The Maya civilization (/ˈmaɪə/) was a Mesoamerican civilization that existed from

antiquity to the early modern period. It is known by its ancient temples and glyphs
(script). The Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing
system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The civilization is also noted for its art,
architecture, mathematics, calendar, and astronomical system.

The Maya civilization developed in the Maya Region, an area that today comprises
southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of
Honduras and El Salvador. It includes the northern lowlands of the Yucatán
Peninsula and the Guatemalan Highlands of the Sierra Madre, the Mexican state of
Chiapas, southern Guatemala, El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific
littoral plain. Today, their descendants, known collectively as the Maya, number
well over 6 million individuals, speak more than twenty-eight surviving Mayan
languages, and reside in nearly the same area as their ancestors.

The Archaic period, before 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture and
the earliest villages. The Preclassic period (c. 2000 BC to 250 AD) saw the
establishment of the first complex societies in the Maya region, and the
cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes,
and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC
these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with
elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by
the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic, a number of large cities developed in
the Petén Basin, and the city of Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan
Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined as when
the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the
Maya civilization develop many city-states linked by a complex trade network. In
the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, the cities of Tikal and Calakmul, became
powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central
Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there
was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in civil
wars, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The
Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of
the aggressive Kʼicheʼ kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century,
the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of
campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city, in 1697.

Rule during the Classic period centred on the concept of the "divine king", who was
thought to act as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship
was usually (but not exclusively)[1] patrilineal, and power normally passed to the
eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader as well
as a ruler. Closed patronage systems were the dominant force in Maya politics,
although how patronage affected the political makeup of a kingdom varied from city-
state to city-state. By the Late Classic period, the aristocracy had grown in size,
reducing the previously exclusive power of the king. The Maya developed
sophisticated art forms using both perishable and non-perishable materials,
including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and
finely painted murals.

Maya cities tended to expand organically. The city centers comprised ceremonial and
administrative complexes, surrounded by an irregularly shaped sprawl of residential
districts. Different parts of a city were often linked by causeways.
Architecturally, city buildings included palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial
ballcourts, and structures specially aligned for astronomical observation. The Maya
elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing. Theirs
was the most advanced writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya
recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, of which only
three uncontested examples remain, the rest having been destroyed by the Spanish.
In addition, a great many examples of Maya texts can be found on stelae and
ceramics. The Maya developed a highly complex series of interlocking ritual
calendars, and employed mathematics that included one of the earliest known
instances of the explicit zero in human history. As a part of their religion, the
Maya practised human sacrifice.

Etymology
"Maya" is a modern term used to refer collectively to the various peoples that
inhabited this area. They did not call themselves "Maya" and did not have a sense
of common identity or political unity.[2]

Geography
Main article: Maya Region

Maya area
The Maya civilization occupied a wide territory that included southeastern Mexico
and northern Central America. This area included the entire Yucatán Peninsula and
all of the territory now in the modern countries of Guatemala and Belize, as well
as the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador.[3] Most of the peninsula is
formed by a vast plain with few hills or mountains and a generally low coastline.
[4] The territory of the Maya covered a third of Mesoamerica,[5] and the Maya were
engaged in a dynamic relationship with neighbouring cultures that included the
Olmecs, Mixtecs, Teotihuacan, and Aztecs.[6] During the Early Classic period, the
Maya cities of Tikal and Kaminaljuyu were key Maya foci in a network that extended
into the highlands of central Mexico;[7] there was a strong Maya presence at the
Tetitla compound of Teotihuacan.[8] The Maya city of Chichen Itza and the distant
Toltec capital of Tula had an especially close relationship.[9]

The Petén region consists of densely forested low-lying limestone plain;[10] a

The littoral zone of Soconusco lies to the south of the Sierra Madre de Chiapas,
[14] and consists of a narrow coastal plain and the foothills of the Sierra Madre.
[15] The Maya highlands extend eastwards from Chiapas into Guatemala, reaching
their highest in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes. Their major pre-Columbian
population centres were in the largest highland valleys, such as the Valley of
Guatemala and the Quetzaltenango Valley. In the southern highlands, a belt of
volcanic cones runs parallel to the Pacific coast. The highlands extend northwards
into Verapaz, and gradually descend to the east.[16]

History
Main article: History of the Maya civilization
The history of Maya civilization is divided into three principal periods: the
Preclassic, Classic, and Postclassic.[17] These were preceded by the Archaic
Period, during which the first settled villages and early developments in
agriculture emerged.[18] Modern scholars regard these periods as arbitrary
divisions of Maya chronology, rather than indicative of cultural evolution or
decline.[19] Definitions of the start and end dates of period spans can vary by as
much as a century, depending on the author.[20]