LANDSCAPE PLANNING: MAYAN

The ancient Mayan civilization occupied the Eastern third of Mesoamerica,

primarily the Yucatan Peninsula. The topography of the area greatly varied from volcanic
mountains, which comprised the highlands in the south, to a porous limestone shelf,
known as the lowlands, in the central and northern regions. Both the highlands and
lowlands were important to the presence of trade within Mayan civilization. It played an
important role as the origin of the transportation routes.
Mayan had modified their landscape in the form of dams, reservoirs and the
possible drainage canals along the Holmul River and its tributaries. Here, we can find
the intimate of Mayan‟s landscape planning with nature by analyzing the characteristics
of the planning which are:

i. Concerning on Earth features

ii. Reflect on religion or belief
iii. Concerning on the nature of microclimate
Fig1: Geographical position

Due to the first characteristic, concerning on Earth features; they started the
regional setting in the tropics surround by mountains, rivers, and rains as well as
highlands and coastlands. Mountains are the main geographical features in the area,
while coastlands defined as large-scale commercial agriculture. The coastlands can be
divided based on ecological zone. Many of the early centers were located near „bajos‟ –
large depressions in the limestone bedrock.
Mayan architecture tended to integrate a great degree of natural features, and
their cities were built somewhat unsystematically as dictated by the topography of each
independent location. They also divided spaces by great monuments and causeways.
Depending on the location of natural resources such as fresh water wells, the city grew
by using causeways to connect great plazas with the numerous platforms that created
the substructure for nearly all Mayan buildings.
Next, their landscape planning reflect on religion or their belief because the city
layouts evolved as nature dictated, careful attention was placed on the directional
orientation of temples and observatories, so that they were constructed in accordance
with Mayan interpretation of the orbits of the heavenly bodies. Immediately, outside of
this ritual centers were structures of lesser nobles, smaller temples and individual
shrines. Besides, the city centers of the classic Mayan were used primarily for
ceremonial purposes, not for living.

Fig 2: Mayan Temple

According to the last characteristic, concerning on the nature of microclimate;

the Mayan people develop hilltop reservoirs to capture rainwater for use in the dry
season. The reservoirs became an integral part of the urban landscape at many
Southern Lowland centers. Thus, all the characteristics were reflecting their own cultural
identity and the main reason of their chosen place and planning is only for their benefits
and live in conducive. For that reason, they develop an agriculturally intensive, city
centered empire consisting the numerous independent city-states.
But in contrast, though the landscape planning of Mayan seemed to be
successful, they miss some action that unfortunately cause failure and ruins the Mayan
civilization directly. The factor was overexploitation of the rain-forest ecosystem, on
which the Mayan depended for food. The Mayan was overpopulated and they
overexploited their environment and millions of them died.
In the other hand, the anthropologist from University of Cincinnati, Vernon
Scarborough concluded that water management is a vector in organizing this early city-
state. “Population grow rapidly in the semi-arid regions with irrigation, but less so in
tropics. Centralization is a hallmark in civilization and they are already having trouble
with that”. This shows that landscape planning should not only have organization of land
use but also the arrangement in terms of landform, flora, fauna, water based on social,
economic, environmental and religious factors.
To conclude, the success landscape planning should be able to foresee future
condition and integrate analysis and synthesis within the planning process in order to
achieve sustainable development or civilization.
Bibliography

1. Revolt Against The Dead, The Modernization of a Mayan Community in the

Highlands of Guatemala; Douglas E. Brintnall, Library of Anthropology
2. Article: Muddy Mayan Mystery Made Clear By Researchers Working In The
Bajos; Findings In Belize And Guatemala Show How Maya Drastically
Changed Local Environments; University of Cincinnati, 24 July 2002.
3. Article: Anthropologist Examines The Power Of Water On Earth‟s Earliest
Civilizations; University of Cincinnati, 23 February 2001.
4. Article: Landscape Archeology-Remote Sensing Investigation of The
Ancient Maya in The Peten Rainforest of Northern Guatemala; Cambridge
University Press, 11 July 2003.
5. Article: Glen Welker nativelit@earthlink.net , 9 September 1998
6. Notes of Landscape Planning
7. Wikipedia.freeencyclopedia

Name : Nur Uyun binti. Aman

Matric No : 0530108
Subject : AUP 1212 Landscape Planning