1331 archeological remains attest that Chichén Itzá and other Itza dominated sites, for example Isla Cerritos, were abandoned. The fall of these sites was contemporary with a gradual incursion of Mexicanized Putún Maya from Tabasco and central Mexico, and it seems that these were indeed the people who caused the fall of the original Itza state. In Petén The Itza then left or were expelled from the Yucatán region and returned south to the Petén Basin region to build the city Nojpetén as their capital. Noj peten means "great island" in Itza'. The early Spanish accounts referred to it as Tayasal, derived from the Nahuatl tah itza ("place of the Itzá"). The Itza' were at the height of their territorial expansion when Cortes arrived on the coastal cities of Chakán Putum and Potonchán in 1519. The Itza' empire covered 230,000 square kilometers, organised into 4 main kingdoms, all of which were subordinate to the Itza': Northern (Cobox) Western (Chontal) Eastern (Mopan and Yalain) Southern (Q'eqchi') The Nahua princess Malintzin (La Malinche / Doña Marina) and 6 other women were given to Cortes at the end of the Battle of Cuintla as a peace act by the Kan Ek' Paxbolon Nachan. In 1523, after the fall of the Aztecs, Hernán Cortés led an expedition to what is now Honduras. While in the territory of the Itza' Empire, he executed the last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, for conspiring to kill him. He later visited Nojpetén with an army of Spaniards and 600 Chontal Maya on his way to Honduras in 1523 and he celebrated mass with the Kan Ek' of the Itza'. The Itza' were the last Maya kingdom to remain independent of the Spanish, and some Spanish priests peacefully visited and preached to the last Itza king as late as 1696. On March 13, 1697, the Itza kingdom finally submitted to Spanish rule, represented by a force led by Martín de Ursua, governor of Yucatán. The northern lowland Petén region includes families that can be traced back to pre-colonial Itza. Although the Itza language is near extinction, Itza agro-forestry practices, including use of dietary and medicinal plants, may still tell much about how pre-colonial Itza managed the Maya lowlands. See also Chichen Itza Itza language Kukulkan Notes References Drew, David (1999) The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. Schele & Matthews (1999) The Code of Kings: The language