The Ancient Mayan Civilization The ancient Maya were a group of American Indian peoples who lived in southern Mexico, particularly the present-day states of Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatan, and Quintana Roo, and in Belize, Guatemala, and adjacent Honduras. Their descendants, the modern Maya, live in the same regions today, in both highlands and lowlands, from cool highland plains ringed by volcanos to deep tropical rain forests. Through the region runs a single major river system, …showed first 75 words of 580 total…

…showed last 75 words of 580 total…game--were supplements. The word for maize—wa—is synonymous with food itself, and the maize god was honored from early times. Sometime around the end of the Classic Period, the Maya were split up into independent city-states. The nobles of these city-states intermarried and waged war on each other. This civil war, along with the recent change in their system of government, led to the decline of the great Mayan Empire and ultimately, its demise.