For a brief period one of those city-states prevailed and became the closest thing to an empire in Maya history. It was ruled by the Snake kings of the Kaanul dynasty, which until just a few ...

In 735, Ruler 3 from the Maya city known today as Dos Pilas, which lies southwest of Tikal, captured the ruler of Seibal, Yich'ak Balam, and his city, leading to about 60 years of foreign rule.

The altar reveals the presence of powerful rulers from Teotihuacan who were there at a time when a coup ousted Tikal’s Maya rulers and replaced them with a Teotihuacan puppet government.

The artworks date between 450 and 800 A.D., a period when Maya kings and queens reigned over large populations and lived in elaborately designed cities. The exhibition highlights how two Maya rulers ...

Further investigations show that the script refers to the life and times of the Mayan rulers. The stairway is essential because their successors destroyed many monuments of previous rulers.

Palenque's wealth of epigraphy (inscriptions) and recorded history has helped archaeologists to build the first time line of rulers of a Maya city—one that, while impressive, is still fuzzy in ...

Each of the ancient Maya cities was ruled by a different king or queen. The Maya believed these rulers had to keep the gods happy. Pakal ruled for 68 years from 615-683 AD, the fifth longest of ...