GHF Mirador Featured in National Geographic
Beyond "Apocalypto" -- What Maya Empire Looked Like |
|
Video: "Apocalypto" Consultant Excavates Maya Temple
December 5, 2006—Before he became Mel Gibson's lead consultant on the movie Apocalypto, Maya expert Richard Hansen spent decades exploring the ancient civilization in Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize (map to print: Maya cities on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula).
In this archival footage Hansen excavates a tomb in Guatemala's lost city of El Mirador (map), a thriving center of the mysterious Preclassic Maya period, which lasted from about 1800 B.C. to about A.D. 250. He is searching for the tomb of King Great Fiery Jaguar Paw—perhaps the namesake of Apocalypto's hero, a commoner called simply Jaguar Paw.
Gibson's fictional action movie, which opens Friday, takes place in the Classic Maya period (A.D. 250-900), which at its height boasted more than 40 cities. The great metropolis of Apocalypto may be modeled on Preclassic El Mirador as well as the Classic city of Tikal.
 |
Artists rendering of El Mirador |
An artist's rendering shows the ancient Maya trading city of El Mirador rising from the dense Guatemalan jungle, about 225 miles (360 kilometers) north of modern-day Guatemala City. (Video: See what El Mirador looks like today.) El Mirador is thought to have partially influenced the look of a fictional city in Mel Gibson's movie Apocalypto.
More than 2,000 years ago workers cut and hoisted thousands of limestone blocks to build the complex's soaring step pyramids, temples, and plazas. These structures were coated with lime stucco and painted with ferric oxide, a bright red pigment made from the mineral hematite. The mineral deterred erosion and, because it resembles blood, symbolized power.
For more than a thousand years the Maya commanded an empire that at times stretched from Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula in the north to Honduras in the south (map of Central and North America).
The Maya Empire saw advances in architecture, writing, religion, science, and math. It was also home to a network of densely populated cities like El Mirador.
But for unknown reasons the empire declined after A.D. 900—a collapse fictionalized in Apocalypto.
Please direct media inquiries to:
GHF Press press@globalheritagefund.org
or (650) 325 7520
top |