Mayapan, capital of Postclassic Yucatán

Mayapan lies about 40 km south-east of Mérida, near the village of Telchaquillo. Within a stone wall 9.1 km long, pierced by twelve gates, seven of them vaulted, more than 4,000 structures — most of them houses grouped around small patios — were packed into 4.2 km², and houses also spread for half a kilometre beyond the wall; the population is estimated at 10,000–12,000 within the walls and 15,000–17,000 including the outskirts. The ceremonial centre stands beside the cenote Ch'en Mul. Its main pyramid, the Temple of Kukulcan, a radial temple with four stairways and nine terraces, is broadly similar to the Castillo of Chichén Itzá; three round temples, unusual in the Maya area, were also linked to Kukulcan, the Feathered Serpent, in his aspect as the wind god; unlike Chichén Itzá, Mayapan has no ballcourts. The date of the 1220s comes from the chronicles: radiocarbon dates — among them charcoal of 1020–1170 from the earliest construction phase of the main pyramid — suggest that the Postclassic centre was founded on a modest scale by the 12th century, perhaps even the 11th, and that its rise to a regional capital took a century or more.

Sixteenth-century sources tell its story in different ways. In Diego de Landa's account, Mayapan was founded by Kukulcan after the fall of Chichén Itzá; the lords divided the towns of Yucatán among themselves, chose the head of the Cocom lineage as their ruler and sent members of their families to live in the city — perhaps as hostages for the loyalty of their towns — while mercenaries from Tabasco kept order. The Books of Chilam Balam link the rise of Mayapan with Hunac Ceel, who survived being thrown into the sacred cenote of Chichén Itzá as an offering, took power and overthrew Chichén Itzá. Some reconstructions place the Cocom's rise to power between 1263 and 1283. Mayapan led a group of allies covering much of northern Yucatán and traded directly with Honduras, Belize and the island of Cozumel.

In 1441, according to the chronicles, Ah Xupan of the Xiu, resentful of the Cocom rulers, led a revolt: all the Cocom were killed except one son who was away trading in Honduras, and the city was sacked, burned and abandoned; excavations have found burnt roof beams in several major buildings. Archaeologists tentatively date the end of the city to around 1461, since no altars or burial cists were built after that — hence the interval. After its fall the larger cities declined and Yucatán split into warring city-states; the surviving Cocom prince founded a kingdom centred on Sotuta. John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood described the ruins in 1841; the Carnegie Institution excavated them in the 1950s, and Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History, under Carlos Peraza Lope, and a project led by Marilyn Masson have continued the work.