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By 500 B.C it had about 100,00 TO 200,000 people. The civilization decline in the same location as the Aztecs.  Its people expanded Olmec graphic symbols, but all its books were destroyed about 750 CE, when it seems that unknown invaders burned the city.

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The location of the Mayans is in Yucatan Peninsula. The area where the Mayans is  had poor, infertile soil and no large rivers, not ideal for a flourishing civilization, but the people there built terraces to trap silt from the small rivers. Along with building terraces, they grew corn, beans, squash, peppers, and other goods.

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Another city was developed called teotihuacan. It was located in the highland of mexico. By 500 B.C it had about 100,00 TO 200,000 people. The civilization decline in the same location as the Aztecs.  Its people expanded Olmec graphic symbols, but all its books were destroyed about 750 CE, when it seems that unknown invaders burned the city.

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The founding culture of Mesoamerica appeared along the Gulf of Mexico, in a series of river valleys.

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Was rubber people they lasted from 1400 BCE to 100 BCE.

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This culture produced epic and long-lasting art. Most famous are huge heads carved out of volcanic rock. Some are 10 feet tall and weigh 20 tons.

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The Mayans built their civilizations using ideas they learned from the Olmec , which was a earlier tribe. The Mayans made a vast underground reservoirs that held fresh water safely in times of drought. They also created a written language which is called hieroglyphics, but they mainly called it the "glyphs" for short. In the Mayans they didn't have a central government. They built hundreds of cities and even though there was a lot of cities they all spoke the same language.

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Monumental sculptures often indicate a civilization with powerful leaders. But this culture was more likely a chiefdom than a state with a strong central government.

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The last Olmec site, Tres Zapotes, declined by about 100 BCE because of unknown reasons. Was it volcanic eruptions? A shift in the flow of rivers? Scholars believe that the Olmecs may have deliberately destroyed their capital. Was there civil unrest? Class strife? No one knows.

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It was Mexica people, also known as the Aztecs, that carried Mesoamerican civilization to its height. They built the city of Tenochtitlan “place of the cactus fruit."

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The Mexica came from northern Mexico looking for a place to settle. All the desirable places were already inhabited, except an island in a large lake in the Valley of Mexico. They settled there in 1325. The group was given the name Aztecs by the German explorer Alexander von Humboldt in the early 19th century.  The Mexica/Aztecs built up their food production by creating floating islands of soil, called chinampas, held together by willow trees. Their men hired themselves out as paid soldiers to other towns until they became strong enough to conquer others on their own

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In 1428, they allied themselves with two other neighboring cities to form the so-called Triple Alliance. The Alliance set out to conquer other cities. The conquests also provided sacrificial victims for their religious rituals, carried down from the Olmecs, Maya, and Teotihuacanians. By the early 1500s, the Aztecs had conquered most of Mesoamerica and had imposed their rule on an estimated 11 million to 12 million people. The annual tribute they received in corn alone amounted to 7,000 tons. They also received 2 million cotton cloaks, as well as jewelry, obsidian knives, rubber balls, jaguar skins, parrot feathers, jade, emeralds, seashells, vanilla beans, and chocolate. Without money, everyone was paid in food and goods. Their population had grown to at least 200,000 to 300,000 in the capital. This was several times the size of the contemporary London of King Henry VIII. The Aztecs gave great honor to their warriors. They built their society around a military elite.

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In 1520, just as the Aztec civilization of the Fifth Sun was flourishing, it was destroyed. Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés used horses, guns and steel swords to defeat the Aztecs in battle. Eventually, the Spanish surrounded Tenochtitlan and starved its inhabitants. Many Aztecs died of smallpox. They had no immunity to the disease since it originated in cows. When the Aztecs surrendered, only one-fifth of their initial population remained. The Spanish controlled all of Mexico within 10 years, easily overwhelming the traumatized survivors of this novel disease.

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Two famous leaders are Itzamna and Kukulkan. Itzamna was one of the important deities of Mayan mythology.The ruler of the heavens and of day and night, he was often shown in Mayan art as a pleasant, toothless old man with a large nose. He was also identified as the son of the creator god Hunab Ku. He appears as a cultural hero who gave the Maya the foundations of civilizations.According to legend, he taught them to grow corn, to write, to use calendars, and to practice medicine. He also introduced a system for dividing up the land. Kukulkan, the Aztecs called him Quetzalcoatl and the ancient Maya referred to him as Kukulkan. The the K’iche’ group of Maya named him Gukumatz.He was called the "Mighty Mayan Snake God". Kukulkan was the god of wind, sky and the Sun.  He was a supreme leader of the gods and depicted, just like Quetzalcoatl as a combination of a snake rattlesnake from the quetzal bird.  Kukulkan gave mankind his learning and laws.

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When Europeans arrived, they called these natives “savages.” Provide support to counter this Eurocentric view.

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When Europeans arrived, they called these natives “savages.” Provide support to counter this Eurocentric view.

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How do countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Peru celebrate their indigenous peoples past?

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How do countries such as Mexico, Guatemala, Peru celebrate their indigenous peoples past?

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The International Festival of Mayan Culture, they celebrate with more than 150 events, conferences,   exhibitions, concerts, and shows in Merida, and a lot of them are free. The dancers in Mexico celebrate the Aztec leader in mexico, Ceremonial dancers known as voladores from Papantla perform the "Dance of the Fliers" in Ixcateopan, Mexico, during the ceremony in honor of Cuauhtemoc. The rest of the dancers burn candle and incense in Cuauhtemoc's honor.

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http://www.history.com/topics/maya/videos/the-mayans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2sUCcaPkAE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yneZk5BWdLk