Lost Civilizations: The Maya Civilization.

The Mayans

Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization which located in southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. They excelled at agriculture, mathematics, astronomy, writing, art and architecture.

The fist mayan settlements established in the Soconusco region of the Pacific Coast araund 1800 BC. They settled down in an arable area so they started to grow crops like corn, beans, squashes and cassava. In addition to agriculture, they also displayed more advanced activities like building temples and pyramids.

They developed their first civilization during this period. Villages began to grow to form cities. " Nakbe " in Petén department of Guatemala is the earliest city in Maya lowlands. Monochrome vessels, narrow necked jars, multicolored bowls were found during the archelogical excavations. This indicates to a development in pottery and fine arts. Besides, they built a pyramid called " Structure 1 " which is one of the most impressive and largest buildings in the region.

El Mirador, in the northern Peten, was one of the greates cities that have ever built in pre-colombian Americas.El Mirador means " The Lookout " in Spanish because of the tall pyramids. It covered nearly 16 square kilometers and reached a population up to 100.000 during its reign. The city had its own structure style including tall pyramids and monumental architecture which are10 to 72 meters high. Also Tikal - a city which is going to be the center of the Maya civilization in the upcoming years was not as large as Tikal but it kept developing and became a significant city around 350 BC.

On the other hand, in the highlands Kaminaljuyu was a emergent city also Takalik Abaj and Chocolá were the two important cities of Pacific Coastal plain.