Ruins of a Mayan settlement

This structure is part of a newly discovered Maya settlement in Mexico.

Lorenzo Hernandez/Reuters

STANDARDS

Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.4, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, W.6-8.4, SL.6-8.1

NCSS: Culture • Time, Continuity, and Change • People, Places, and Environments • Science, Technology, and Society • Global Connections

GEOGRAPHY

Lost City of the Maya

New clues from a Maya settlement in Mexico reveal how members of the ancient civilization lived, worked, and mapped out their cities.

In 2015, a construction crew was digging near Mérida, a city on Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. Suddenly, their tools hit something hard in the ground. As the workers continued to dig, they began uncovering massive stone slabs. 

The local archaeologists who came to investigate couldn’t believe what the workers had found: a Maya settlement at least 1,100 years old!

A History of the Maya
Watch a video about the ancient Maya civilization.

The Maya were an ancient civilization that originated around 2000 B.C. in what is now Mexico and Central America. They built a thriving empire and had many achievements in math, science, and writing. But Spanish armies conquered the Maya, starting in the early 1500s. Modern researchers have been left to piece together information about the civilization from the remains of its cities.

The newly discovered ruins—called Xiol (zuh-EYE-ul)—are spread across more than 50 acres. So far, archaeologists have found palaces, smaller homes, and workshops. They’ve also uncovered a pyramid-like structure and a well that could have been a water source. 

Experts say as many as 4,000 Maya may have lived in Xiol, including nobility and everyday citizens. 

“There were people . . . who lived in these great palaces, and there were also the common people who lived in small buildings,” archaeologist Carlos Peraza Lope told reporters. 

Enlargeable painting depicting ancient Mayan life where there are huts, people and boats along river

World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

The Maya created this painting, which shows life in a busy coastal village.

Ahead of Their Time

Among their accomplishments, the Maya created an advanced form of writing. They also invented a system of numbers that was one of the first to use symbols to represent zero.

What’s more, the Maya tracked planets, the moon, and the sun before telescopes were invented. They used this information to create a calendar based on Earth’s orbit around the sun, long before Europeans did. 

The Maya were also skilled farmers. They grew everything from corn to avocados, despite living on hilly, swampy land.

Enlargeable image of Chichén Itzá

Richie Chan/Shutterstock.com

The ruins of Chichén Itzá are among the most famous ancient Maya sites today.

Mapping Maya Cities

As their empire grew, the Maya founded several cities, including Chichén Itzá in Mexico and Tikal in Guatemala. They paid close attention to compass directions when planning their communities (see "Understanding Directions and Distance," below). A number of Maya pyramids and ceremonial buildings face certain directions to align with the sun and stars. Some Maya kings even built their palaces to the north of other buildings because they believed that direction represented power.

To connect their growing cities, the Maya designed networks of roadways, which they traveled by foot. Experts have even found a system of Maya “highways” in Guatemala that stretched more than 150 miles!

But by the mid-1500s, the Spanish had conquered most of the empire in search of gold. The last Maya city fell in 1697.

The Maya Legacy

Today, more than 7 million Maya descendants live in Mexico and Central America. Their ancestors continue to fascinate people, and the city of Xiol is the latest reason why.

Many of Xiol’s buildings feature an ornate style of Maya architecture that was common in the southern Yucatán Peninsula but rare in the north, where the city is located. And perhaps even more curious, all of Xiol’s buildings face eastward.

As with every Maya mystery that remains today, scientists hope that—with time—they’ll learn why.

SKILL SPOTLIGHT: Using Direction and Distance

Use the map of the Maya Empire (above) and the information you have learned about direction and distance to answer the questions.

1. What do we use to find direction on a map?

2. What are the cardinal directions?

3. What are the intermediate directions?

4. Which labeled national capital is southwest of the Maya ruins of Tikal?

5. What is used to measure distance on a map?

6. About how many miles separate the Maya ruins of Xiol and Chichén Itzá?

7. In kilometers, about how far apart are the capitals of Guatemala and El Salvador?

8. Which Maya ruins are about 185 miles northwest of the capital of Honduras? 

9. In which intermediate direction would you travel to get from Tikal to Copán?

10. Which labeled city is about 160 kilometers southwest of Xiol?

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