The Peten Itza kingdom was a kingdom centered on the island-city of Nojpetén on Lake Peten Itza.
Nojpetén
Bernal Díaz del Castillo described Nojpetén in Chapter CLXXVIII of his Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España
Nojpetén was closely packed with buildings that included temples, palaces and thatched houses.
In 1698 Spanish accounts describe the city as having had twenty-one temples, the largest of these (which the Spanish called a castillo (castle or palace) had a square base measuring on each side. It had nine stepped levels and faced northward; it appeared very similar in design to the principal pyramids at Chichen Itza and Mayapan in Yucatán. This was about half the size of the Mayapan castillo; its nine levels may each have been less than high; the pyramid would still have been imposing. It possibly had only one access stairway rather than the four radial stairways found in the examples in Yucatán. The pyramid was topped by a flat-roofed summit shrine that contained idols representing Itza gods. The dismantling of this pyramid would have required considerable effort but no mention of this is found in Spanish records.
When Spanish missionary Andrés de Avendaño y Loyola visited the city in early 1696, nine of the temples had recently been burnt during a Kowoj Maya attack and subsequently rebuilt; during the attack many houses had also been destroyed. Ritual ceramics, identified by the Spanish as idols, were arranged in pairs upon small benches throughout the city. The Spanish set about destroying the pagan idols after conquering the city.
History
Separation
In 1175, the league began to disintegrate. A Cocom man named Ceel Cauich Ah was thrown into the cenote of Chichen Itza. The cenote is a deep hole filled with water. It is 15 meters from the ground to the water, and the walls are very steep. It is considered an entrance to the afterlife, and it is almost impossible to climb out. But Ceel managed to climb out. He proclaimed himself Ajaw, a spiritual and political leader. He also renamed himself Hunac Ceel Cauich. The Itzas did not recognize his authority. Ceel gathered many followers from Mayapan and the Cocom region. In 1194 Hunac Ceel Cauich declared war on Chac Chac Xib, one of four rulers of Chichén Itzá. The other three brothers were Sac Xib Chac, Chac Ek Yuuan and Hun Yuuan Chac (also called uooh Puc). Itzáes finally migrated to Tayasal, an island on Lake Peten Itza, in 1194.
Early 16th century
In 1525, after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, Hernán Cortés led an expedition to Honduras over land, cutting across the Itza kingdom en route. His aim was to subdue the rebellious Cristóbal de Olid, whom he had sent to conquer Honduras, but Cristóbal de Olid had set himself up independently on his arrival in that territory. Cortés arrived at the north shore of Lake Petén Itzá on 13 March 1525; he was met there by the Aj Kan Ek'. The Roman Catholic priests accompanying the expedition celebrated mass in the presence of Kan Ek', who was said to be so impressed that he pledged to worship the Cross and to destroy his idols. Cortés accepted an invitation from the king to visit Nojpetén, and crossed to the Maya city with a small contingent of Spanish soldiers while the rest of his army continued around the lake to meet him on the south shore. Cortés left behind a lame horse that the Itza treated as a deity, attempting to feed it poultry, meat, and flowers, but the animal soon died.