ABSTRACT
The peoples of ancient Mesoamerica (roughly modern Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize) developed complex urban civilizations in the 3,000 years before the coming of the Spanish in 1519. An essential aspect of these civilizations was a shared conception of space. Mesoamerican ideas about space can be seen in the construction of buildings, the story of cosmic creation, and the layout of city centers. While the activities involved in building structures or planning urban spaces may seem removed from stories explaining the creation of the universe, Mesoamericans’ basic ideas about space drew all of these together into a coherent, meaningful whole.
