An Insight into the Mayan Civilization in Guatemala

The age-old temples and architecture of the Maya civilisation of the Mesoamerican people are quite popular. Native Americans from Mesoamerica known as the Maya live in Southern Mexico, Guatemala and Northern Belize.

More than five million individuals spoke around 30 Mayan languages from the beginning of the 21st century, the majority of them being Spanish-bilingual.

One of the most advanced civilizations in the Western Hemisphere existed among the Mayans before the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Central America (see pre-Columbian civilizations: The earliest Maya civilization of the lowlands).

They engaged in agriculture, constructed enormous stone structures and temple pyramids, worked with gold and copper, and wrote in a kind of hieroglyphic that has now mostly been decoded.

The Mayan civilisation rose to prominence around 250 CE and what archaeologists refer to as the Mayan Classic Period lasted until roughly 900 CE. The Mayan civilization was home to over 40 cities when it was at an all time high, each with an approximate population of 5,000-50,000 people. Many pyramidal temples or palaces can be found in the major remaining Mayan cities and ceremonial centres.

These structures are covered in limestone blocks and decorated with astronomical, ceremonial and narrative reliefs and inscriptions, which have elevated Mayan art to a position of prominence among the Native American cultures. But for years after the Spaniards found the prehistoric Mayan architectural sites, experts were ignorant of the true structure of Mayan society, the significance of its hieroglyphics and the timeline of its history.

Mayan Civilization Today! 

The Maya are the biggest single group of indigenous people living north of Peru, numbering roughly six million now. Mexico includes the major Maya tribes, among which the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000) and Tzeltal (80,000) are the most significant ones.

The Tzotzil and the Tzeltal inhabit the highlands of Chiapas, while the Yucatecs reside on the Yucatán Peninsula, which is warm and tropical.