Mel Gibson has shown his incompetence again. The Mayan Empire (actually a bunch of city states much like Greece), during the Classic Period (300-900 A.D.) was considered by many to be the peak of all of the Mexican cultures. Astronomy, language, religion, culture achieved their highest potential during this time, and had declined by 900 AD and disappeared entirely by 1200 AD. The achievements of the post-Classic period, 900-1521 A.D., were a far cry from the CLassic Period; the cities were in decay and the people scattered; nothing of the city life portrayed in the movie existed in 1519, when Cortes first entered the Yucatan peninsula. By the time of Cortes' first landing on San Juan de Ulúa island near the future city of Veracruz in 1518 (no other Spaniards had landed in Mexico other than a couple of shipwrecks in 1511 or so), the Mayan city states (no where near Veracruz, where Cortes landed) had long since disappeared. And the area around Veracruz was under Aztec control, not Mayan.<br /><br />The temple of Kulkulcan in Chichen Itza; which was in it's height from 800-1200 A.D. somewhat resembles the temple in the movie, but the sacrifices portrayed in the movie were more characteristic of the Aztec Empire (Tenochtitlan, now Mexico City). Though Mexican influence (earlier Teotehuican and Mixtec, and later Aztec) was felt in Chichen Itza in the Classic and Post Classic Period, it is unlikely that sacrifice on the Aztec scale ever occurred on the Yucatan peninsula.<br /><br />THis is misleading, and at it's worst, racist. If you are looking for an action movie, look no further. But if you are looking for an accurate examination of the Mayan civilization, keep looking.<br /><br />To the Christian zealots who say "This is a film about the horrors of the Mesoamerican world and how the arrival of Europeans and the Christian faith that motivated them ultimately put an end to that paganistic hell on earth.", I say that the Spaniards and the Catholic church are responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths by starvation, disease and slavery. The Church enslaved millions of American natives to dig out gold and silver to send back to the Church. They destroyed literature and religion and science in the name of Catholicism. They decimated the New Worlds and destroyed civilizations greater than anything Europe has ever produced, in the name of the Christian faith. You people underline what it is that most people understand about zealots: they lie in the name of their cause. Any sacrifice by others is worth the good they reap in the name of their faith. They are hypocrites.