Mayan Civilization: Calendar, Pyramids & Ruins| HISTORY | HISTORY By: HISTORY.com Editors Ancient Americas Maya HISTORY.com Editors Werner Forman/Universal Images Group/Getty ImagesPublished: October 29, 2009Last Updated: October 16, 2025 Table of contents 1 Where Did the Maya Live? 2 Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250 3 Mayan Pyramids of the Classic Maya, A.D. 250-900 4 The Mayan Calendar and Culture 5 Maya Life in the Rainforest 6 What Happened to the Maya? 7 Do the Maya Still Exist? Table of contents The Mayan Empire, centered in the tropical lowlands of what is now Guatemala, reached the peak of its power and influence around the sixth century A.D. The Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, writing, calendars and mathematics, and left behind an astonishing amount of impressive architecture and symbolic artwork. Most of the great stone cities of the Maya were abandoned by A.D. 900, however, and since the 19th century scholars have debated what might have caused this dramatic decline. Where Did the Maya Live? The Maya civilization was one of the most dominant Indigenous societies of Mesoamerica (a term used to describe Mexico and Central America before the 16th-century Spanish conquest). Mayan Architecture Ancient Mayan structures have lasted thousands of years, and their designs continue to influence modern architecture. 1:35m watch Unlike other scattered Indigenous populations of Mesoamerica, the Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala; Belize and parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas; and the western part of Honduras and El Salvador. This concentration showed that the Maya remained relatively secure from invasion by other Mesoamerican peoples. Did you know? Among the earliest Maya a single language existed, but by the Preclassic Period a great linguistic diversity developed among the various Maya peoples. In modern-day Mexico and Central America, around 5 million people speak some 70 Maya languages; most of them are bilingual in Spanish. Within that expanse, the Maya lived in three separate sub-areas with distinct environmental and cultural differences: the northern Maya lowlands on the Yucatan Peninsula; the southern lowlands in the Peten district of northern Guatemala and adjacent portions of Mexico, Belize and western Honduras; and the southern Maya highlands, in the mountainous region of southern Guatemala. Most famously, the Maya of the southern lowland region reached their peak during the Classic Period of Maya civilization (A.D. 250 to 900), and built the great stone cities and monuments that have fascinated explorers and scholars of the region to this day.