Topoxte

Template: Infobox Island / Maintenance / height missing

Topoxté is an uninhabited island of the lake with the same name Mayan archaeological site in present-day Guatemalan department of Petén.

Geography

The small island is situated in the northeast of Guatemala in the lake Yaxha, about 200 m before its southwestern shore.

History

As the capital of the Ko ` woj - Maya Topoxté was the most important place of the Postclassic period in Mesoamerica. Topoxté is the Yaxha Lagoon and means as much as " seeds of the Ramon tree ". The Ramon tree, commonly known as bread walnut, is one of the most important components of the diet of the ancient Maya. The site, the first time settled in the classical period of elite families from Yaxha, was abandoned at the end of the classical period ( around 900 AD). Around 1350 Topoxté lived again until it was finally abandoned in 1450. In the archaeological record ten different building phases are evident, which are divided into three different groups. These include two 5 -meter-high platforms and a low-lying residential area consisting of more than 100 buildings. The area around the central square is bounded by three temples that were built in the style of the post-classical architecture ( vertical walls, columns and flat stone ceiling ).

Besides Topoxté there were two other islands, Cantè and Poxte that were equally occupied by the Co ` woj - Maya. These were abandoned in 1450, when the capital of the Maya was moved to the west of the island Zacpetén in Salpeten Lake. From 1994 to 1997 found on Topoxté held extensive historic preservation work in which the building of the ceremonial center were fully restored and partially reconstructed.