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ANCIENT MAYA CITY AND PROTECTED TROPICAL FOREST OF CALAKMUL
The Maya civilization belongs to the Preclassic and Classic periods, and
the cultural aspects of the nominated property include a mixture of native
developments and the exchange of ideas with neighboring regions.
The region was continuously occupied for more than 1500 years, representing
a unique example for the formation and construction of a cultural group, where
Calakmul can be considered as a basic axis with respect to other surrounding
sites with archeological evidence.
The information contained in this series of sites is of vital importance for
the understanding of the Maya culture and its evolution. The registered archaeological sites in the area represent the remains of ancient settlements
based on criteria established for Maya archaeology, and include, for the nominated property: 12 major centers, Altamira, Balakbal, Calakmul, Champerico,
Dos Aguadas, El Gallinero, El Zacatal, La Muñeca, Los Hornos, Oxpemul,
Uxul and Yaxnohcah; 9 medium centers, Candzibaantún, Cheyokolnah, Chicaanticaanal, El Laberinto, Las Delicias, Las Tuchas Bravas, Los Tambores,
Olvidado and Pared de los Reyes; 6 smaller centers, Buenfil, Chanarturo, El
Chismito, La Retranca, Los Escalones and Marihuana; and 11 small sites,
Aguada Laberinto, Aguas Amargas, Cerros de Yeso, Chilar, Chumbec, Dos
Caobas, El Cerrón, Naachtún Noroeste, Piedra Rota, Puerto México and
Villahermosa. [map, p. 6]
INTEGRITY AND AUTHENTICITY
The nominated property has exceptional ecological and cultural integrity,
harbored within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. It is located in the heart of
the second largest extension of tropical forests in America, and one of the best
conserved in the region. It has witnessed the unprecedented development of an
extraordinary civilization which came to an abrupt end at the end of the Classic
period (9th and 10th centuries A.D.). Since then the area has remained practically uninhabited and has suffered little contemporary intervention (limited to
logging and gum sap exploitation during the 20th century), which guarantees
its Authenticity and Integrity, representing an exceptional testimony to the
lengthy life of a civilization, and offering a unique possibility for understanding both the basis for its flourishing as well as the causes of its collapse.
OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUE
As a whole, the proposed area constitutes an exceptional cultural and natural
landscape, for it preserves largely untouched remains of the relatively early
development of a splendid civilization, within a hostile environment in
the tropical jungle. It also includes, apart from the remains of settlements, the
paths between sites and within the site (sacbeob), defense systems, quarries,
water management systems (such as reservoirs and aguadas, artificially modified
or natural water ponds), farming elevated fields and other modifications to the
terrain related to strategies of subsistence, all of them part of an extremely
rich and significantly well preserved landscape.
The mature tropical forests of Calakmul provide extraordinary proof of
the lengthy interaction between humans and nature, in so far as they exhibit
a floral composition and a structure that is, in large part, the result of the one
ANCIENT MAYA CITY AND PROTECTED TROPICAL FOREST OF CALAKMUL
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thousand years of forestry and agricultural practices of the Maya, intertwining
human selection processes and the natural regeneration of the system, as well
as traditional management practices considered amongst the native communities that still inhabit the buffer zone and surrounding areas.
The ecosystems of Calakmul are considered amongst the most resistant
due to their adaptati