page_title: Yaxha
section_title: Terminal Classic
hierarchical_section_title: Yaxha / History / Terminal Classic
caption_attribution_description: English: CC-BY-SA 1.0 and GNU FDL file made by Eivind. Found by GURoadrunner at WikiTravel - URL: http://wikitravel.org/en/Image:Guatemala-Peten-around-Flores.png. Dual licensed under CC-BY-SA 1.0 and GNU FDL according to author at that site.
context_page_description: Yaxha is a Mesoamerican archaeological site in the northeast of the Petén Basin region, and a former ceremonial centre and city of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Yaxha was the third largest city in the region and experienced its maximum power during the Early Classic period.
  The city was located on a ridge overlooking Lake Yaxha. The name of the city derives from the Mayan for "blue-green water"; it is a notable survival of a Classic period place-name into the modern day. The Yaxha kingdom is estimated to have covered an area of 237 square kilometres and to have had a peak population of 42,000 in the Late Classic period of Mesoamerican chronology.
  Yaxha had a long history of occupation with the first settlement being founded sometime in the Middle Preclassic period. It developed into the largest city in the eastern Petén lakes region during the Late Preclassic and expanded into an enormous city during the Early Classic. At this time, in common with other sites in Petén, it shows strong influence from the distant metropolis of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico. It was eclipsed during the Late Classic by neighbouring Naranjo but was never completely dominated.
context_section_description: There is no evidence of the rapid collapse of the Yaxha polity in the Terminal Classic (c. AD 800–900) as took place at other cities in the vicinity. Instead there is evidence of renewed and widespread construction activity. It is apparent that the local elite made every effort to prolong the city's Late Classic political system. Some entry controls to the city were removed in order to encourage the flow of visitors to Yaxha from surrounding areas that were more immediately affected by the Classic Maya collapse.
caption: Map of the eastern Petén lakes region
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