4 ms·

Slightly related: I'm on a trip visiting many maya ruins, and I find it fascinating that they were really good at astronomy, their buildings are off by around 1

• ks2048 3y ago
  Are you referring to something on this page or data from elsewhere? The only one close is Mexico City, which wasn't Mayan, but Aztec (and others before that). It was originally an island, so maybe that had something do with the original orientation.
  • kmarc 3y ago
    No, I wasn't, so risking all the down votes for being off-topic. Just in general, I had this observation by looking at (openstreet)maps. A nice inclusion in this list would be though the planned, checker board colonial towns (like Antigua, Cuenca, or Alejuela), which are surprisingly also off by some degrees, and probably all have their explanation (nearby volcano, river, etc)
    • defrost 3y ago
      > their buildings are off by around 1 degree. Maybe this statement needs to be clarified a little ... "Off by one degree" with respect to what? * the modern rotational polar north * the modern GPS north * the modern sunset | sunrise on { longest | shortest } day of year Or any of these back calculated to the time of the city in questions founding? It's not clear what it is you think these cities should be aligned to, and are deviating from.
      • AlotOfReading 3y ago
        Most of the major Maya sites (e.g. Palenque, chich'en itza) have fairly well supported astronomical alignments, usually with the sun around equinoxes and solstices. It's usually at the level of individual buildings though, as the roads are rarely very straight except near the major ceremonial complexes.
• jcranmer 3y ago
  Precession of the equinoxes?