Fernando Acevedo and Donato Martín España, researchers with the National Institute of Anthropology and History, said the court is 25 meters long (82 feet) and 4.5 meters (15 feet) wide and lies about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from Mérida.

The discovery took place in the course of excavation for a housing development, whose plan will now have to be modified, said the top land-use official in Yucatán state, José Carlos Guzmán Alcocer.

Acevedo and Martín España said they have encountered in the area some 1,500 mounds that have yielded important data about the Maya civilization.

Martín España said the discovery of the ball court, which he described as 70 percent intact, confirmed that the Mayas of the Mérida region attained a level of development comparable to the Mayan city-state of Tabasco, Guatemala and Oaxaca.

The ball game was common to several Mesoamerican cultures, and the earliest known courts date from as early as 1500 B.C.

The game illustrated the Maya account of the creation of the sun and moon, said to have taken place after a match in which the gods Hunahpu and Ixbalanque fought lords of the underworld.