In "Histoire des nations civilisées du Mexique et de l'Amérique Centrale" (1857), Charles Étienne Brasseur de Bourbourg claimed Votan was an ancient Phoenician "legislateur" who had migrated from the Middle East to the Maya area, defeated a race called the Quiname, built the city of Palenque, and established an empire called Xibalba that was postulated by Brasseur de Bourbourg to have once covered all of Mexico and part of the United States. Subsequent Mayanist scholarship has found little support for Phoenician contact with ancient Mesoamerica, and identifies Xibalba as a mythical place rather than a political entity.