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Tikal
The Ancient Maya and their Legacy
Beginning nearly 5,000 years ago and stretching across the jungles and forests of what today are parts of four countries; Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras, the early indigenous peoples of this region organized themselves into kingdoms and regionally dominant civilizations, building along the way the fabled cities, temples and palaces of the ancient Mayan people.
While Europe still slumbered in the midst of the Dark Ages, these innovative people had charted the heavens, evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas and were masters of mathematics and calendars. Without advantage of metal tools, beasts of burden or even the wheel... they were able to construct vast cities with an astonishing degree of architectural perfection and variety. Their legacy in stone, which has survived in a spectacular fashion at places such as Palenque. Tikal, Tulum, Chichen Itza, Copan and Uxmal, lives on in areas still inhabited by their descendants... the living Mayan peoples.
History
The Mayan culture, which probably emerged around 1500 B.C., made its mark on human history with an advanced civilization that stretched from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula to northwestern Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya built large city-states, developed sophisticated agricultural techniques, created a hieroglyphic writing system, and used their advanced mathematical and astronomical knowledge to develop a precise calendar system. Some of their greatest cities lay in El Peten, a lowland tropical region in the northernmost part of Guatemala, bordering Mexico and comprising one-third of the country's territory.
From A.D. 100 to 900 the cities of El Peten marked the height of Mayan civilization, distinguishing the region as the "hearth" of the Mayan culture. Overpopulation, which caused the region's people to destroy their forests and deplete their soil and other resources, most likely brought about the collapse of the civilization in the 10th century. Most Maya moved to other regions, while some smaller communities remained in El Peten and survived until the Spanish conquest in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Today, the population in El Peten is relatively sparse but growing rapidly. Since the 1960s, when the government opened a road into the region, the population has increased from 25,000 to more than 500,000 as people immigrated from elsewhere in the country. Only a small portion of the region's inhabitants are direct descendants of the ancient Maya of El Peten, but many trace their ancestry to the Maya of other regions.
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