Читать книгу World History For Dummies - Peter Haugen - Страница 99

The Maya culture took shape in Central America by about 1 AD, rising to prominence around 300 AD and enjoying what historians call its Classic Period until about 900 AD, when it went into a long decline.

In the tropical rainforests on the Yucatan Peninsula, in an area spreading over what’s now southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize, and western Honduras, the Maya built on inventions and ideas developed by nearby cultures such as the Olmec (see Chapter 4). The Maya also shared aspects of their culture with the Toltec of northern Mexico, whose great city of Tula (about 40 miles north of present-day Mexico City) covered 13 square miles and was home to as many as 60,000 people. The Toltec predated the Aztecs, who met the Spanish when they arrived in Mexico in 1519. (For more on the Toltec, take a look at Chapter 6.)

The Maya developed astronomy, a sophisticated calendar, and a writing technique similar to Egyptian hieroglyphics. They built terraced cities in neat grids and pyramid temples in ceremonial cities such as Copan, Palenque, and Tikal. Both the cities and temples are now ruins for archaeologists to study and tourists to climb on.

An elite class of priests and nobles ruled the majority, who tended fields cleared from the jungle. Modern experts haven’t settled on why the Maya ultimately abandoned their cities, although environmental decline seems to have been a factor.