ANCIENT MAYA CITY AND PROTECTED
TROPICAL FORESTS OF
CALAKMUL
CAMPECHE, MEXICO
PRESENTATION
The Ancient Maya City of Calakmul, Campeche, is a cultural property registered in 2002 under criteria (i), (ii), (iii), and (iv) and a surface area of 3,000
hectares. This new proposal Ancient Maya City and Protected Tropical Forests of
Calakmul, Campeche, is a re-nomination as a mixed property strengthening the
cultural criteria and including natural criteria (ix) and (x), with an expansion
of the surface area to 331,397 hectares. [map, p. 5]
STRATEGIC SITE AND CONNECTIVITY CENTER
The nominated property includes some of the most relevant pre-hispanic cities
in the Mayan world, amongst which Calakmul, one of the main strategic urban
centers of the Classic period, stands out. It constitutes the heart of the area
where the development of one of the most splendid civilizations in human
history began to consolidate from the middle of the first millennium B.C.
and up to the year 1000 A.D., reaching its splendor towards the year 600 A.D.,
and declining in an abrupt manner towards the year 900 A.D., generating
the abandonment of practically all settlements which flourished in the tropical
forests of Mesoamerica.
These processes resulted in a complex mosaic of tropical forest communities with complex ecological and trophic networks. According to extensive
research, the current conditions of the soil, in particular areas, are related to the
changes that the Maya culture implemented for the use of intensive agriculture,
the absorption of fresh water, to avoid or prevent flooding, as well as the construction of the urban and ceremonial centers, all of which indicates vast and
sophisticated forms of adaptation to the karstic landscape. The conservation
of biodiversity stands out, some species being favored in their recovery by the
presence of aguadas and chultunes, water reservoirs used by the Maya and which
today constitute vital elements for species living in these tropical forests.