Mayan Culture in Mexico

  So many people have visited Mayan sites such as Uxmal, Palenque, and Chichen Itza, and have marveled at the time and energy it must have taken to construct the pyramids and temples.  More have wondered about the legends of the activities which took place there, with gruesome stories lingering on about entire losing teams losing their lives to appease the gods. 
   The lords of the land oversaw civic matters, while the priests conducted religious rituals, pursued intellectual studies, and corrected the calendar.
  It is a complete mystery why the Mayan culture declined and the cities were covered by forest until their rediscovery in the 19th century. Even Spanish explorers like Pizarro managed to completely bypass many of the Mayan sites, including Palenque.  
  Some of the theories about the disappearance of the people include exhaustion of the cornfields by overpopulation, climatic changes, hurricanes, pestilences of epidemic proportions, wars, and some have suggested that aliens played some part in their mass and mysterious disappearance. 
  The tomb of Lord Shield Pacal (615­683) is located inside the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. The other large building there is the royal palace with a four-story square tower used to notify the lords that visitors were approaching along the Usumacinta River.
  Religion and the state were closely connected among the Maya. 
  The face of Chac, the Mayan rain god, decorates many Mayan buildings. Chac was an all-important deity since the society was so dependent on agriculture, and his image is distinguished by an elephant tusk nose. 
   The Maya were very resilient, a fact which adds to the curiosity about how and why their civilization vanished so completely.