Izapa, a Preclassic site in Chiapas, Mexico, was occupied from about 1500 B.C. until the time of the Spanish invasion in the 16th C.

The ancient city is best known for its art style, which has both Olmec and Mayan elements but is unique in its incorporation of local flora and fauna motifs. The images found on the more than 250 sculptures, stelae and altars are full of motion, and depict both animal and human figures flying, wrestling, and paddling canoes, and also depict movement between the earth and sky. One image repeated on several stelae and altars is of a figure called the "Long-Lipped God". This god is believed to be the ancestral figure of Chac, who is the Mayan god of rain and lightning. The images of this deity are among the first confirmation of the gods worshipped by the Maya.

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