Who were the Mayans? How did they live?

The Mayan people were the first people to settle in the area of Southern Mexico, Guatemala, western Honduras, Belize, and northern El Salvador. They first came to Yuchatan area in around 2600 B.C, building many cities across the region.  Their people have left behind an amazing number of ruins as they were incredible architects. They built palaces, pyramids, temples made of stone -- many are still standing today.

     When my family went to the Mayan Riviera, we got to see one of the Seven Wonders of the World, a pyramid at Chichen-Itza. The pyramid was built with stone steps that led to the heavens. At the top of the pyramid a priest made human sacrafices, pulling out the heart and offering it to the gods.  We also saw many other temples.



     The Mayans had many religious beliefs. They worshipped 160 gods and goddesses and held religious ceremonies, prayed, fasted, and made animal and human sacrifices to keep the gods happy. Bloodletting was also another ritual which involved people cutting themselves and bleeding (also as a type of sacrafice).

Mayans painted their bodies red, black, white, and blue. As you can see from the warrior above, they looked very fierce.  They also believed in shaping the heads of their babies by placing boards on them, so that their forheads would slope back.


Another interesting feature about the Mayan people was that they were a very advanced civilization. They used hieroglyphics to write down their history and beliefs and they used dots and lines to sympbolize numbers. Skilled at astronomy as well, they charted the moon and sun, and developed a calendar of 365 days to track the orbit of the sun.


Although the Mayans were a large civilization with many cities, the tribes were constantly fighting so major places, like Chichen-Itza were built and then abandoned due to war and disease. By the 16^th century, the Mayan people were conquered by the Spanish who came to the New World.