Maya religion embraced their kings as a divine ruler. As such, many of the monumental structures remaining from the Maya civilization highlight a link between Maya rulers and the divine.
These structures had been contracted by rulers and provide a glimpse of Maya divinity prior to contact with the Spanish missionaries in the 16th century. Despite Spanish attempts to evangelize the local population, Spanish missionaries were unable to tear down these monumental structures, representative of a Maya divinity untouched by missionary efforts.