Río Bec

Río Bec is a sizable site of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in what is now southern Campeche state, Mexico. It is also the name of a style of Maya architecture.

The site of Rio Bec

The Rio Bec site is being excavated and restored by a group of French archaeologists from the CNRS headed by Dominique Michelet. They have relocated several architectonic groups and their surveys and maps of several square kilometers now give us a better understanding of the ancient settlement. Excavation of the principal building at Rio Bec A is now under course; a three tower building with several rooms.

Rio Bec style

Rio Bec temple pyramids are located in the central Maya lowlands. The temple-pyramids are characterized by a unique architectural style that began to appear during the seventh century A.D. and continued into the early twelfth century A.D. The temple-pyramids consist of a range-type building with typically two nonfunctional solid masonry towers on both ends of the range-type building [1]. The twin-towers narrow with ascension in order to give an illusion of greater height. The twin-towers appear to have stairs along their faces leading to the temple that rests atop them. However, the steps are only a design motif that creates the illusion of functional stairs. Even if the steps were functional, the towers rise at steep vertical angles that would make ascending them difficult. The temples, which are located on the platform at the top of the Río Bec towers are inoperative as well. The temples are solid masses with no interior rooms. Pseudo-doorways, which have been built into niches in the fronts of the temples, give the appearance of a functional door [2]. Despite their nonfunctional components, the Río Bec towers hold the typical decorations of a pyramid and its upper temple and at first glance are taken as functional pyramids. The purpose of the Río Bec temple-pyramids is unknown, but they do resemble the twin-tower complexes of Tikal. This might suggests that they were created in an attempt make their society appear higher in stature and wealth. Template:Mesoamerica-stub