans also influenced their whole religion. They believed in multiple and different kinds of gods. They believed in 13 heavens and 9 underworlds.
Then a tree was planted to clear space and spread its branches into the upper world and its roots into every level of the underworld. As the tree trunk grew, it made room on Earth for people, animals, and plants. The Maya believed that plants and animals existed before people. The gods could not speak to honor the animals, so they were not content and they believe humans were then created in order to pay respects to the gods. Hun
First, the mayans have many cultural differences. To start, the mayans built a lot of their buildings to symbolize power. For example, the mayans built a giant 2 story temple in Tikal (one of the strongest mayan cities there was) that looked over the whole city to show mayans should go there because they were strong. Also, the mayans did human sacrifice for their gods. The mayans believed that if they stopped sacrificing, the sun would no longer come up so they couldn't grow crops anymore.
The Mayans were polytheistic meaning they believed in a lot of gods. It was believed that the Mayans believed in over 160 gods in which they offered sacrifices to and made religious ceremonies to represent
B) Maya architecture also incorporates various art forms and hieroglyphic texts. Masonry architecture built by the Maya recommended craft specialization, central organization, and political power. The architecture was a remarkable achievement because they built great pyramids, stone palaces, temples, ball courts and other ritual buildings that require lots of effort to make. In fact, "for the single home of a Copan nobleman, It has been estimated that at least 80 to 130 workers would have been employed full time to finish in two to three months." (Document B)
The Mayan were some of the greatest astronomers for their time. In their observatories they studied the Sun, Moon and stars. The Mayan astronomers also studied planets such as Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. The main planet that was studied was the planet Venus because, the Mayan believed that Venus was the Sun’s twin and a War God. During their studies they discovered things such as it takes the earth just over 365 days to travel around the Sun.
The Aztec sacrificed humans to please the gods. For them, sacrifices were about the killing of the people. They once held a ceremony where they sacrificed over 20,000 people. The most important god to the Aztec was the sun god Huitzilopochtli. The Mayans did their religious items a bit differently, in fact they sacrificed both humans and animals to the gods.
“Compared to the Egyptian pyramids at Giza, Mayan pyramids are mostly smaller, but steeper and more ornate” (Source 3: Travel Guide). They were used as tombs for kings and queens, religious
First of all, all of the Mayan gods have a shape of something that makes no sense to us. For example Kukulkan is a winged serpent, and for most of us that sounds completely senseless, and that and Bolon-Yokte The monuments and drawings of these non-sense creatures that Mayans called “gods” can be found in every temple in ancient Mayan cities. In the article “La Caida de los Mayas,” Edson Gamboa speaks out for all the people that share this ideology; the author wonders how come the Mayans could come up with these gods that have shape of creatures that have never been seen in this planet by anyone. He also points out that to believe in something in the way Mayans believed in their gods you have to have seen it before, so if the Mayans let these beliefs rule their whole civilization and even built entire temples in order to honor their gods, they had to have had any kind of contact with them or something paranormal had to have happend because we could say that Mayans lived only to honor their gods.
Many ancient religious are polytheistic, worshipping several gods for several different reasons. Among many gods, the most important for these cultures was the Sun god, whom controlled the light, the harvest, and the seasons. Since Maya was an advanced civilization in terms of astrology, many of their gods are representatives of those in the constellations. For Maya, the most important sign is Gemini because of the Hero Twins who defeated the lords of Xibalba and when they became gods they became the
The Egyptians had gods for every aspect of their lives and afterlives. Although the Mayans had many gods, they also practiced Animism. Both cultures had places for rituals and ceremonies. The gods they believed in were different from each other and some were worshiped more than others. With very few differences, the religious aspects of both cultures influenced both cultures equally.
These purposes relate to some extent, but are also contrasting. According to “The Pyramids of Giza” by Helena Gustafson, “The three pyramids at Giza were designed as monumental tombs for pharaohs (kings) of Egypt, to house their bodies after death and to help them achieve eternal life in the afterworld.” Mayan pyramids are also occasionally used as tombs for high-ranking officials, however the pyramids are mainly used as temples for religious purposes. Furthermore, Mayan pyramids are positioned in certain ways to note key events in the Mayan calendar, adding to the amount of complex thought and design that was put into making the pyramids. The purposes of these ancient pyramids may vary, but are also similar in other
Both cultures beliefs were centred around their gods. For this reason, most of their architecture had some sort of religious background. The Egyptian, as well as the Mayan built pyramids; although their intention of use differed. The purpose behind the Egyptians pyramids were to be used as burial sites for pharaohs and the royal families. In the other hand, the Mayans constructed pyramids for sacrificial purposes, as well as for worshiping gods.
Both Egyptians and the Mayan cultures were striving well in their time. I think that there were some things that they did the same to strive and any different to be able to adapt to their environment and culture. The Egyptians originated in 4,000 to 3,500 B.C. located in North Africa and the Mayans began in 3,300 B.C. in on the Yucatan Peninsula in North America. These two cultures greatest accomplishments were that many people might know about for these two cultures is the pyramids and calendars. The two types of Religion that both the Mayans and early Egyptians had been that they used Polytheism which is the belief in one God.
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