Maya Civilization
Discover the Maya civilization — the Mesoamerican culture that developed hieroglyphic writing, sophisticated mathematics, and the Long Count calendar.
The Maya civilization was one of the most intellectually sophisticated cultures of the ancient Americas. Flourishing across modern-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and El Salvador, the Maya developed the only fully literate culture in the pre-Columbian Americas, along with mathematical and astronomical achievements that rivaled anything in the contemporary Old World.
Maya intellectual accomplishments were extraordinary. They independently developed the concept of zero — centuries before it appeared in Europe. Their astronomers calculated the length of the solar year to an accuracy of within 20 seconds, and tracked the cycles of Venus with remarkable precision. The Long Count calendar, capable of dating events millions of years into the past and future, reflects a conception of time on a cosmic scale. Their hieroglyphic writing system, only fully deciphered in recent decades, recorded history, mythology, astronomy, and royal genealogies.
Unlike the Aztec or Inca empires, the Maya never formed a single unified state. Their world was a network of independent city-states — Tikal, Calakmul, Palenque, Copán — linked by trade, diplomacy, and frequent warfare. Each city was ruled by a divine king whose authority was legitimized through elaborate rituals. The great Maya cities, with their towering pyramids and intricately carved stone monuments, remain among the most impressive archaeological sites in the world.