Introduction: The Maya lived in Central America for hundreds of years. They lived mainly in Guatemala, Western Honduras, Belize and Mexico. Their civilization reached its peak between 300 and 900 A.D.

They built wonderful cities and monuments. The Mayan were very good at mathematics science and astronomy just like the Egyptions. They recorded books as well. Around 1200 A.D. the Mayan changed and left their wonderful cities and went to their villages in the heart of the jungle.

When European explorers came in the 16th century they found only the things that survived and it showed that this civilisation was once great. Many of the once great Mayan cities are buried in the jungle now.

Click here to see a map of the Maya area.

Geography of the Mayas

Location: The Maya area extends eastward from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Then west and north of it, lies the non-Maya part of land, which the archaeologists call "Mexico". The southern limits of the Maya area have varied over the centuries. The Maya area occupied the Yucatan Peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas, Mexico and parts of Guatemala, El Salvador and extreme western Honduras

Click here to see a map of the Maya area.

Climate: The climate is hot and steamy. Trees, plants, and jungle animals can be found around the marshy coasts and on the high mountains.

Vegetation: Where the Mayan lived was full of forest, bushes, and grass. In the south there lay great mountains with thick tropical rain forests. The weather was usually warm and the rain forest was very hot. And there was plenty of rain so crops grow easily.

Many Mayans were farmers. The farmers would only have to work with their crops for about 50 days a year which is not much. And the rest of the year they were free to serve there rulers or gods if they wanted they sometimes (this is only for the men) build temples and roads as well.

Here is is a report on the rainforest today in the Mayan area MayaQuest 1998.

Pages Created: Tuesday, 12-May-98 11:50:14 EST
URL: http://www.best.com/~swanson/maya/eg_maya_project3.html
This page has been visited . times since August 15, 1997
Web pages developed by L.C. Swanson.