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https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya
Los mayas estaba en los tierras bajas tropicales que es ahora guatemala. Los mayas es tienen la mayoria de las grandes ciudades de pierdra. Se constuian templos, y palacios y decorando con relieves y inscripciones. Los historiadoras se conosan a los Mayas provienen los de lo que queda de su argicultura y arte. Ellas crean esculturas y tallas de pierdras en sus edificios y monimentos.

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https://www.classzone.com/net_explorations/U4/U4_article1.cfm
Yo aprendí información sobre  las Mayas, Incas y Aztecas. Los civilizaciones eran de México y Sudamérica en el pasado.  Los Mayas inventaron astronomía. Las Aztecas crean Tenochtitlan. Los Incas eran una civilzación en Cuzco. Vivían en las montañas.

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https://www.ducksters.com/history/aztec_maya_inca.php
Aprendí mucho sobre estos tres grupos. Aprendí dónde estaban, que era México y mucha América del Sur. Me enteré de que los aztecas llamaban a su líder Tlatoani. Aprendí que los mayas eran buenos en matemáticas y otras cosas. lo último que aprendí fue que el primer líder inca fue Manco Capac

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https://www.britannica.com/topic/Inca
Las incas son las personas viven en Chile. Las incas creían en reincarnation. Las Incas construyeron los temples grande. La economía incas era la agricultura. También construyeron largos caminos

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(Esto es un ejemplo).
Aquí debes escribir una descripción de lo que aprendiste en 5-6 frases completas en español, usando tus PROPIAS PALABRAS.
Después, añade la página web dónde aprendiste esta información. (Use the link symbol).

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In A Nutshell

The Olmec, Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations are some of the greatest ancient civilizations in history, and yet we know very little about them compared to other parts of the world. The Olmecs are frequently forgotten entirely, and the rest are often lumped together or confused, but they were all completely distinct. In short, the Maya came first, and settled in modern-day Mexico. Next came the Olmecs, who also settled Mexico. They didn't build any major cities, but they were widespread and prosperous. They were followed by the Inca in modern-day Peru, and finally the Aztecs, also in modern-day Mexico.

The Whole Bushel

The Maya were the first Mesoamerican civilization, starting around 2600 B.C. They lasted the longest of all and are often viewed as the greatest Mesoamerican civilization. They built most of their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Although they were around first, the Maya only really rose to greatness in those later years after adopting much of their culture from the younger Olmec civilization. The Maya went on to leave behind a longer, more prosperous legacy, encompassing parts of Mexico, Guatamala, El Salvador, Belize, and Honduras. They were ruled by kings and priests and were not wiped out like some of the other cultures, but gradually dissipated. Their exact relationship with the Olmecs remains unclear.

So the Olmecs were the first major Mesoamerican culture, despite being younger than the Mayans. The name "Olmec" was almost certainly not what they called themselves but is derived from Aztec writings. The Olmecs established themselves around 1400 B.C. and lasted about 1,000 years, occupying a reasonably large amount of land. They were good farmers, artists, mathematicians, and astronomers. They wrote in hieroglyphics, as did most of the cultures that followed them. They never built any major cities that we know of, but they did leave one pyramid behind before they gradually disappeared. Their most famous legacy is the mystery of the Olmec heads: 3-meter (9 ft) tall heads resembling African warriors made from stone found over 130 kilometers (80 mi) away.

The Inca civilization can be traced back to about A.D. 1200. They lived in the mountains of Peru, far removed from the Olmecs, Maya, and Aztecs, and at the peak of their power, the civilization extended for 4,000 kilometers (2,500 mi) and included 16 million people. They were extremely advanced and had an army, laws, roads, bridges, tunnels, and a complicated irrigation system far ahead of its time. However, they never invented a system of writing, instead using knotted ropes for record-keeping. A civil war over the rightful heir to the throne meant that when the Spanish invaded, the Inca were easily defeated. The empire fell in 1533.

The Aztecs founded their biggest city, Tenochtitlan, in A.D. 1325, meaning they were much younger than any of the other three. Tenochtitlan was built on an island in a Mexican lake called Lake Texcoco. They gradually conquered the rest of the area, until they fell in 1521 at the hands of Spanish invaders. Although they were not as advanced as the Inca, they did have a 365-day calendar and used hieroglyphics.

Though the cultures are alike in many ways, such as their building of pyramids, human sacrifices, and use of hieroglyphics (bar the Inca), they are four distinct cultures that rose and fell at different times for different reasons. To quickly sum up, the Maya were first but learned a lot from the Olmecs, who started 1,200 years later. The Aztecs followed about 400 years after the Mayan civilization began to shrink. The Inca were from a completely different area and lasted less than 300 years before being wiped out, while still managing to become the most advanced in their short life.

Show Me The Proof

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The Difference Between The Aztec, Maya, Inca, And Olmec - KnowledgeNuts

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The Olmec, Mayan, Incan, and Aztec civilizations are some of the greatest ancient civilizations in history, and yet we know very little about them compared to other parts of the world. The Olmecs are frequently forgotten entirely, and the rest are often lumped together or confused, but they were all completely distinct.

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Mi informacion: https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya
En mi opinión, las Mayas son muy interesante. Las Mayas son de México. Las May tienen muchas arquitectas. Las Mayas son antiguas y muy divertida de aprender. Por diversión, las Mayas jugarían usando una pelota de goma.

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https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya

Las Mayas son de México, en la Península de Yucatán. Su idioma es Yucatec Maya. Las Mayas han construido muchas ciudades de piedra. A ellos le gustaban jugar el famoso juego Ulalma. En el juego, las Mayas jugarían usando una pelota de goma. Ellos tratarían de pasar la pelota por el gol.

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Los aztecas eran un pueblo que vinieron a América del Sur en el siglo XIII. Ellos desarrollaron estructuras avanzados. Sus templos fueron similares a los pirámides de Egipto. Vivieron en la región de México. Cuando el Imperio español llegó en la área durante el siglo XVI, el imperio de las aztecas cayó en 2 años. Se recuerdan como un civilización intersante y más differente de los impresos de Europa y Asía
https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/aztecs

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La civilización de Azteca es muy interesante. Fues fundada en 1428. Su gobierna era monarquía. Es un parte de México hoy. La capital es Tenochtitlán. Es muy bonita hoy y es muy grande.

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https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/aztecs
La civilización antigua de los Aztecs ocurrió en el siglo 15 y 16. Es una civilización muy intersante. Es intersante porque la civilización esta en el lago Texcoco. Su líder se llamaba Itzcoatl. Hay seis millón gentes en la cuidad y la ciudad capital es Tenochtitlán.

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https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/aztecs

Las aztecas son de México. Ellos aparecieron en Mesoamérica en el siglo XIII. Hablaban Nahuatl y tenían una cultura rica. Había una sistema agricola muy avanzada. En 1428, las aztecas, los texcocanos, y los tacubanes se aliaron. Las aztecas crecieron en un poderoso grande. En 1500, Tenochtitlán tenía 140,000 personas.

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Los Aztecs eran de México. Su idioma es Náhuatl. Tenían 500 estados pequeños y de 5 a 6 millones de personas. Su ciudad capital es Tenochtitlan. Hernán Cortés tomó todo la Tenochtitlán en 1521.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/aztecs
https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya

Los mayas, aztecas e incas son de América  Sur y América Central. Los tres todos tienen muchos símbolos. En el área de las civilizaciones, hay muchas ruinas. Los Maya y Aztecas había sacrificios humanos. Los maya tuvieron muchos observatorios. Los Aztecos estudiaron las planetas y crearon un calendario.

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La civilización de Aztecs eran un tribu en Mexico. Vivieron en el Lago Texcoco. El tiempo era bien y tenían bien agricultura. Hicieron muchas cerámicas. Arqueólogos excavan las cerámicas muchos siglos luego. La ciudad capital de Aztec era Tenochtitlán.

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The name Aztec is derived from Aztlán (variously translated as "White Land," "Land of White Herons," or "Place of Herons"), an allusion to their origins, probably in northwestern Mexico. They were also called the Tenochca, from an eponymous ancestor, Tenoch, and the Mexica, probably from Metzliapán ("Moon Lake"), the mystical name for Lake Texcoco. From Tenochca was derived the name of their great city, Tenochtitlán, founded on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. From Mexica came the name for the city that superseded the Aztec capital and for the surrounding valley, which was applied later to the whole Mexican nation. The Aztecs referred to themselves as Culhua-Mexica, to link themselves with Colhuacán, the centre of the most-civilized people of the Valley of Mexico. See also pre-Columbian civilizations: Aztec culture to the time of the Spanish conquest.

Origins of the Aztec people

The origin of the Aztec people is uncertain, but elements of their own tradition suggest that they were a tribe of hunters and gatherers on the northern Mexican plateau before their appearance in Mesoamerica in perhaps the 12th century ce; Aztlán, however, may be legendary. It is possible that their migration southward was part of a general movement of peoples that followed, or perhaps helped trigger, the collapse of the highly developed Toltec civilization of central Mexico and its capital, Tula, a spectacular urban centre that featured pyramids, temples, public buildings, and statuary.

At the beginning of the 12th century, catastrophe befell Toltec civilization when Tula was attacked and destroyed, as were other important Toltec centres. Tribes of hunters and gatherers, including a group of Chichimec under the leadership of Xólotl, took advantage of the situation and traveled from the arid plateau of northern Mexico toward the fertile, heavily settled central zone. Xólotl's Chichimec joined forces with the remaining Toltecs, resulting in a period of relative peace and cultural progress in the Valley of Mexico. During this time the Aztecs, who, according to legend, had been wandering in search of a new place to settle, established a precarious home near the ruins of Tula. There they improved their approach to agriculture and acquired other technological knowledge.

However, their stay was temporary. Aztec tradition holds that the god Huitzilopochtli instructed them to depart again in search of a permanent home, the location of which would be revealed by the appearance of an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a serpent in its beak (an image that is memorialized on Mexico's national flag). A long pilgrimage ensued that ended in 1325 on a small island in Lake Texcoco, where, it is said, elder members of the people spotted the eagle, the cactus, and the serpent. There they built a temple and, around it, on islands in Lake Texcoco, the first dwellings of what was to become the powerful city of Tenochtitlán.

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Aztec | History, Empire, Facts, Location, & Culture

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The ninth emperor, Montezuma II, was taken prisoner by Hernan Cortes and died in custody. His successors were unable to stave off Cortes, and the empire came to an end in 1521.

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Los civilizaciones Incas y Mayas y las Aztecas existieron en el pasado en America. Ellos construyeron templos y plazas publicas muy grandes. Las incas construyeron túneles, riegos, y puentes. Las mayas usaron estados de ciudades sobre su historia. Las Aztecas tuvieron un imperio muy grande y vivieron en Mexico tambien.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los mayas crearon muchas grandes piramides. Tambien crearon templos. El inca era muy grande. Tenian mucha gente. Los incas crearon muchas carreteras. El azteca tenian buen tiempo. Crearon ceramicas con muchas person de ellas.
https://www.classzone.com/net_explorations/U4/U4_article1.cfm

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Los civilizaciones Maya, Azteca, y Inca eran de México y Sudamérica.  Los Mayas vivieron en el Yucatan Peninsula. Los Incas vivien en las montañas Andes. Los Aztecas vivien en el valle de México. Los Incas hacen muchos inventos y tenían un calendario. Los Mayans construyeron muchos pyramidos y temples. Los Aztecos estaban muy buenos en agricultura y conquistaron muchos imperios.

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La civilización de Aztecs fue increíble. Ellos eran de Mexico. Viveron en Tenochtitlan y tenían una sociedad importante y inteligente. Conquistadores vinieron y destruyeron su sociedad y las personas. Aztecs fueron muy religiosos y inventos. Inventaron el calendario con sol y lunar. Ellos son muy importantes en nuestro sociedad ahora.

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The name Aztec is derived from Aztlán (variously translated as "White Land," "Land of White Herons," or "Place of Herons"), an allusion to their origins, probably in northwestern Mexico. They were also called the Tenochca, from an eponymous ancestor, Tenoch, and the Mexica, probably from Metzliapán ("Moon Lake"), the mystical name for Lake Texcoco. From Tenochca was derived the name of their great city, Tenochtitlán, founded on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. From Mexica came the name for the city that superseded the Aztec capital and for the surrounding valley, which was applied later to the whole Mexican nation. The Aztecs referred to themselves as Culhua-Mexica, to link themselves with Colhuacán, the centre of the most-civilized people of the Valley of Mexico. See also pre-Columbian civilizations: Aztec culture to the time of the Spanish conquest.

Origins of the Aztec people

The origin of the Aztec people is uncertain, but elements of their own tradition suggest that they were a tribe of hunters and gatherers on the northern Mexican plateau before their appearance in Mesoamerica in perhaps the 12th century ce; Aztlán, however, may be legendary. It is possible that their migration southward was part of a general movement of peoples that followed, or perhaps helped trigger, the collapse of the highly developed Toltec civilization of central Mexico and its capital, Tula, a spectacular urban centre that featured pyramids, temples, public buildings, and statuary.

At the beginning of the 12th century, catastrophe befell Toltec civilization when Tula was attacked and destroyed, as were other important Toltec centres. Tribes of hunters and gatherers, including a group of Chichimec under the leadership of Xólotl, took advantage of the situation and traveled from the arid plateau of northern Mexico toward the fertile, heavily settled central zone. Xólotl's Chichimec joined forces with the remaining Toltecs, resulting in a period of relative peace and cultural progress in the Valley of Mexico. During this time the Aztecs, who, according to legend, had been wandering in search of a new place to settle, established a precarious home near the ruins of Tula. There they improved their approach to agriculture and acquired other technological knowledge.

However, their stay was temporary. Aztec tradition holds that the god Huitzilopochtli instructed them to depart again in search of a permanent home, the location of which would be revealed by the appearance of an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a serpent in its beak (an image that is memorialized on Mexico's national flag). A long pilgrimage ensued that ended in 1325 on a small island in Lake Texcoco, where, it is said, elder members of the people spotted the eagle, the cactus, and the serpent. There they built a temple and, around it, on islands in Lake Texcoco, the first dwellings of what was to become the powerful city of Tenochtitlán.

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Aztec | History, Empire, Facts, Location, & Culture

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The ninth emperor, Montezuma II, was taken prisoner by Hernan Cortes and died in custody. His successors were unable to stave off Cortes, and the empire came to an end in 1521.

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Los incas, las mayas, y las aztecas fueron civilizaciones largos en la america sur en la histroria. Las mayas vivieron en los ciudades pequeños. Tambíen construyeron piramides largos, ahora son muy famosos.Las incas construyeron muchas milas del caminos entre de las ciudades en el civilizacíon. Las aztecas fue un civilizacion en mexíco y mesoamerica.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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La civilización inca estaba alrededor del siglo 12 y conquistó a las naciones. Inca civilización fue Francisco Pizarro en 1533. La civilización maya compuso el sistema de escritura y estudió temas como matemáticas y desarrolló un calendario. La gente construía pirámides y tenía fiestas religiosas que celebraban allí a Dios. Los aztecas eran una potencia dominante en los mesoamericanos y practicaban el sacrificio religioso. Los aztecas fueron destruidos por Hernan Cortés.

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The Inca were a tribe around the 12th century who formed a city-state, Cuzco which became a major city and capital of a powerful and wealthy empire in Peru, Bolivia and Equador. They conquered their neighbors, or brought city-states in peacefully with promises of benefits and/or threats of conquest. They ruled their empire with a centralized government and four provincial governments. Inca Creation Myth

In 1533, Spanish invaders led by Francisco Pizarro conquered most of the Inca empire. By 1542, the Spahish established a Viceroyalty of Peru.

The Maya Civilization lived in Central America, including south Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras between 2500 BCE and 1500 CE.

The Classic Maya Civilization 250-900 CE developed a hieroglyphic writing system. They studied astronomy and mathematics, calculated highly accurate calendars, predicted eclipses and other astronomical events. They built elaborate temples and and had a complex social order.

They were a religious society and held festivals throughout the year to ensure the favor of the gods. They sacrificed to the gods and made ritual offerings. Part of religious ceremony involved drinking an intoxicant called balche.

The great cities such asTikal, and of the classical period and Chichen Itza of the post classical period, were religious centers and were inhabited mostly by the priests. They played a with ritual significance and left behind elaborate ball courts. Most of the people lived in small farming communities. The demise of this dynamic civilization is a mystery, but around 900 AD they abandoned their cities. The Mayan people did not disappear and continue to live in Mexico and Central America.

The Aztecs were a people who came into the Valley of Mexico in the 12th century and quickly rose to become the dominant power in Mesoamerica. The capital of the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan, was built on Lake Texcoco on raised islands. The Aztecs formed an empire commanding tribute from other city states in Mesoamerica. A religious society, the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice, like other mesoamerican civilizations.

The Aztecs were at the peak of their power when in 1521 they were destroyed by Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors. The Spanish built the city of Mexico City on the ruins of the destroyed Tenochtitlan. Compare the Spanish Accounts of the Conquest and the Aztec Accounts.

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The Inca were a tribe around the 12th century who formed a city-state, Cuzco which became a major city and capital of a powerful and wealthy empire in Peru, Bolivia and Equador. They conquered their neighbors, or brought city-states in peacefully with promises of benefits and/or threats of conquest.

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Los Mayas vivieron hace 2800 años en la península de Yucatán. Los Incas vivieron en Cuzco y Los Andes en 1200 a 1500. Los aztecas vivían en México en las montañas de la Sierra Madre. Todas eran grandes imperios en América Central. Ellos construyeron ciudades, templos, y granjas.

https://www.classzone.com/net_explorations/U4/U4_article1.cfm

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Los Incas y los Mayas son las civilización de America. Ellos construyeron templos largos. Los mayas y los incas son muy similares. Los Mayans construyeron muchos pyramidos y temples. Los Incas vivian en montanas, desierto y selva.  Aztecas vivieron en México. Los civilazaciones usaban un calendario para agricultura.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Aztecas eran una tribu nómada del norte de Mexico.Había alrededor de 5-6 milliones de personas. Se basaron en el ciclo solar de 365 días. Las enfermadades eran como los armas. Alrededor de 240,000 personas mureiron.
https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/aztecs

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Hace unos 2.800 años, las personas conocidas como los mayas vivían en aldeas en la península de Yucatán y las tierras altas del sur. Ellos construyeron civilizaciones en Mexico.
Desde aproximadamente 250 d. C. hasta 900 d. C., construyeron ciudades-estado en América Central. Las excavaciones en Tikal, Guatemala, uno de los centros mayas más grandes y antiguos, han revelado miles de estructuras y artefactos. Los mayas construyeron herramientas, cerámicas y objetos ceremoniales.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Las CIvilaziones de Mayas, Incas, y Aztecas estaban en la América del sur. Habian muchas cosas comunes entre Mayas y Incas. Las civilizaciones construyen muchos caminos y las pirámides. Las Aztecas construyeron su capitol en una isla. Las Incas fue buena en la matemáticas y escritura. Los Mayans construyeron muchas temples, plazas, y pirámides.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Incas y los Mayas son las civilización de America. La civilizaciones construyeron muchos caminos y las pirámides. Los Mayas y los incas tengan mucho en común. Muchos mayas murieron porque un enfermedad. Los mayas también cultivaron muchos cultivos y alimentos. La civilización de Inca estaba muy avanzada y creó muchas cosas para ayudarlos con comida y caminos.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/aztecs

Los mayas Los Aztecs y Los Incas son cilivaciones  en America. Los mayas fueron de mexico. Los Aztecs fueron de mexico tambíen. Y Los Incas fueron de Peru. Los Incas y Los Aztecs fueron en el cuarenta siglo. Y Los mayas fueron de 2 mil BC. Rste articulo es May interesan te y meayudo mucho.

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Las civilización de Maya, Incas, y Aztecs estaba en la América del Sur. La civilización de Maya era en el Yucatan Peninsula.  Los Mayans construyeron muchos Pyramid Temples y muchas plazas. Las Aztecs construyeron su capitol en una isla. Las Incas eran muy talentosos en la escritura y las matemáticas.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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La civilización Inca estaba en Perú, Bolovia, y Ecuador. La capital era Cuzco. Crecieron territorio en paz. La civilización de Maya estaba en Belice, México, Guatemala, Honduras y El Salvador. Hicieron muchos inventos científicos como un calendario. La civilazación Azteca estaba en el centro del México. Eran muy religiosis y practicaban sacrificios humanos.

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The Inca were a tribe around the 12th century who formed a city-state, Cuzco which became a major city and capital of a powerful and wealthy empire in Peru, Bolivia and Equador. They conquered their neighbors, or brought city-states in peacefully with promises of benefits and/or threats of conquest. They ruled their empire with a centralized government and four provincial governments. Inca Creation Myth

In 1533, Spanish invaders led by Francisco Pizarro conquered most of the Inca empire. By 1542, the Spahish established a Viceroyalty of Peru.

The Maya Civilization lived in Central America, including south Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras between 2500 BCE and 1500 CE.

The Classic Maya Civilization 250-900 CE developed a hieroglyphic writing system. They studied astronomy and mathematics, calculated highly accurate calendars, predicted eclipses and other astronomical events. They built elaborate temples and and had a complex social order.

They were a religious society and held festivals throughout the year to ensure the favor of the gods. They sacrificed to the gods and made ritual offerings. Part of religious ceremony involved drinking an intoxicant called balche.

The great cities such asTikal, and of the classical period and Chichen Itza of the post classical period, were religious centers and were inhabited mostly by the priests. They played a with ritual significance and left behind elaborate ball courts. Most of the people lived in small farming communities. The demise of this dynamic civilization is a mystery, but around 900 AD they abandoned their cities. The Mayan people did not disappear and continue to live in Mexico and Central America.

The Aztecs were a people who came into the Valley of Mexico in the 12th century and quickly rose to become the dominant power in Mesoamerica. The capital of the Aztecs, Tenochtitlan, was built on Lake Texcoco on raised islands. The Aztecs formed an empire commanding tribute from other city states in Mesoamerica. A religious society, the Aztecs practiced human sacrifice, like other mesoamerican civilizations.

The Aztecs were at the peak of their power when in 1521 they were destroyed by Hernan Cortes and the Spanish conquistadors. The Spanish built the city of Mexico City on the ruins of the destroyed Tenochtitlan. Compare the Spanish Accounts of the Conquest and the Aztec Accounts.

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The Inca were a tribe around the 12th century who formed a city-state, Cuzco which became a major city and capital of a powerful and wealthy empire in Peru, Bolivia and Equador. They conquered their neighbors, or brought city-states in peacefully with promises of benefits and/or threats of conquest.

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Los civilizaciones Maya, Azteca, y Inca eran de Mesoamérica. Pero los Aztecas son de Mexico. Los Mayas inventaron astronomía, y ellos estaban buenas arquitecturas.Los mayas construyeron templos tambien en la capital de tenochtitlan. Los Aztecas estabn buenas en agriculture. Ellos usaban un calendario para agriculture. Los incas viveron en la valles de Cuzco, Peru.

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Difference Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

Maya, Inca, and Aztecs were three remarkable civilizations that thrived in the southern parts of America at different points in history. The Maya civilization, known for its amazing calendar that accurately predicted events such as floods and eclipses, holds a prominent place among these civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas also contributed immensely to America with their culture, heritage, power, and intelligence.

This article explores some captivating stories and notable differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca civilizations. But before we jump into their rich histories, let's first learn some basic facts about these three civilizations.

Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization appeared around 2600 B.C. in southeastern tropical parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya people had a highly advanced culture, a developed writing system, and remarkable advances in mathematics, astronomy, etc. It was unique among the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. They lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the southern highlands.

Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs, on the other hand, grew in the Valley of Mexico from 1300 to 1521 with a good environment for agriculture due to its moderate climate and rich natural resources. The Aztec capital, named Tenochtitlan, was the largest city. The Aztecs were famous for their farming, warfare, and temple-building skills. They were also famous for their diverse culture, beautiful sculptures, and advances in many other aspects.

Inca Civilization

Around the year 1200, the Inca civilization settled in central Peru of South America and also parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca was the largest in pre-Columbian America, extending approximately 2500 miles (4000 km) from north to south. The population was around 16 million people. They were famous for their impressive stonework and temples made without mortar (a mixture of cement and sand).

Head To Head Comparison Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

The Maya were native people of Mexico and Central America, while the Aztec covered most of northern Mesoamerica between c.1345 and 1521 CE, whereas Inca flourished in ancient Peru between c.1400 and 1533 CE and extended across western South America.

Given below is a detailed explanation of each difference between the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

1. Political Organization

Maya: Maya society was in city-states handled by a king or ruler. The kings held political and religious authority, believed to be divine rulers communicating with the gods. The city-states were usually organized hierarchically, with the ruling elite at the top and commoners at the bottom.

Aztec: The Aztec Empire was under the rule of an emperor, Huey Tlatoani, who held absolute power. Each province of the empire was under the governance of a local ruler appointed by the emperor.

Inca: The Inca Empire had a single emperor, the Sapa Inca, who was divine and held absolute power. The empire was a division of provinces governed by a local leader called an Apu, who reported to the Sapa Inca. The administrative and political center of the empire was Cusco, the capital city.

2. Social Structure

Maya: Maya society had a hierarchical social structure. At the top were the ruling elite: the king, nobles, and high-ranking priests. The ruling elite enjoyed privileges and controlled the wealth and resources of the civilization. Below them were the skilled craftspeople, merchants, and soldiers who played important societal roles. The major part of the population was farmers and laborers. Slavery was also practiced, with prisoners from war often serving as slaves.

Aztec: The Aztec society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobles at the top, followed by the warrior class, merchants, artisans, and commoners. Slavery was also a part of Aztec society, although it differed from the chattel slavery system that treated people as materials in other civilizations. Slaves in Aztec culture had certain rights and could even own property.

Inca: The Inca society was of distinct social classes similar to the Aztec. The lowest class included slaves or individuals who the Inca had conquered.

3. Agriculture

Maya: Maya civilization developed advanced farming techniques to support their growing population. One of their contributions was the domestication and cultivation of maize (corn). Maya farmers also grew beans, squash, peppers, cacao, avocados, and various fruits. To maximize productivity, they had innovative agricultural practices, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation systems.

Aztec: The Aztecs constructed chinampas and artificial islands as fertile floating gardens. They cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers.

Inca: The Inca cultivated crops like potatoes, maize (corn), quinoa, and beans. They also developed a system of irrigation and storage facilities to ensure a stable food supply.

They all had terrace farming by building steps into the mountainsides to create flat areas for cultivation.

4. Architecture

Maya: Maya architecture is well-known for its impressive pyramids, temples, palaces, ball courts, and observatories. These buildings were often constructed with stone and decorated with detailed carvings and murals. The Maya displayed advanced engineering skills, using corbel arches, slanting roofs, and exact alignment with astronomical phenomena.

Aztec: The most iconic design in Aztec civilization was the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc (the god of rain and fertility) and Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war).

Inca: The Inca were well-known for their massive stone structures without mortar, using "ashlar masonry." The most famous example of their architectural achievement is Machu Picchu, a stunning city in the Andes Mountains.

5. Writing and Communication

Maya: The Maya developed a complex writing system using a combination of visual symbols and phonetic elements. They carved inscriptions on stone monuments, painted murals, and created intricate codices (books) made from bark paper. Maya writing recorded historical events, religious rituals, astronomical observations, and genealogical information.

Aztec: The Aztecs created codices and bark-paper books containing illustrations and glyphs that conveyed historical, religious, and astrological information. However, the Spanish destroyed most of these codices during the conquest.

Inca: The Inca civilization did not maintain a written language in the traditional sense. Instead, they used Quipu, strings of different colors and knots describing various numerical and symbolic meanings. The quipu recorded numerical and statistical data.

6. Religion and Beliefs

Maya: The Maya worshipped many gods and goddesses associated with natural elements, celestial bodies, fertility, and agricultural cycles. Maya priests, who held significant power and knowledge, performed complex ceremonies, including bloodletting and human sacrifice, as offerings to the gods.

Aztec: Aztec society worshipped gods and goddesses, with Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc among the most important gods. Human sacrifice was a central aspect of their religious rituals, believed to confirm the sun's rising and the continuation of the world.

Inca: The Inca had a polytheistic religion, worshiping various gods and goddesses. Inti, the sun god, considered the Inca rulers' ancestor, was the most important deity. Other significant gods included Viracocha, the creator god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess.

7. Economy

Maya: The Mayans' complex economic system relied on trade, agriculture, and craft production. Trade networks connected Maya cities and extended beyond their region, facilitating the exchange of goods such as jade, obsidian, textiles, feathers, pottery, and luxury items. Maya society also had a market economy where they could buy and sell goods. Tribute and taxation systems were to support the ruling elite and maintain social order.

Aztec: The Aztec economy survived on agriculture, trade, and tribute. The empire had a vast trade network, exchanging goods such as cocoa beans, jade, feathers, and textiles.

Inca: The Inca empire implemented a labor praise system known as mit'a, where individuals owed compulsory labor to the state. The Inca also developed an extensive network of roads and bridges, known as the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan.

8. Calendar

Maya: The Maya had multiple calendars, including the 365-day solar calendar (Haab), the 260-day sacred calendar (Tzolk'in), and the Long Count. The Maya used their calendar system for tracking time, religious ceremonies, agricultural cycles, and star observations.

Aztec: The Aztecs had a complex calendar system. They used two calendars simultaneously: a solar calendar of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli and a ritual calendar of 260 days known as the tonalpohualli.

Inca: The Inca used a calendar divided into twelve lunar months and had a solar calendar. The Inca tracked time using celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Mathematics

Maya: The Maya made significant advancements in mathematics, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. They had a positional numeral system that included the concept of zero.

Aztec: The Aztecs developed a sophisticated mathematical system that included positional notation and a base-20 number system. They made astronomical advancements, accurately predicting celestial events and using them in their religious rituals and architecture.

Inca: The Inca civilization had a decimal system and a concept of zero. The Inca had skills in measurement and engineering, as obvious in their precise stonework and agricultural terraces.

10. Arts and Craftsmanship

Maya: Maya art was diverse that depicted religious scenes, mythological narratives, historical events, and everyday life. They used various materials, such as jade, obsidian, clay, pigments, and feathers.

Aztec: Aztec art included various forms such as sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and textiles. They were famous for their elaborate stone carvings, colorful featherwork, and detailed gold and silver ornaments using sophisticated metalworking techniques.

Inca: The Incas had excellence in pottery, metalwork (particularly gold and silver), textiles, and stone carving with intricate designs and vibrant colors.

11. Education and Science

Maya: Education in Maya society was primarily for the elite and those destined for leadership roles. Maya scientists made significant advancements in astronomy, accurately predicting celestial events, understanding celestial bodies' movements, and developing a complex understanding of the cosmos.

Aztec: Education in the Aztec civilization was mainly within the family and community. Young boys and girls studied practical skills, religious rituals, and the cultural traditions of their society. They also had specialized schools for training priests, scribes, and warriors.

Inca: Young boys in the Inca civilization attended schools known as Yachay Wasi, where they learned farming techniques, engineering, and religious rituals. Girls received education at home, where they were taught domestic skills and weaving.

12. Healthcare

Maya: The Maya healers, often shamans or priests, combined herbal remedies with rituals and spiritual practices to treat illnesses. They practiced surgery, including trepanation (drilling holes in the skull), and knew anatomy and herbal medicine.

Aztec: Aztec medicine had a detailed understanding of medicinal plants and used them for treating various diseases. Healing practices included herbal remedies, surgical procedures, and spiritual rituals to restore health.

Inca: The Inca utilized herbal remedies, such as coca leaves, for medicinal purposes. The Inca also had a system of public health that included sanitary measures and the establishment of hospitals, known as kallankas, where individuals could receive medical treatment.

13. Decline and Conquest

Maya: The reasons for the fall of the Maya civilization are environmental factors like deforestation, soil erosion, and drought. Internal conflicts, political instability, and overpopulation may have also contributed to the decline. Due to the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, many Maya cities had already been abandoned, and the remaining city-states fell under Spanish conquest.

Aztec: The decline of the Aztec civilization began with the Spanish invasion led by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Factors such as superior weaponry, diseases brought by the Spanish, and the disruption of Aztec society contributed to their defeat. The Spanish exploited internal divisions within the empire, formed partnerships with local tribes who were enemies of the Aztecs, and ultimately conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Inca: The Inca Empire faced its decline with the arrival of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. The Spanish exploited the Incas with superior weapons and diseases like smallpox. The capture and death of the last emperor, Atahualpa, marked the end of the Inca and the beginning of Spanish colonization.

Maya vs Aztec vs Inca Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Do any Mayans still exist?
Answer: Yes, there are still Mayans alive today. They comprise around six million individuals, making them the largest indigenous group in North America after Peru. The main Mayan populations are in Mexico, with significant groups such as the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000), and Tzeltal (80,000).

Q2. What Indian languages did the Aztecs speak?
Answer: The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations in central and western Mexico.

Q3. Is the Maya language still spoken today?
Answer: Yes, Maya is still spoken today. There are approximately 7 million speakers of Mayan languages, with around 4 million in Guatemala and 2.5 million in Mexico.

Recommended Articles

This has guided the top difference between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca. Here we also discuss the key differences between infographics and comparison tables. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more -

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Maya vs Aztec vs Inca | Find out the Top 13 Differences and Comparison

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Explore key differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca, including their religious beliefs, social structure, and education systems...

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El Inca apareció en la región de los Andes durante el siglo 12 A.D. El imperio inca pasó de Ecuador al centro de Chile y tenía 12 millones de personas. Tenía una sola religión y lenguaje. Ellos fueron destruido por los españoles. El último del imperio Inca fue en 1572.

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Inca Empire Begins

The Inca first appeared in modern-day Peru sometime during the 12th century, arising from earlier pre-Inca groups in the region. These earlier groups have been credited with creating the ancient Nazca Lines, immense drawings etched into the landscape.

According to some versions of their origin myths, they were created by the sun god, Inti, who sent his son Manco Capac to Earth through the middle of three caves in the village of Paccari Tampu. After killing his brothers, Manco Capac led his sisters and their followers through the wilderness before settling in the fertile valley near Cusco.

The Inca began expanding their land holdings by the reign of their fourth emperor, Mayta Capac. However, they did not truly become an expansive power until the eighth emperor, Viracocha Inca, took control in the early 15th century.

Bolstered by the military capabilities of two uncles, Viracocha Inca defeated the Ayarmaca kingdom to the south and took over the Urubamba Valley. He also established the Inca practice of leaving military garrisons to maintain peace in conquered lands.

Pachacuti

When the rival Chancas attacked circa 1438, Viracocha Inca retreated to a military outpost while his son, Cusi Inca Yupanqui, successfully defended Cusco.

Cusi Inca Yupanqui - who soon took the title Pachacuti - became one of the Inca's most influential rulers. His military campaigns extended the kingdom to the southern end of the Lake Titicaca Basin, and hundreds of miles north to subject the Cajamarca and Chimu kingdoms.

The expanding reach of the Inca state - now called Tawantinsuyu or "Land of the Four Quarters" - prompted strategic logistical considerations. Pachacuti is believed to have been the first Inca emperor to order forced resettlement to squash the possibility of an uprising from one ethnic group.

In addition, Pachacuti established the practice in which rulers were prevented from inheriting the possessions of their predecessors, thereby ensuring that successive leaders would conquer new lands and accumulate new wealth.

Inca Government

Pachacuti also focused his efforts on strengthening Cusco, the government center of the vast empire. He expanded Sacsahuaman, the massive fortress that guarded the city, and embarked on an expansive irrigation project by channeling rivers and creating intricate agricultural terraces.

Although Tawantinsuyu was comprised of more than 100 distinct ethnic groups among its 12 million inhabitants, a well-developed societal structure kept the empire running smoothly.

Most Inca subjects were self-sufficient farmers who tended to corn, potatoes, squash, llamas, alpacas and dogs, and paid taxes through public labor.

There was no written language, but a form of the Quechua language became the primary dialect, and knotted cords known as quipu were used to keep track of historical and accounting records.

Inca Achievements

The Inca are today celebrated for many artistic and cultural achievement, including their monumental architecture, of which the magnificent fortress complex Machu Picchu is but one example.

The Inca also developed sophisticated calendars, elaborate textiles, functional and decorative ceramics, surgical techniques, productive terrace agriculture and the use of coca leaves as medicine and in religious ceremonies. They also practiced mummification of their dead.

An elaborate system of roadways adding up to approximately 15,000 miles crisscrossed the kingdom, with relay runners capable of advancing messages at the impressive rate of 150 miles per day.

Unfortunately, many of the gold and silver creations of the Inca were melted down by Spanish conquistadors and sent back to Europe.

Inca Religion

The Inca religion centered on a pantheon of gods that included Inti; a creator god named Viracocha; and Apu Illapu, the rain god. Impressive shrines were built throughout the kingdom, including a massive Sun Temple in Cusco that measured more than 1,200 feet in circumference.

Powerful priests depended on divination to diagnose illness, solve crimes and predict the outcomes of warfare, in many cases requiring animal sacrifice. The mummified remains of previous emperors were also treated as sacred figures and paraded around at ceremonies with their stores of gold and silver.

Upon ascending to the throne in 1471, Topa Inca Yupanqui pushed the southern border of the empire to the Maule River in modern-day Chile, and instituted a tribute system in which each province provided women to serve as temple maidens or brides for celebrated soldiers. His successor, Huayna Capac, embarked on successful northern campaigns that stretched the vast civilization to the Ancasmayo River, the current boundary between Ecuador and Colombia.

Spanish Arrival

Despite these advances, the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 1500s soon set into motion the events that would lead to the collapse of the Inca Empire. The Spanish carried such alien diseases as smallpox and influenza, which wiped out a huge chunk of the population before killing Huayna Capac and his chosen successor around 1525.

Those two deaths sparked a civil war as would-be emperors battled for power, with Atahualpa eventually outlasting his half-brother, Huascar, to grab the throne of the now-weakened empire.

Enamored by the stories of Inca wealth, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro lured Atahualpa to meeting in November 1532 for a supposed dinner in his honor - and then kidnapped the emperor. Atahualpa was executed the following summer, and although the Spanish were far outnumbered by the locals, they easily sacked Cusco in late 1533 with their superior weaponry.

Attempting to keep the peace, the Spanish installed a young prince named Manco as a puppet king, a move that backfired during a spirited rebellion in 1536. However, Manco and his men were eventually forced to retreat to the jungle village of Vilcabamba, which remained the last stronghold of the empire for about 36 years.

Eventually, however, the Spaniards took control of Vilcabamba in 1572, when the last remaining Inca ruler, Manco's son Tupak Amaru, was captured and executed, bringing the Inca Empire to an end.

As the only written accounts of the Inca were composed by outsiders, its mythology and culture passed to successive generations by trained storytellers.

Traces of its existence were mainly found in the ruins of cities and temples, but in 1911 archaeologist Hiram Bingham discovered the intact 15th century mountaintop citadel of Machu Picchu, its magnificent stone structures reflecting the power and capabilities of this proud and powerful pre-Colombian civilization.

Sources

Rise of the Inca. NOVA. PBS.
From Chavin to the Inca, a Timeline of the Central Andes. The British Museum.
The Last Days of the Incas. Kim MacQuarrie; Simon & Schuster.
The Inca and Machu Picchu. Smithsonian Associates.

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Inca: Empire, Religion & Civilization - HISTORY

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The Inca Empire was a vast South American civilization that at its peak stretched over 2,500 miles. Overwhelmed by Spanish invaders, the Inca Empire collapsed in 1572.

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Los incas eran buenos construyendo. Construyeron muchos caminos. La ciudad de Cuzco es muy sagrada. Tenían grandes fiestas en las ciudades. El imperio inca era muy grande

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The Inca Empire: Children of the Sun [ushistory.org]

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Los Aztecas son de Mexico.  La ciudad capital es Tenochtitlan y los Aztecas se convirtieron en los Aztecas fuertas en el centro de Mexico.  El conquistador de Espana Hernan Cortes vencio al imperio Azteca y capturo Tenochtitlan en 1521.  Las ciudades del imperio Azteca, los templos  las estructuras tenian gods aztecas como imagenes.  Hoy la civilizacion Azteca se ve a traves de pira mides y ruinas.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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https://www.monografias.com/trabajos35/incas-mayas-aztecas/incas-mayas-aztecas.shtml

Los Incas, Mayas, y Aztecas son diferentes pero también tienen unos similitudes. Por ejemplo, una diferencia es donde se encuentran. Los Incas fueron ubicados en Peru, los Aztecas en el mitad del sur de México, y los Mayas en 3 zonas grandes: zona norte, Yucatán, zona central, Tabasco y Honduras, y zona sur, parte de Chiapas, Guatemala, y El Salvador. Una similitud es que los religiones de estas civilizaciónes eran politeístas. También, sus religiones se enfocaron en la naturaleza, y los dioses explicaron la lluvia y otras cosas.

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La familia era muy importante para Aztecas con los tradiciones. Los niños iban a la escuela todas las días. Un juego más popular fue Patolli. La poema era una forma de arte muy común. Los mayas estaban principalmente en Mesoamerica. Los incas vivían en el Perú.

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Kids learn about the ancient civilizations of the Americas including the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca Empires.

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Tiene los Aztecas son del México central. Ellos construyeron templos largos y capturar personas en guerra para sacrificio para los dios. En el fin Hernán Cortés conquista la ciudad de Aztecas. Las Mayas son de mesoamérica. Ellos construir ciudades largas con estructuras de roca.  Las pirámides de mayas son mas populares ahora. Las Mayas son el único que tiene una forma de escribir. Finalmente las Incas son de Perú y controlar mucho de south america. Tiene una sistema de calles mas original. Todos son civilizaciones importantes.

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Kids learn about the ancient civilizations of the Americas including the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca Empires.

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En una civilización en Mesoamérica, eran las personas Aztecas, Incas, y Mayas. Las Mayas estaban buenas arquitecturas y hicieron los pirámides largas. Las Aztecas tuvieron un capital de Tenochtitlan. Las Aztecas estuvieron buenos a agricultura. Las Incas vivieron en un país de Perú.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los civilizaciones Maya, Azteca, y Inca eran de Mesoamérica. Los Mayas estaban en Mexico y tenían muchos pirámides y arqitectura. Los Incas estaban en el pais de Peru en Sudamerica. Ellos tenían el Valle de Cuzco. Los Aztecos estaban en Mexico tambien y su capital fue Tenochtitilan. Los Aztecos estaban muy buenos en agricultura.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Mayas, Incas y Aztecs todos construyeron grandes civilzaciones. Ellos construyeron sus civilizaciones en el Mexico actual.  Los mayas construyeron ciudades que tenian grandes templos piramidales y plazas publicas. Los Incas vivian en montanas, desierto y selva. Los Aztecs construyeron su capital nombre Tenochtitlan.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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La civilización de los Mayas vivían en Guatemala y estaban en su mejor momento durante el siglo sexto. Eran buenos en la agricultura, la escritura, y hacer calendarios. Tenían muchos templos, palacios, y pirámedes. La forma en que murió la civilización es un misterio. Hay muchas teorías y mucha evidencia, pero es inexplicable hoy. Los Mayas eran una civilización misteriosa.

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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).

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.

Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250

The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions.

The Middle Preclassic Period also saw the rise of the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs. Like other Mesamerican peoples, such as the Zapotec, Totonac, Teotihuacán and Aztec, the Maya derived a number of religious and cultural traits-as well as their number system and their famous calendar-from the Olmec.

In addition to agriculture, the Preclassic Maya also displayed more advanced cultural traits like pyramid-building, city construction and the inscribing of stone monuments.

The Late Preclassic city of Mirador, in the northern Peten, was one of the greatest cities ever built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Its size dwarfed the Classic Maya capital of Tikal, and its existence proves that the Maya flourished centuries before the Classic Period.

Mayan Pyramids of the Classic Maya, A.D. 250-900

The Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000 or as many as 10,000,000.

Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed plazas, palaces, temples and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the famous Maya ball game ulama, all ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities were surrounded and supported by a large population of farmers. Though the Maya practiced a primitive type of "slash-and-burn" agriculture, they also displayed evidence of more advanced farming methods, such as irrigation and terracing.

The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, or "kuhul ajaw" (holy lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture.

The Mayan Calendar and Culture

The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of Mesoamerica.

Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of complex calendar systems like the Calendar Round, based on 365 days, and later, the Long Count Calendar, designed to last over 5,000 years.

Serious exploration of Classic Maya sites began in the 1830s. By the early to mid-20th century, a small portion of their system of hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history and culture became known. Most of what historians know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments.

The Maya also made paper from tree bark and wrote in books made from this paper, known as codices; four of these codices are known to have survived. They are also credited with some of the earliest uses of chocolate and of rubber.

Maya Life in the Rainforest

One of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability to build a great civilization in a tropical rainforest climate. Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates, where the centralized management of water resources (through irrigation and other techniques) formed the basis of society. (This was the case for the Teotihuacan of highland Mexico, contemporaries of the Classic Maya.) In the southern Maya lowlands, however, there were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no obvious need for an irrigation system.

By the late 20th century, researchers had concluded that the climate of the lowlands was in fact quite environmentally diverse. Though foreign invaders were disappointed by the region's relative lack of silver and gold, the Maya took advantage of the area's many natural resources, including limestone (for construction), the volcanic rock obsidian (for tools and weapons) and salt.

The environment also held other treasures for the Maya, including jade, quetzal feathers (used to decorate the elaborate costumes of Maya nobility) and marine shells, which were used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare.

What Happened to the Maya?

From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Mayan civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories.

Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power.

As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic environmental change - like an extremely long, intense period of drought - may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization. Drought would have hit cities like Tikal especially hard, because rainwater there was necessary for drinking as well as for crop irrigation.

All three of these factors - overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare and drought - may have played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. In the highlands of the Yucatan, a few Maya cities, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapán, continued to flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-1500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya were living in agricultural villages, their great cities hidden under a layer of verdant rainforest.

Do the Maya Still Exist?

Descendants of the Maya still live in Central America in modern-day Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and parts of Mexico.

The majority of modern-day Maya live in Guatemala, which is home to Tikal National Park, the site of the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal. Roughly 40 percent of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent.

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Mayan Civilization: Calendar, Pyramids & Ruins| HISTORY

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The Maya, a civilization of Indigenous people in Central America, created a complex Mayan calendar and massive pyramids before their empire collapsed into ruins.

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Los mayas, incas y aztecas construyen civilizaciones en México. Los mayas fueron los primeros. Tenían muchos templos. Los incas fueron segundos. Vivían en Andes Mountains, Perú. Tenían un idioma oficial y un calendario. Los aztecas fueron los últimos. Eran talentosos en la agricultura.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Mayas eran una civilzación en mesoamérica. Era una ciudad muy grande y magnífico en Tikal, Guatemala. Tengan muchos edificios y pirámides. Los Incas eran una civilzación en Cuzco. Vivían en las montañas. Los Aztecas vivían en Mexico, en el lago texcoco. Usaban un calendario para agricultura.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Aprendí que los mayas, incas y aztecas construyeron grandes civilizaciones en México y en América Central y del Sur entre 1800 y 500 años atrás. Los mayas construyeron ciudades-estado en Centroamérica que inculcaron grandes templos piramidales. Los incas se establecieron en el Valle de Cuzco y ampliaron su imperio para incluir hasta 16 millones de personas. La civilización azteca estaba en el Valle de México, lo cual era bueno para la agricultura debido al clima templado. Tanto los mayas como los aztecas usaban un calendario sagrado y de 365 días.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs existieron hace 3000 años. Ellos vinieron de America Central. Todas las civilizaciones crearon grandes templos. El inca vivía en el valle del Cuzco. Las diferentes civilizaciones cuanto tiempo de diferentes maneras. Mucho personas muerto en el final.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Mayas, Incas, y Aztecs eran los primeros civilizaciones grandes en México y Sudamérica.  Los Mayas eran en el centro de México, Los Aztecs eran en la Península de Yucatan, y los Incas vivieron por las montañas de los Andes. Los Mayas eran agricultures, pero ellos constuyeron pirámides muy grande en los pueblos grandes. Los arqueólogos excavaron ruinas de pirámides muy grandes en Tikal, un capital de los mayas. Los Aztecs constuyeron un gran capital, que se llama Tenochtitlán, en el central del Lago Texcoco. Los Incas tenían un imperio con dieciseis millones de personas. Los mayas, incas, y aztecs eran los mejores civilizaciones ancianos en México y Sudámerica.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los mayas eran de México y América Central.  Los mayas inventaron astronomía y sistemas de calendario.  Los mayas vieron hace cuatro mil años o dos mil BC.  Muchos Mayas murieron de enfermedad. Los mayas crearon unos tempos grandes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los mayas eran personas de México y Centroamérica, mientras que los aztecas cubrían la mayor parte del norte de Mesoamérica entre c. 1345 y 1521 d. C., los incas lo hicieron bien en el antiguo Perú entre c. 1400 y 1533 d. C. y se extendieron a través del oeste de América del Sur. Los mayas, incas y aztecas construyeron grandes civilizaciones en México y en América Central y del Sur hace entre 1.800 y 500 años. El primero de ellos fue la civilización maya. Hace unos 2.800 años, las personas conocidas como los mayas vivían en aldeas

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Difference Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

Maya, Inca, and Aztecs were three remarkable civilizations that thrived in the southern parts of America at different points in history. The Maya civilization, known for its amazing calendar that accurately predicted events such as floods and eclipses, holds a prominent place among these civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas also contributed immensely to America with their culture, heritage, power, and intelligence.

This article explores some captivating stories and notable differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca civilizations. But before we jump into their rich histories, let's first learn some basic facts about these three civilizations.

Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization appeared around 2600 B.C. in southeastern tropical parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya people had a highly advanced culture, a developed writing system, and remarkable advances in mathematics, astronomy, etc. It was unique among the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. They lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the southern highlands.

Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs, on the other hand, grew in the Valley of Mexico from 1300 to 1521 with a good environment for agriculture due to its moderate climate and rich natural resources. The Aztec capital, named Tenochtitlan, was the largest city. The Aztecs were famous for their farming, warfare, and temple-building skills. They were also famous for their diverse culture, beautiful sculptures, and advances in many other aspects.

Inca Civilization

Around the year 1200, the Inca civilization settled in central Peru of South America and also parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca was the largest in pre-Columbian America, extending approximately 2500 miles (4000 km) from north to south. The population was around 16 million people. They were famous for their impressive stonework and temples made without mortar (a mixture of cement and sand).

Head To Head Comparison Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

The Maya were native people of Mexico and Central America, while the Aztec covered most of northern Mesoamerica between c.1345 and 1521 CE, whereas Inca flourished in ancient Peru between c.1400 and 1533 CE and extended across western South America.

Given below is a detailed explanation of each difference between the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

1. Political Organization

Maya: Maya society was in city-states handled by a king or ruler. The kings held political and religious authority, believed to be divine rulers communicating with the gods. The city-states were usually organized hierarchically, with the ruling elite at the top and commoners at the bottom.

Aztec: The Aztec Empire was under the rule of an emperor, Huey Tlatoani, who held absolute power. Each province of the empire was under the governance of a local ruler appointed by the emperor.

Inca: The Inca Empire had a single emperor, the Sapa Inca, who was divine and held absolute power. The empire was a division of provinces governed by a local leader called an Apu, who reported to the Sapa Inca. The administrative and political center of the empire was Cusco, the capital city.

2. Social Structure

Maya: Maya society had a hierarchical social structure. At the top were the ruling elite: the king, nobles, and high-ranking priests. The ruling elite enjoyed privileges and controlled the wealth and resources of the civilization. Below them were the skilled craftspeople, merchants, and soldiers who played important societal roles. The major part of the population was farmers and laborers. Slavery was also practiced, with prisoners from war often serving as slaves.

Aztec: The Aztec society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobles at the top, followed by the warrior class, merchants, artisans, and commoners. Slavery was also a part of Aztec society, although it differed from the chattel slavery system that treated people as materials in other civilizations. Slaves in Aztec culture had certain rights and could even own property.

Inca: The Inca society was of distinct social classes similar to the Aztec. The lowest class included slaves or individuals who the Inca had conquered.

3. Agriculture

Maya: Maya civilization developed advanced farming techniques to support their growing population. One of their contributions was the domestication and cultivation of maize (corn). Maya farmers also grew beans, squash, peppers, cacao, avocados, and various fruits. To maximize productivity, they had innovative agricultural practices, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation systems.

Aztec: The Aztecs constructed chinampas and artificial islands as fertile floating gardens. They cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers.

Inca: The Inca cultivated crops like potatoes, maize (corn), quinoa, and beans. They also developed a system of irrigation and storage facilities to ensure a stable food supply.

They all had terrace farming by building steps into the mountainsides to create flat areas for cultivation.

4. Architecture

Maya: Maya architecture is well-known for its impressive pyramids, temples, palaces, ball courts, and observatories. These buildings were often constructed with stone and decorated with detailed carvings and murals. The Maya displayed advanced engineering skills, using corbel arches, slanting roofs, and exact alignment with astronomical phenomena.

Aztec: The most iconic design in Aztec civilization was the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc (the god of rain and fertility) and Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war).

Inca: The Inca were well-known for their massive stone structures without mortar, using "ashlar masonry." The most famous example of their architectural achievement is Machu Picchu, a stunning city in the Andes Mountains.

5. Writing and Communication

Maya: The Maya developed a complex writing system using a combination of visual symbols and phonetic elements. They carved inscriptions on stone monuments, painted murals, and created intricate codices (books) made from bark paper. Maya writing recorded historical events, religious rituals, astronomical observations, and genealogical information.

Aztec: The Aztecs created codices and bark-paper books containing illustrations and glyphs that conveyed historical, religious, and astrological information. However, the Spanish destroyed most of these codices during the conquest.

Inca: The Inca civilization did not maintain a written language in the traditional sense. Instead, they used Quipu, strings of different colors and knots describing various numerical and symbolic meanings. The quipu recorded numerical and statistical data.

6. Religion and Beliefs

Maya: The Maya worshipped many gods and goddesses associated with natural elements, celestial bodies, fertility, and agricultural cycles. Maya priests, who held significant power and knowledge, performed complex ceremonies, including bloodletting and human sacrifice, as offerings to the gods.

Aztec: Aztec society worshipped gods and goddesses, with Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc among the most important gods. Human sacrifice was a central aspect of their religious rituals, believed to confirm the sun's rising and the continuation of the world.

Inca: The Inca had a polytheistic religion, worshiping various gods and goddesses. Inti, the sun god, considered the Inca rulers' ancestor, was the most important deity. Other significant gods included Viracocha, the creator god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess.

7. Economy

Maya: The Mayans' complex economic system relied on trade, agriculture, and craft production. Trade networks connected Maya cities and extended beyond their region, facilitating the exchange of goods such as jade, obsidian, textiles, feathers, pottery, and luxury items. Maya society also had a market economy where they could buy and sell goods. Tribute and taxation systems were to support the ruling elite and maintain social order.

Aztec: The Aztec economy survived on agriculture, trade, and tribute. The empire had a vast trade network, exchanging goods such as cocoa beans, jade, feathers, and textiles.

Inca: The Inca empire implemented a labor praise system known as mit'a, where individuals owed compulsory labor to the state. The Inca also developed an extensive network of roads and bridges, known as the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan.

8. Calendar

Maya: The Maya had multiple calendars, including the 365-day solar calendar (Haab), the 260-day sacred calendar (Tzolk'in), and the Long Count. The Maya used their calendar system for tracking time, religious ceremonies, agricultural cycles, and star observations.

Aztec: The Aztecs had a complex calendar system. They used two calendars simultaneously: a solar calendar of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli and a ritual calendar of 260 days known as the tonalpohualli.

Inca: The Inca used a calendar divided into twelve lunar months and had a solar calendar. The Inca tracked time using celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Mathematics

Maya: The Maya made significant advancements in mathematics, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. They had a positional numeral system that included the concept of zero.

Aztec: The Aztecs developed a sophisticated mathematical system that included positional notation and a base-20 number system. They made astronomical advancements, accurately predicting celestial events and using them in their religious rituals and architecture.

Inca: The Inca civilization had a decimal system and a concept of zero. The Inca had skills in measurement and engineering, as obvious in their precise stonework and agricultural terraces.

10. Arts and Craftsmanship

Maya: Maya art was diverse that depicted religious scenes, mythological narratives, historical events, and everyday life. They used various materials, such as jade, obsidian, clay, pigments, and feathers.

Aztec: Aztec art included various forms such as sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and textiles. They were famous for their elaborate stone carvings, colorful featherwork, and detailed gold and silver ornaments using sophisticated metalworking techniques.

Inca: The Incas had excellence in pottery, metalwork (particularly gold and silver), textiles, and stone carving with intricate designs and vibrant colors.

11. Education and Science

Maya: Education in Maya society was primarily for the elite and those destined for leadership roles. Maya scientists made significant advancements in astronomy, accurately predicting celestial events, understanding celestial bodies' movements, and developing a complex understanding of the cosmos.

Aztec: Education in the Aztec civilization was mainly within the family and community. Young boys and girls studied practical skills, religious rituals, and the cultural traditions of their society. They also had specialized schools for training priests, scribes, and warriors.

Inca: Young boys in the Inca civilization attended schools known as Yachay Wasi, where they learned farming techniques, engineering, and religious rituals. Girls received education at home, where they were taught domestic skills and weaving.

12. Healthcare

Maya: The Maya healers, often shamans or priests, combined herbal remedies with rituals and spiritual practices to treat illnesses. They practiced surgery, including trepanation (drilling holes in the skull), and knew anatomy and herbal medicine.

Aztec: Aztec medicine had a detailed understanding of medicinal plants and used them for treating various diseases. Healing practices included herbal remedies, surgical procedures, and spiritual rituals to restore health.

Inca: The Inca utilized herbal remedies, such as coca leaves, for medicinal purposes. The Inca also had a system of public health that included sanitary measures and the establishment of hospitals, known as kallankas, where individuals could receive medical treatment.

13. Decline and Conquest

Maya: The reasons for the fall of the Maya civilization are environmental factors like deforestation, soil erosion, and drought. Internal conflicts, political instability, and overpopulation may have also contributed to the decline. Due to the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, many Maya cities had already been abandoned, and the remaining city-states fell under Spanish conquest.

Aztec: The decline of the Aztec civilization began with the Spanish invasion led by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Factors such as superior weaponry, diseases brought by the Spanish, and the disruption of Aztec society contributed to their defeat. The Spanish exploited internal divisions within the empire, formed partnerships with local tribes who were enemies of the Aztecs, and ultimately conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Inca: The Inca Empire faced its decline with the arrival of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. The Spanish exploited the Incas with superior weapons and diseases like smallpox. The capture and death of the last emperor, Atahualpa, marked the end of the Inca and the beginning of Spanish colonization.

Maya vs Aztec vs Inca Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Do any Mayans still exist?
Answer: Yes, there are still Mayans alive today. They comprise around six million individuals, making them the largest indigenous group in North America after Peru. The main Mayan populations are in Mexico, with significant groups such as the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000), and Tzeltal (80,000).

Q2. What Indian languages did the Aztecs speak?
Answer: The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations in central and western Mexico.

Q3. Is the Maya language still spoken today?
Answer: Yes, Maya is still spoken today. There are approximately 7 million speakers of Mayan languages, with around 4 million in Guatemala and 2.5 million in Mexico.

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Explore key differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca, including their religious beliefs, social structure, and education systems...

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Las civilizaciones maya, inca y azteca son de mesoamérica. Los mayas vivieron primero en pueblos pequeños pero luego construyeron grandes templos y pirámides. El inca vivió en la cima de las montañas e hizo un calendario. Los aztecas vivían en un valle en México donde construyeron un gran templo.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los aztecas existieron en el siglo 13 hasta el siglo 16 en México. El capital, Tenochtitlán, era un centro de cultura, mercadeo, y grupos sociales.  Se cultivó plantas como maíz, papas, y tomates. La dedicación de los aztecas a los dioses incluyeron templos, ceremonias, y sacrificios humanos. El imperio azteca cayó cuando Hernán Cortés invadió con soldados españoles.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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Las civilizaciónes Mayas, Aztecas, y Incas estaban en México y América Central. La civilización de Mayas estaba en México. Los Mayas son muy famosos por las pirámides y la agricultura. Los Incas vivían en el valle del Cuzco en las montañas. Las Aztecas estaban en el valle del México en las Sierra Madre montañas.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Aztecas viveron en Mexico para 300 años. Ellos inventado chocolate. Los Aztecas eran muy inteligente y fuerte. Pero ellos también fue muy locos. Ellos sacrificaron muchos personas. Ellos fue muy  extrano pero fueron muy importante para el futuro de Mexico.

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The greatest empire to rule over Mexico, the Aztecs were a phenomenal indigenous civilization which ruled far and wide for over 300 years. Brought to a grounding halt in the 1400s by invading Spanish conquistadores, the last great Mesoamerican empire has left an impressive legacy behind, overshadowing that of the Toltecs from whom the ruling crown was snatched in the early 13th century. From their inception, and within merely 50 years, their influence over the central region of Mexico was substantial and surprisingly swift. N'ahuatl, the Aztec language, was introduced immediately and even nowadays its remnants remain. From guacamole to chocolate, chilli and avocado: there are countless words in the English language which derive from the Aztec.

The local economy was single-handled driven by bartering. Colossal markets throughout the kingdom would attract tens of thousands of people. Much like the Maya, the Aztecs were also immensely advanced. Their artistic, architectural and philosophical achievements were impressive.

Plus, as many of you might know, the Aztecs invented chocolate. Reason alone to worship this incredible ancient culture, you say? We agree!

Here are 10 Interesting Facts About the Aztecs you ought to know before visiting Mexico.

1. To be brutally honest, the Aztecs were a rather psychopathic lot

Although we find it hard to believe that one's reputation could ever be tarnished - when one has invented chocolate - the Aztecs are actually most renowned for their colossal bloodshed and acts of barbarity. Renowned for being bloodthirsty warriors and for their penchant for mass human sacrifice, the Aztecs are estimated to have sacrificed 20,000 people a year, and more than four times that when a particularly revered temple, especially any dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, was built. Skinning, dismembering and decapitation were ritualistic practices, as was ripping out of a man's heart while he was still alive.

2. They were also lovers of sports and the arts

Now, you and I may think it preposterous that warriors who skinned hapless men for a living appreciate the finer things in life, like arts and sports. But to the Aztecs, one had absolutely nothing to do with the other. Sacrifices were deemed an essential part of their evolution. Appeasing the gods was something which guaranteed a more prosperous future, whereas playing sports and indulging in arts of all types - from carving to painting and even poetry - was a way to develop comradery and appreciation of skills.

3. The Aztecs developed a complex form of slavery

Unlike the more traditional forms of slavery seen the world over, the Aztecs developed a kind of indentured slavery, whereby slaves could, in fact, earn enough money to buy themselves freedom. What's more, slavery was used as a kind of currency. Aztecs would 'sell themselves' into slavery to pay off debts, and would even sell their children for a predetermined number of years. As far as slavery goes, the Aztecs didn't have it quite as rough as some. They were allowed to marry, have children, earn some money and even own land.

4. They introduced compulsory schooling

The Aztecs placed a high emphasis on education, both at home (from parents) and in school (from teachers). Since they also had a complex caste social system, the schools were divided by social class, as well as gender. Noble children would go to specific schools to learn about astronomy, philosophy and history, whilst lower caste children would be trained in warfare and skilled trade. Girls' education was, instead, focussed on home-care duties.

5. The Aztecs were probably brought undone by disease, not conflict

Knowing what we know about the Aztecs, it now seems much more plausible that the biggest threat European invaders brought to Mexico was disease, not guns. Historians believe that what decimated the Aztec population was smallpox, an infectious disease imported from Europe. In the first five years of European influence, almost 20 million Aztecs are thought to have died of this illness, mostly leaders as they were the ones in contact with the Spanish conquistadores.

6. The Aztecs were actually Mexicas

Mexico derives its name from Mexicas, the name the Aztecs people gave themselves. Aztec is a name given to the culture by the Spaniards, as they hailed from Azteca, the region of Mexico from where they originated.

7. The Aztecs were master accountants

If there's one thing many ancient cultures in Latin America had in common was their distinctive lack of written accounts. But not the Aztecs. They kept immaculate records and had a complex system of writings. Much like Egyptian hieroglyphs, their alphabet was a series of pictures, written by scholars and priests and inscribed in deer skin or tree bark.

8. Having multiple wives was a status symbol

The more the merrier, right? Well, if you were Aztec you would certainly think so! Aztecs practiced polygamy, and although strict rules were applied - only the first marriage would be publically celebrated, for example - polygamy improved a family's status due to sheer increase in workforce and, consequentially, income.

9. Mexico City is built upon the Aztec capital

The capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, was built on an island in the heart of a lake. Today, there stands Mexico City, one of the largest and most populated capitals in the world. By the time the Spaniards arrived, Tenochtitlan was larger than most European cities, something which the Europeans took an objection to, apparently.

10. Teotihuacan is the one Aztec site every visitor to Mexico should see

North of Mexico City is where you'll find the country's most prominent site, and one of the world's most important archaeological treasures. Teotihuacan was not actually built by the Aztecs, but rather discovered by them and subsequently occupied. Here you'll find the revered Pyramid of the Sun, the Moon, and the overwhelming Avenue of the Dead. What sets this place apart from all others, aside from its sheer size, is the fact that its origins are still shrouded in mystery. No one knows who built it, nor exactly when.

Itching to visit Mexico and retrace the steps of the Aztecs? Then check out all our fantastic Mexico Tours and come discover what this incredible culture left behind. Because all that chocolate isn't going to devour itself....

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Comments

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The greatest empire to rule over Mexico, the Aztecs were a phenomenal indigenous civilization which ruled far and wide for over 300 years. Brought to a grounding halt in the 1400s by invading Spanish conquistadores, the last great Mesoamerican empire has left an impressive legacy behind, overshadowing that of the Toltecs from whom the ruling crown was snatched in the early 13th century.

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A principios del siglo XIII, los aztecas eran la fuerza dominante en México.  Los orígenes de los aztecas son misteriosos.  Cuando los aztecas vieron un águila encima de un cactus, lo vieron como una señal y decidieron instalarse allí.  Los aztecas eran muy inteligentes pero también muy extraños.  Uno de sus líderes más famosos fue Itzcoatl.  También tenían una forma muy complicada de agricultura.  fueron muy exitosos e importantes en la historia de México.

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The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religi…

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The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religi…

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Las Mayans eran la primer civilazacion de los dos otro. Construyeron cuidades estados en América Central, incluyendo pirámides y plazas con columnas redondo que contado su historia. Los Incas se establecían en el valle de Cuzco en Perú, pero se mantienen en expansión. Tenían un gobierno fuerte que creó costumbres oficiales, un idioma y calender. Los Azteca civilizacion estaba en el valle de México. Los Aztecas eran experto agricultores, guerreros y constructores de templos.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Hace mucho tiempo, había tres civilizaciónes en México y Sudamérica. Los civilizaciónes eran los Mayas, los Aztecas, y los Incas. Primero, los Mayas vivieron en el Yucatan Peninsula. Ellos construyeron pirámides grandes y estructuras que estuvieron hechas de piedra. También, los Incas vivieron en el Valle de Cuzco en Sudamérica. Esta civilización tenía una milicia muy fuerte y creó una sistema de irrigación. Ya que sus tecnología avanzada, estas personas construyeron muchas calles y puentes en las montañas. Finalmente, los Aztecas vivieron en México. Ellos conquistaron muchos imperios porque esta civilización tenía guerreros fuertes y valientes.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Aztecas eran personas que vivieron en central Mexico entre entre los siglos 14 y 16. Los mayas vivieron en el sur de México y en el norte de America Central desde como 2600 B.C.  Los aztecas se caeron porque eran conquistado de los españoles en 1521. Los maya caeron tambien de los conquistadores españoles pero en diferentes tiempos. Los aztecas creeron una imperio muy grande entre todo de México por homenaje y  de comercio. Los mayas creeron la primero lenguaje escrito complete desarollado en precolombino.

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Comparison chart

Aztecs

Mayans

Introduction (from Wikipedia)

The Aztec Triple Alliance or Aztec Empire (Nahuatl: Ēxcān Tlahtōlōyān) began as an alliance of three Nahua city-states or "altepeme": Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan. These city-states ruled the area in and around the Valley of Mexico.

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, and for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems.

Where They Lived

The Aztecs lived in central Mexico. Often, "Aztec" is used to refer to people who lived in Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City, on an island in Lake Texcoco, but may also refer to their allies, the Acolhuas of Texcoco and the Tepanecs of Tlacopan.

The Maya people spread from southern Mexico, through to Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras and northern El Salvador.

Time Period

According to legend, the Aztecs saw a vision telling them to settle on an island in Lake Texcoco, which they did in 1325 CE. The city lasted until 1521 CE.

Archaeologists have discovered evidence that the Maya lived in Belize in around 2600 BCE, and it's generally accepted that settlements existed around 1800 BCE. The civilization saw its peak between 250 and 900 CE.

Rise and Peak of Civilization

The Aztec Empire began with an alliance between Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan in order to defeat Azcapotzalco. Tenochtitlan became the dominant city in the alliance, and their empire spread through both trade and military conquest. It controlled its states through installing rulers, constructing marriage alliances, and asking for tribute. The Empire reached its greatest spread in 1519 CE, just prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the area.

Maya civilization existed from 1800 BCE, but these settlements were widely abandoned around 100 CE. There was large scale reconstruction between 250 and 900 CE, known as the Classic period, when the Maya built many independent city states, built temples and palaces, developed a hieroglyphic writing system, and developed long distance trade with other Mesoamerican cultures.

Causes of Decline

Hernan Cortes conquered Tenochtiltan in 1521, supported by a large number of indigenous allies. The city was destroyed. The Spanish then founded a new settlement, Mexico City, on the site of the capital, and began colonizing Central America. Smallpox broke out in 1520-21 and played a vital in the fall of the city, with between 10% to 50% of the population succumbing to the disease.

The Maya southern lowlands went into decline in the 8th and 9th centuries and were abandoned. There are many theories for this decline, including overpopulation, foreign invasion, revolt, and the collapse of trade routes. The Northern Maya cities continued to flourish until the Spanish conquest. It took the conquistadors 170 years to establish control over all of the descendants of the Mayas.

Achievements

The Aztecs created a large empire across Mexico through tribute and trade. They built many pyramids, some of which still stand today.

The Mayas had the only known fully developed written language in pre-Columbian America. Their most notable monuments are the stepped pyramids and the palaces built for Maya rulers.

Notable Archaeological Sites

Although Tenochtiltan was destroyed, many notable sites remain in the Valley of Mexico. The ruins of the Templo Mayor were excavated in Mexico City in 1978.

There are many major Maya sites, including Altun Ha, Cancuen, Coba, Copan, Caracol, El Mirador, Naranjo, Tikal and Yaxha. Many cave sites are also important to Maya archaeology, including Jolja Cave, the Candelaria Caves and the Cave of the Witch.

How They Lived

Aztec civilization was built around corn cultivation. Society was divided between "pipiltin" (nobles) and "macehualli" (commoners), and was led by an Emperor. The Aztecs also had slaves, and individuals could become slaves due to debts, as a criminal punishment, or as war captives. All children were educated until age 14. Aztec civilization did not have draft animals or wheeled vehicles, and so roads were designed for travel on foot. The Aztecs worshipped Huitzilopochtli, the personification of the sun and war, and practiced human sacrifice. According to one record, 84,400 prisoners were sacrificed in four days for the reconsecration of the Great Period of Tenochtitlan in 1487.

The Mayas typically lived in independent city kingdoms, led by a king and his royal household. They also lacked draft animals, wheel-based transportation and metal tools. The Mayas used a writing system that combined phonetic symbols and logograms and a base 20 and base 5 numbering system. They used a 365-day calendar based on sun movement and believed in a cyclical nature of time and in three planes: Earth, underworld and heavens above. They also practiced human sacrifice.

Legacy

Most modern-day Mexicans are of mixed Aztec and European ancestry. A large amount of Aztec poetry survives, as it was collected during the conquest. The most important collection of these poems is Romances de los senores de la Nueva Espana. 1.5 million people now speak the Nahuatl language, mostly in mountainous areas in central Mexico. Many areas in Mexico City retain the original Aztec names.

Mayan languages are still spoken in rural areas in Mexico and Guatemala. The Mayas' astrological observations and calendar have also received a lot of attention recently, due to the incorrect belief that the end of the Maya calendar predicted the end of the world in 2012.

References

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What's the difference between Aztecs and Mayans? The Aztecs were Nahuatl-speaking people who lived in central Mexico in the 14th to 16th centuries. Their tribute empire spread throughout Mesoamerica. The Maya people lived in southern Mexico and northern Central America - a wide territory that includes th...

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Los aztecas se originaron como una tribu nómada en el norte de México, llegaron a Mesoamérica a principios del siglo XIII. Comenzaron como una tribu de cazadores-recolectores cuyo nombre provenía de su tierra Aztlán. Los mayas vivían en aldeas agrícolas y construían ciudades-estado en América Central que incluían grandes templos piramidales y plazas públicas con enormes columnas de piedra que relataban su historia. El Inca comenzó a establecerse en el Valle del Cuzco, en la Cordillera de los Andes, en el centro de Perú. Tenían un ejército fuerte y aprobaron leyes para crear costumbres oficiales y un idioma y calendario oficiales.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los aztecas estaban en el centro de México. Para 1521 los españoles controlaban a los aztecas. Los mayas estaban en diferentes partes de América Central. Los mayas fueron la única civilización estadounidense que hizo un lenguaje escrito. Los incas eran de Perú. Los incas también fueron controlados por los españoles en 1533.

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Kids learn about the ancient civilizations of the Americas including the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca Empires.

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Las tres civilizaciónes son de México. La primera civilización de las tres es los Mayas. Los Incas, Mayas, y Aztecas viven en valles y los tres tienen templos y plazas. La civilización de los Mayas viven en la peninsula de Yucatan, Los Incas en las montañas Andes, y los Aztecas en el valle de México. Los incas pueden pasar leyas y contruir un lenguaje oficial en su civilización. Los Incas hacen muchos inventos para ayudar su vida. Los Aztecas hacen su ciudad más grande al lado del lago Texcoco. Esta ciudad se llama Tenochtitlán. Muchas ruinas de la civilización de los Mayas estaban descubriendo de los argeuólogos.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Aztecas comenzaron en el norte de Mexico. La capital es Tenochtitlan donde era muy fuerte en Mexico. Se desconoce el origen exacto de los Aztecas. En 1428, bajo Itzcoatl, los aztecas formaron una alianza con los texcocanos y los tucubanes para vencer a sus rivales por la influencia en la region. Los aztecas compartieron muchas religiones con las mayas, como el sacramento humano. El primero europeo para visitar territorio mexicano fue Francisco Herandez de Cordoba. Hoy la ciudad es fabuloso y muchas personas visitan de todo el mundo.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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Los Aztecas construyeron muchas casas en la ciudad de México. Ellos eran guerreros y trabajadores en la civilización. Los Aztecas,  tambien, les encantaron chocolate de cacao. Los Mayas construyeron las estructuras más grande en sus civilización. También, ellos construyeron una pirámide sin ayuda de caballos. Los Incas construyeron sus ciudades de Peru. La civilización de Inca fue grande y las estructuras fueron altas. Todas de las tres civilizaciones son ruinas hoy, pero el diseño es magnífico!

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What The Ancients Did For Us - The Aztecs, Maya & Incas

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Find out more about The Aztecs, Incas and Mayans programme, part of the BBC/OU's 'What the Ancients Did for Us' TV series

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MAYAS

El Imperio Maya centrado en las vastas tierras fértiles del clima tropical de lo que hoy es Guatemala, Belize y México. Los Mayas se destacaban en la agricultura, su sistema de escritura en forma de jeroglíficos, la elaboración de calendarios, las matemáticas, la arquitectura, la elaboración de gigantescas pirámides de piedra y el arte que dejaron un impacto enorme en la cultura de estos países. Sin embargo, las ciudades fueron abandonadas alrededor del siglo IX DC, y aun en los tiempos modernos los arqueólogos y los historiadores desconocen la causa de la dramática destrucción del imperio. Para cuando llegaron los Conquistadores de la corona Española al nuevo mundo los Mayas vivían en pueblos agricultores dejando las gigantescas ciudades de piedra enterradas en la espesa jungla.
INCAS
Los Incas reinaban en la región de los Andes durante el siglo XII DC y progresivamente construyeron un reino masivo a través de la gran fuerza militar de sus emperadores. El imperio abarcaba las tierras de los países de Ecuador, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Argentina y Perú y tenía una población de más 12 millones de habitantes de más de 100 grupos étnicos diferentes. Los sistemas agrícolas y red de carreteras cuidadosamente diseñadas, junto con una religión e idioma centralizados, ayudaron a mantener al imperio. El cultivo en terrazas era crucial para esta civilización ya que vivían en tierras extremadamente elevadas y las plantaciones en terrazas solucionaba ese problema. A pesar de su poder, los Incas fueron rápidamente conquistados por las enfermedades traídas de europa cual ellos no estaban acostumbrados a lidiar y el alto poder militar Español liderados por el explorador Fernando Pizarro.
AZTECAS

Los Aztecas eran una antigua civilización cual su imperio expandía del centro de México y un poco de la punta sur de Guatemala. Los orígenes exactos de los aztecas son inciertos, pero se especula que comenzaron como una tribu norteña  de cazadores-recolectores por la región de Baja California. La capital del imperio, Tenochtitlán, fue construida cerca de Lago Texcoco donde los Aztecas construyeron islas artificiales cuales las usaban para la agricultura. Los presencia de los aztecas en Mesoamérica causó la caída de varias civilizaciones y tribus presentes en esa región como los toltecas. En 1517 el explorador Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba llego desde la isla de Cuba a la peninsula de Yucatan, preocupado de la presencia de esta civilización lo reportó al gobernador de la región Diego Velázquez. El gobernador exigió que Hernán Cortés y una armada llegará lo antes posible para establecer control y en 1519 Cortés y sus hombres llegaron a la ciudad de Tenochtitlán. Los Aztecas trataron a los Conquistadores como invitados especiales ya que tenían un cierto parecido a la apariencia del Quetzalcoatl. Cortez sacrifico a todos los nobles Aztecas durante un ritual y Montezuma el líder de los Aztecas murió mientras lo tenían de rehén.

DC=DESPUES DE CRISTO
ACA HAY OTROS DOS YA QUE SOLO PODIA PONER UNO
https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya
https://www.history.com/topics/south-america/inca

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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Los Mayas, Aztecas, y Incas eran las civilizaciónes más grandes.  Todos construyeron los edificios muy impresionante.  Los Aztecas y Mayas era en Mexico.  Los Incas era en la América del Sur. Pero Mayas, Aztecas, y Incas eran derrotado a la conquistadores españoles.

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Kids learn about the ancient civilizations of the Americas including the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca Empires.

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Las civilizaciónes de los Mayas, Incas, y los Aztecas, todos tienen mucho en comun pero también son diferentes. Por ejemplo, los Mayas vivían en Mexico, Belize, y Guatemala, y se aprendieron a plantar vegetales. Ellos también se construyeron unas pirámides para expresar su religión. Los Aztecas también vivían en Mexico y crearon un calendario sobre el ciclo solar. Las Incas vivían en los Andes. En el año 1911, unos arqueólogos se descubrieron Machu Picchu, una estructura de pierda, construida por los Incas.

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Featured

The Americas contain multiple pyramid structures built by civilizations like the Olmec, Maya, Aztec and Inca. The pyramids were constructed to house deities, as well as to bury kings.
Read more Read more about Pyramids in Latin America

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Ancient America: Maya, Inca, Aztec and Olmec | HISTORY

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Ancient America was the home of many large, advanced civilizations including the Maya, Inca, Olmec and Aztec societies.

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Los Incas, Mayas, y Aztecas construyeron civilizaciones en Mexico. Primero, Los Mayas construyeron templos y plazas grandes en la peninsula de Yucatan. Los mayas son famosos por su agricultura, y Yucatan tuvo muchos recursos naturales. Los Incas vivieron en la valle de Cuzco, Peru. El imperio tuvo 16 millones personas y consistio de 2500 millas. Los incas desarollaron sistemas de riego. Finalmente, los Aztecas eran de un valle en los sierra madre montanas, con una clima buena para agricultura. Los mayas eran guerreros, y construyeron templos tambien en la capital de tenochtitlan.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Las civilizaciones de los Mayas, Aztecas, y Incas son antiguas y ricas con culturas diferentes y similares. Las Aztecas y los Mayas vivieron en México mientras de las Incas vivieron en las montañas de los Andes. Las Aztecas tenían sacrificios humanos para sus dioses y usaron el cacao como moneda porque les encantaron el chocolate mucho. Los Mayas construyeron muchas estructuras altos sin el uso de caballos. También hicieron el famoso calendario de sol que fue muy accurate. Las Incas construyeron puentes de césped, que fueron muy fuertes.

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What The Ancients Did For Us - The Aztecs, Maya & Incas

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Find out more about The Aztecs, Incas and Mayans programme, part of the BBC/OU's 'What the Ancients Did for Us' TV series

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Las Aztecas, Incas, y Mayas era unas civilizaciónes antiguas en America Latina. Las culturas son muy diferentes y especiales. Las Mayas vivía en la península de Yucatan. Ellos vivían en muchas ciudades. Cada ciudad tenían un rey. La gente creían en muchos dioses. Ellos construían las estructuras grandes. Las Aztecas vivía en el valle de Mexico. La civilización tenían uno rey. Las Aztecas siempre estaba en conflicto con otras civilizaciónes. Ellos creían en muchos dioses como las Mayas. Construían
las pirámides enormes para sus dioses. Las Incas vivían en las montañas de Andes. Tenía uno rey. Como las aztecas y mayas, las incas creían en muchos dioses. Pero tenía un dio más importante del todos, el dio de sol. Las incas usaba formas geométricos y naturales para construir las estructuras.

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Difference Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

Maya, Inca, and Aztecs were three remarkable civilizations that thrived in the southern parts of America at different points in history. The Maya civilization, known for its amazing calendar that accurately predicted events such as floods and eclipses, holds a prominent place among these civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas also contributed immensely to America with their culture, heritage, power, and intelligence.

This article explores some captivating stories and notable differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca civilizations. But before we jump into their rich histories, let's first learn some basic facts about these three civilizations.

Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization appeared around 2600 B.C. in southeastern tropical parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya people had a highly advanced culture, a developed writing system, and remarkable advances in mathematics, astronomy, etc. It was unique among the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. They lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the southern highlands.

Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs, on the other hand, grew in the Valley of Mexico from 1300 to 1521 with a good environment for agriculture due to its moderate climate and rich natural resources. The Aztec capital, named Tenochtitlan, was the largest city. The Aztecs were famous for their farming, warfare, and temple-building skills. They were also famous for their diverse culture, beautiful sculptures, and advances in many other aspects.

Inca Civilization

Around the year 1200, the Inca civilization settled in central Peru of South America and also parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca was the largest in pre-Columbian America, extending approximately 2500 miles (4000 km) from north to south. The population was around 16 million people. They were famous for their impressive stonework and temples made without mortar (a mixture of cement and sand).

Head To Head Comparison Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

The Maya were native people of Mexico and Central America, while the Aztec covered most of northern Mesoamerica between c.1345 and 1521 CE, whereas Inca flourished in ancient Peru between c.1400 and 1533 CE and extended across western South America.

Given below is a detailed explanation of each difference between the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

1. Political Organization

Maya: Maya society was in city-states handled by a king or ruler. The kings held political and religious authority, believed to be divine rulers communicating with the gods. The city-states were usually organized hierarchically, with the ruling elite at the top and commoners at the bottom.

Aztec: The Aztec Empire was under the rule of an emperor, Huey Tlatoani, who held absolute power. Each province of the empire was under the governance of a local ruler appointed by the emperor.

Inca: The Inca Empire had a single emperor, the Sapa Inca, who was divine and held absolute power. The empire was a division of provinces governed by a local leader called an Apu, who reported to the Sapa Inca. The administrative and political center of the empire was Cusco, the capital city.

2. Social Structure

Maya: Maya society had a hierarchical social structure. At the top were the ruling elite: the king, nobles, and high-ranking priests. The ruling elite enjoyed privileges and controlled the wealth and resources of the civilization. Below them were the skilled craftspeople, merchants, and soldiers who played important societal roles. The major part of the population was farmers and laborers. Slavery was also practiced, with prisoners from war often serving as slaves.

Aztec: The Aztec society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobles at the top, followed by the warrior class, merchants, artisans, and commoners. Slavery was also a part of Aztec society, although it differed from the chattel slavery system that treated people as materials in other civilizations. Slaves in Aztec culture had certain rights and could even own property.

Inca: The Inca society was of distinct social classes similar to the Aztec. The lowest class included slaves or individuals who the Inca had conquered.

3. Agriculture

Maya: Maya civilization developed advanced farming techniques to support their growing population. One of their contributions was the domestication and cultivation of maize (corn). Maya farmers also grew beans, squash, peppers, cacao, avocados, and various fruits. To maximize productivity, they had innovative agricultural practices, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation systems.

Aztec: The Aztecs constructed chinampas and artificial islands as fertile floating gardens. They cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers.

Inca: The Inca cultivated crops like potatoes, maize (corn), quinoa, and beans. They also developed a system of irrigation and storage facilities to ensure a stable food supply.

They all had terrace farming by building steps into the mountainsides to create flat areas for cultivation.

4. Architecture

Maya: Maya architecture is well-known for its impressive pyramids, temples, palaces, ball courts, and observatories. These buildings were often constructed with stone and decorated with detailed carvings and murals. The Maya displayed advanced engineering skills, using corbel arches, slanting roofs, and exact alignment with astronomical phenomena.

Aztec: The most iconic design in Aztec civilization was the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc (the god of rain and fertility) and Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war).

Inca: The Inca were well-known for their massive stone structures without mortar, using "ashlar masonry." The most famous example of their architectural achievement is Machu Picchu, a stunning city in the Andes Mountains.

5. Writing and Communication

Maya: The Maya developed a complex writing system using a combination of visual symbols and phonetic elements. They carved inscriptions on stone monuments, painted murals, and created intricate codices (books) made from bark paper. Maya writing recorded historical events, religious rituals, astronomical observations, and genealogical information.

Aztec: The Aztecs created codices and bark-paper books containing illustrations and glyphs that conveyed historical, religious, and astrological information. However, the Spanish destroyed most of these codices during the conquest.

Inca: The Inca civilization did not maintain a written language in the traditional sense. Instead, they used Quipu, strings of different colors and knots describing various numerical and symbolic meanings. The quipu recorded numerical and statistical data.

6. Religion and Beliefs

Maya: The Maya worshipped many gods and goddesses associated with natural elements, celestial bodies, fertility, and agricultural cycles. Maya priests, who held significant power and knowledge, performed complex ceremonies, including bloodletting and human sacrifice, as offerings to the gods.

Aztec: Aztec society worshipped gods and goddesses, with Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc among the most important gods. Human sacrifice was a central aspect of their religious rituals, believed to confirm the sun's rising and the continuation of the world.

Inca: The Inca had a polytheistic religion, worshiping various gods and goddesses. Inti, the sun god, considered the Inca rulers' ancestor, was the most important deity. Other significant gods included Viracocha, the creator god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess.

7. Economy

Maya: The Mayans' complex economic system relied on trade, agriculture, and craft production. Trade networks connected Maya cities and extended beyond their region, facilitating the exchange of goods such as jade, obsidian, textiles, feathers, pottery, and luxury items. Maya society also had a market economy where they could buy and sell goods. Tribute and taxation systems were to support the ruling elite and maintain social order.

Aztec: The Aztec economy survived on agriculture, trade, and tribute. The empire had a vast trade network, exchanging goods such as cocoa beans, jade, feathers, and textiles.

Inca: The Inca empire implemented a labor praise system known as mit'a, where individuals owed compulsory labor to the state. The Inca also developed an extensive network of roads and bridges, known as the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan.

8. Calendar

Maya: The Maya had multiple calendars, including the 365-day solar calendar (Haab), the 260-day sacred calendar (Tzolk'in), and the Long Count. The Maya used their calendar system for tracking time, religious ceremonies, agricultural cycles, and star observations.

Aztec: The Aztecs had a complex calendar system. They used two calendars simultaneously: a solar calendar of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli and a ritual calendar of 260 days known as the tonalpohualli.

Inca: The Inca used a calendar divided into twelve lunar months and had a solar calendar. The Inca tracked time using celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Mathematics

Maya: The Maya made significant advancements in mathematics, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. They had a positional numeral system that included the concept of zero.

Aztec: The Aztecs developed a sophisticated mathematical system that included positional notation and a base-20 number system. They made astronomical advancements, accurately predicting celestial events and using them in their religious rituals and architecture.

Inca: The Inca civilization had a decimal system and a concept of zero. The Inca had skills in measurement and engineering, as obvious in their precise stonework and agricultural terraces.

10. Arts and Craftsmanship

Maya: Maya art was diverse that depicted religious scenes, mythological narratives, historical events, and everyday life. They used various materials, such as jade, obsidian, clay, pigments, and feathers.

Aztec: Aztec art included various forms such as sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and textiles. They were famous for their elaborate stone carvings, colorful featherwork, and detailed gold and silver ornaments using sophisticated metalworking techniques.

Inca: The Incas had excellence in pottery, metalwork (particularly gold and silver), textiles, and stone carving with intricate designs and vibrant colors.

11. Education and Science

Maya: Education in Maya society was primarily for the elite and those destined for leadership roles. Maya scientists made significant advancements in astronomy, accurately predicting celestial events, understanding celestial bodies' movements, and developing a complex understanding of the cosmos.

Aztec: Education in the Aztec civilization was mainly within the family and community. Young boys and girls studied practical skills, religious rituals, and the cultural traditions of their society. They also had specialized schools for training priests, scribes, and warriors.

Inca: Young boys in the Inca civilization attended schools known as Yachay Wasi, where they learned farming techniques, engineering, and religious rituals. Girls received education at home, where they were taught domestic skills and weaving.

12. Healthcare

Maya: The Maya healers, often shamans or priests, combined herbal remedies with rituals and spiritual practices to treat illnesses. They practiced surgery, including trepanation (drilling holes in the skull), and knew anatomy and herbal medicine.

Aztec: Aztec medicine had a detailed understanding of medicinal plants and used them for treating various diseases. Healing practices included herbal remedies, surgical procedures, and spiritual rituals to restore health.

Inca: The Inca utilized herbal remedies, such as coca leaves, for medicinal purposes. The Inca also had a system of public health that included sanitary measures and the establishment of hospitals, known as kallankas, where individuals could receive medical treatment.

13. Decline and Conquest

Maya: The reasons for the fall of the Maya civilization are environmental factors like deforestation, soil erosion, and drought. Internal conflicts, political instability, and overpopulation may have also contributed to the decline. Due to the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, many Maya cities had already been abandoned, and the remaining city-states fell under Spanish conquest.

Aztec: The decline of the Aztec civilization began with the Spanish invasion led by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Factors such as superior weaponry, diseases brought by the Spanish, and the disruption of Aztec society contributed to their defeat. The Spanish exploited internal divisions within the empire, formed partnerships with local tribes who were enemies of the Aztecs, and ultimately conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Inca: The Inca Empire faced its decline with the arrival of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. The Spanish exploited the Incas with superior weapons and diseases like smallpox. The capture and death of the last emperor, Atahualpa, marked the end of the Inca and the beginning of Spanish colonization.

Maya vs Aztec vs Inca Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Do any Mayans still exist?
Answer: Yes, there are still Mayans alive today. They comprise around six million individuals, making them the largest indigenous group in North America after Peru. The main Mayan populations are in Mexico, with significant groups such as the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000), and Tzeltal (80,000).

Q2. What Indian languages did the Aztecs speak?
Answer: The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations in central and western Mexico.

Q3. Is the Maya language still spoken today?
Answer: Yes, Maya is still spoken today. There are approximately 7 million speakers of Mayan languages, with around 4 million in Guatemala and 2.5 million in Mexico.

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This has guided the top difference between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca. Here we also discuss the key differences between infographics and comparison tables. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more -

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Maya vs Aztec vs Inca | Find out the Top 13 Differences and Comparison

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Explore key differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca, including their religious beliefs, social structure, and education systems...

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Los Mayas  eran una civilización antigua que vivía en el Yucatan peninsula. Tikal en Guatemala tenía muchas cosas antiguas de la civilización de los Mayas. Los Incas vivía en la valle de Cuzco. Tenían un gobierno con una militaria fuerte. Los Aztecas vivían en la valle de México. Sus cosas antiguas eran en el Templo Grande que se llama tenochtitlan.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Aztecas, Incas y Mayas eran unas civilizaciones antiguos. Estas civilizaciones eran muy grande y muy avanzado. Los inventos de estas civilizaciones eran muy bonitos y muy inteligentes. La capital de los Aztecos es en Tenochtitlán, la capital de las Mayas es en Tikal, y la capital de las Incas es en Cusco. Las incas, mayas y aztecas construía las esculturas más grandes y hermosas. En final, estas civilizaciones son más importantes en  la América Latina.

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Difference Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

Maya, Inca, and Aztecs were three remarkable civilizations that thrived in the southern parts of America at different points in history. The Maya civilization, known for its amazing calendar that accurately predicted events such as floods and eclipses, holds a prominent place among these civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas also contributed immensely to America with their culture, heritage, power, and intelligence.

This article explores some captivating stories and notable differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca civilizations. But before we jump into their rich histories, let's first learn some basic facts about these three civilizations.

Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization appeared around 2600 B.C. in southeastern tropical parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya people had a highly advanced culture, a developed writing system, and remarkable advances in mathematics, astronomy, etc. It was unique among the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. They lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the southern highlands.

Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs, on the other hand, grew in the Valley of Mexico from 1300 to 1521 with a good environment for agriculture due to its moderate climate and rich natural resources. The Aztec capital, named Tenochtitlan, was the largest city. The Aztecs were famous for their farming, warfare, and temple-building skills. They were also famous for their diverse culture, beautiful sculptures, and advances in many other aspects.

Inca Civilization

Around the year 1200, the Inca civilization settled in central Peru of South America and also parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca was the largest in pre-Columbian America, extending approximately 2500 miles (4000 km) from north to south. The population was around 16 million people. They were famous for their impressive stonework and temples made without mortar (a mixture of cement and sand).

Head To Head Comparison Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

The Maya were native people of Mexico and Central America, while the Aztec covered most of northern Mesoamerica between c.1345 and 1521 CE, whereas Inca flourished in ancient Peru between c.1400 and 1533 CE and extended across western South America.

Given below is a detailed explanation of each difference between the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

1. Political Organization

Maya: Maya society was in city-states handled by a king or ruler. The kings held political and religious authority, believed to be divine rulers communicating with the gods. The city-states were usually organized hierarchically, with the ruling elite at the top and commoners at the bottom.

Aztec: The Aztec Empire was under the rule of an emperor, Huey Tlatoani, who held absolute power. Each province of the empire was under the governance of a local ruler appointed by the emperor.

Inca: The Inca Empire had a single emperor, the Sapa Inca, who was divine and held absolute power. The empire was a division of provinces governed by a local leader called an Apu, who reported to the Sapa Inca. The administrative and political center of the empire was Cusco, the capital city.

2. Social Structure

Maya: Maya society had a hierarchical social structure. At the top were the ruling elite: the king, nobles, and high-ranking priests. The ruling elite enjoyed privileges and controlled the wealth and resources of the civilization. Below them were the skilled craftspeople, merchants, and soldiers who played important societal roles. The major part of the population was farmers and laborers. Slavery was also practiced, with prisoners from war often serving as slaves.

Aztec: The Aztec society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobles at the top, followed by the warrior class, merchants, artisans, and commoners. Slavery was also a part of Aztec society, although it differed from the chattel slavery system that treated people as materials in other civilizations. Slaves in Aztec culture had certain rights and could even own property.

Inca: The Inca society was of distinct social classes similar to the Aztec. The lowest class included slaves or individuals who the Inca had conquered.

3. Agriculture

Maya: Maya civilization developed advanced farming techniques to support their growing population. One of their contributions was the domestication and cultivation of maize (corn). Maya farmers also grew beans, squash, peppers, cacao, avocados, and various fruits. To maximize productivity, they had innovative agricultural practices, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation systems.

Aztec: The Aztecs constructed chinampas and artificial islands as fertile floating gardens. They cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers.

Inca: The Inca cultivated crops like potatoes, maize (corn), quinoa, and beans. They also developed a system of irrigation and storage facilities to ensure a stable food supply.

They all had terrace farming by building steps into the mountainsides to create flat areas for cultivation.

4. Architecture

Maya: Maya architecture is well-known for its impressive pyramids, temples, palaces, ball courts, and observatories. These buildings were often constructed with stone and decorated with detailed carvings and murals. The Maya displayed advanced engineering skills, using corbel arches, slanting roofs, and exact alignment with astronomical phenomena.

Aztec: The most iconic design in Aztec civilization was the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc (the god of rain and fertility) and Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war).

Inca: The Inca were well-known for their massive stone structures without mortar, using "ashlar masonry." The most famous example of their architectural achievement is Machu Picchu, a stunning city in the Andes Mountains.

5. Writing and Communication

Maya: The Maya developed a complex writing system using a combination of visual symbols and phonetic elements. They carved inscriptions on stone monuments, painted murals, and created intricate codices (books) made from bark paper. Maya writing recorded historical events, religious rituals, astronomical observations, and genealogical information.

Aztec: The Aztecs created codices and bark-paper books containing illustrations and glyphs that conveyed historical, religious, and astrological information. However, the Spanish destroyed most of these codices during the conquest.

Inca: The Inca civilization did not maintain a written language in the traditional sense. Instead, they used Quipu, strings of different colors and knots describing various numerical and symbolic meanings. The quipu recorded numerical and statistical data.

6. Religion and Beliefs

Maya: The Maya worshipped many gods and goddesses associated with natural elements, celestial bodies, fertility, and agricultural cycles. Maya priests, who held significant power and knowledge, performed complex ceremonies, including bloodletting and human sacrifice, as offerings to the gods.

Aztec: Aztec society worshipped gods and goddesses, with Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc among the most important gods. Human sacrifice was a central aspect of their religious rituals, believed to confirm the sun's rising and the continuation of the world.

Inca: The Inca had a polytheistic religion, worshiping various gods and goddesses. Inti, the sun god, considered the Inca rulers' ancestor, was the most important deity. Other significant gods included Viracocha, the creator god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess.

7. Economy

Maya: The Mayans' complex economic system relied on trade, agriculture, and craft production. Trade networks connected Maya cities and extended beyond their region, facilitating the exchange of goods such as jade, obsidian, textiles, feathers, pottery, and luxury items. Maya society also had a market economy where they could buy and sell goods. Tribute and taxation systems were to support the ruling elite and maintain social order.

Aztec: The Aztec economy survived on agriculture, trade, and tribute. The empire had a vast trade network, exchanging goods such as cocoa beans, jade, feathers, and textiles.

Inca: The Inca empire implemented a labor praise system known as mit'a, where individuals owed compulsory labor to the state. The Inca also developed an extensive network of roads and bridges, known as the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan.

8. Calendar

Maya: The Maya had multiple calendars, including the 365-day solar calendar (Haab), the 260-day sacred calendar (Tzolk'in), and the Long Count. The Maya used their calendar system for tracking time, religious ceremonies, agricultural cycles, and star observations.

Aztec: The Aztecs had a complex calendar system. They used two calendars simultaneously: a solar calendar of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli and a ritual calendar of 260 days known as the tonalpohualli.

Inca: The Inca used a calendar divided into twelve lunar months and had a solar calendar. The Inca tracked time using celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Mathematics

Maya: The Maya made significant advancements in mathematics, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. They had a positional numeral system that included the concept of zero.

Aztec: The Aztecs developed a sophisticated mathematical system that included positional notation and a base-20 number system. They made astronomical advancements, accurately predicting celestial events and using them in their religious rituals and architecture.

Inca: The Inca civilization had a decimal system and a concept of zero. The Inca had skills in measurement and engineering, as obvious in their precise stonework and agricultural terraces.

10. Arts and Craftsmanship

Maya: Maya art was diverse that depicted religious scenes, mythological narratives, historical events, and everyday life. They used various materials, such as jade, obsidian, clay, pigments, and feathers.

Aztec: Aztec art included various forms such as sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and textiles. They were famous for their elaborate stone carvings, colorful featherwork, and detailed gold and silver ornaments using sophisticated metalworking techniques.

Inca: The Incas had excellence in pottery, metalwork (particularly gold and silver), textiles, and stone carving with intricate designs and vibrant colors.

11. Education and Science

Maya: Education in Maya society was primarily for the elite and those destined for leadership roles. Maya scientists made significant advancements in astronomy, accurately predicting celestial events, understanding celestial bodies' movements, and developing a complex understanding of the cosmos.

Aztec: Education in the Aztec civilization was mainly within the family and community. Young boys and girls studied practical skills, religious rituals, and the cultural traditions of their society. They also had specialized schools for training priests, scribes, and warriors.

Inca: Young boys in the Inca civilization attended schools known as Yachay Wasi, where they learned farming techniques, engineering, and religious rituals. Girls received education at home, where they were taught domestic skills and weaving.

12. Healthcare

Maya: The Maya healers, often shamans or priests, combined herbal remedies with rituals and spiritual practices to treat illnesses. They practiced surgery, including trepanation (drilling holes in the skull), and knew anatomy and herbal medicine.

Aztec: Aztec medicine had a detailed understanding of medicinal plants and used them for treating various diseases. Healing practices included herbal remedies, surgical procedures, and spiritual rituals to restore health.

Inca: The Inca utilized herbal remedies, such as coca leaves, for medicinal purposes. The Inca also had a system of public health that included sanitary measures and the establishment of hospitals, known as kallankas, where individuals could receive medical treatment.

13. Decline and Conquest

Maya: The reasons for the fall of the Maya civilization are environmental factors like deforestation, soil erosion, and drought. Internal conflicts, political instability, and overpopulation may have also contributed to the decline. Due to the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, many Maya cities had already been abandoned, and the remaining city-states fell under Spanish conquest.

Aztec: The decline of the Aztec civilization began with the Spanish invasion led by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Factors such as superior weaponry, diseases brought by the Spanish, and the disruption of Aztec society contributed to their defeat. The Spanish exploited internal divisions within the empire, formed partnerships with local tribes who were enemies of the Aztecs, and ultimately conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Inca: The Inca Empire faced its decline with the arrival of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. The Spanish exploited the Incas with superior weapons and diseases like smallpox. The capture and death of the last emperor, Atahualpa, marked the end of the Inca and the beginning of Spanish colonization.

Maya vs Aztec vs Inca Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Do any Mayans still exist?
Answer: Yes, there are still Mayans alive today. They comprise around six million individuals, making them the largest indigenous group in North America after Peru. The main Mayan populations are in Mexico, with significant groups such as the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000), and Tzeltal (80,000).

Q2. What Indian languages did the Aztecs speak?
Answer: The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations in central and western Mexico.

Q3. Is the Maya language still spoken today?
Answer: Yes, Maya is still spoken today. There are approximately 7 million speakers of Mayan languages, with around 4 million in Guatemala and 2.5 million in Mexico.

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Explore key differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca, including their religious beliefs, social structure, and education systems...

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Los mayas, incas y aztecas construyeron imperios grandes  en

México hace muchos años. Los mayas eran el grupo más antiguo y construyeron muchas estructuras hermosas. Tenían pirámides, monumentos y muchos templos. Los incas vinieron después de los mayas y vivieron en las montañas de los Andes. Tenían ingeniería muy avanzada y crearon irrigación, calendarios, y una sistema de carreteras. Finalmente, estaban los aztecas, el grupo más recientemente y famoso. Eran agricultoras y luchadores con mucho poder. Su imperio extendió casi todo México en un punto.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Aztecas, Incas, y Mayas son muy similar y differente. En la estructura political, Los Mayas tenían muchas ciudades con su propio presidente. Los Incas y Aztecas tenían un grande emperador quien decidí todos reglas en los civilizaciónes. El relgión era muy similar en todos civilizaciónes con muchos dioses y muchos templos. Todos los civilizaciónes tiene mucho tecnologia. Los mayas tenían unas formas de escritura, los incas tenían calles, y los aztecas tenían templos. Los aztecas y Incas cayeron cuando conquistadores conquista su tierra.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Aztecas, Maya y Inca vivían en México, América Central y del Sur, respectivamente. Los Maya construyeron templos y pirámides. El Inca creó un calendario y construyó muchos calles. Gobernaron con sus fuertes militares. Los Aztecas sacrificaban cosas a sus dioses y eran guerreros feroces.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los Mayas eran una civilización antigua que vivían en México, Guatemala, y Belize. Tenían muchos idiomas y tecnologías, y inventián muchas cosas. Ellos tenían muchos estructuras como templos en forma de pirámide. También, ellos cultivaban muchas comidas como maíz y frijoles. Hoy, los Mayas son un misterio inexplicable después de su desaparición. Sus ruinas hoy son lugares muy populares.

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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).

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.

Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250

The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions.

The Middle Preclassic Period also saw the rise of the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs. Like other Mesamerican peoples, such as the Zapotec, Totonac, Teotihuacán and Aztec, the Maya derived a number of religious and cultural traits-as well as their number system and their famous calendar-from the Olmec.

In addition to agriculture, the Preclassic Maya also displayed more advanced cultural traits like pyramid-building, city construction and the inscribing of stone monuments.

The Late Preclassic city of Mirador, in the northern Peten, was one of the greatest cities ever built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Its size dwarfed the Classic Maya capital of Tikal, and its existence proves that the Maya flourished centuries before the Classic Period.

Mayan Pyramids of the Classic Maya, A.D. 250-900

The Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000 or as many as 10,000,000.

Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed plazas, palaces, temples and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the famous Maya ball game ulama, all ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities were surrounded and supported by a large population of farmers. Though the Maya practiced a primitive type of "slash-and-burn" agriculture, they also displayed evidence of more advanced farming methods, such as irrigation and terracing.

The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, or "kuhul ajaw" (holy lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture.

The Mayan Calendar and Culture

The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of Mesoamerica.

Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of complex calendar systems like the Calendar Round, based on 365 days, and later, the Long Count Calendar, designed to last over 5,000 years.

Serious exploration of Classic Maya sites began in the 1830s. By the early to mid-20th century, a small portion of their system of hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history and culture became known. Most of what historians know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments.

The Maya also made paper from tree bark and wrote in books made from this paper, known as codices; four of these codices are known to have survived. They are also credited with some of the earliest uses of chocolate and of rubber.

Maya Life in the Rainforest

One of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability to build a great civilization in a tropical rainforest climate. Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates, where the centralized management of water resources (through irrigation and other techniques) formed the basis of society. (This was the case for the Teotihuacan of highland Mexico, contemporaries of the Classic Maya.) In the southern Maya lowlands, however, there were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no obvious need for an irrigation system.

By the late 20th century, researchers had concluded that the climate of the lowlands was in fact quite environmentally diverse. Though foreign invaders were disappointed by the region's relative lack of silver and gold, the Maya took advantage of the area's many natural resources, including limestone (for construction), the volcanic rock obsidian (for tools and weapons) and salt.

The environment also held other treasures for the Maya, including jade, quetzal feathers (used to decorate the elaborate costumes of Maya nobility) and marine shells, which were used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare.

What Happened to the Maya?

From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Mayan civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories.

Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power.

As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic environmental change - like an extremely long, intense period of drought - may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization. Drought would have hit cities like Tikal especially hard, because rainwater there was necessary for drinking as well as for crop irrigation.

All three of these factors - overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare and drought - may have played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. In the highlands of the Yucatan, a few Maya cities, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapán, continued to flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-1500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya were living in agricultural villages, their great cities hidden under a layer of verdant rainforest.

Do the Maya Still Exist?

Descendants of the Maya still live in Central America in modern-day Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and parts of Mexico.

The majority of modern-day Maya live in Guatemala, which is home to Tikal National Park, the site of the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal. Roughly 40 percent of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent.

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Mayan Civilization: Calendar, Pyramids & Ruins| HISTORY

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The Maya, a civilization of Indigenous people in Central America, created a complex Mayan calendar and massive pyramids before their empire collapsed into ruins.

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Los Mayas, Incas, y Aztecas fueron una civilizacion en Mexico y llegaran a MesoAmerica. La capital de Los Aztecas estan Tenochtitlan en Mexico. Los Mayas estan de Guatemala en el dia presente y en el Yucatan peninsula. El capital de la civilizacion Maya esta Tikal. Los Incas estan una civilizacion de Peru y estan la civilizacion mayor grande en los Americas durante esta tiempo. El capital de la civilizacion de los Incas esta Cusco y Cusco esta en Peru en el presente dia. Los Incas esta la civilizacion muy grande y esta una civilizacion mayor y con mucho tierra durante esta tiempo.

https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas

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Los Mayas están una civilización en el día presente Guatemala. En el sexto siglo AD los mayans tienen la escritura en la paredes y grandes estructuras. Los Mayas eran grandes en agricultura. Desarrollaron vegetales como maize. Los Mayas ruinas es muy famosa. Los arqueólogos descubierto pirámides y una lugar de un juego de pelota antiguo.

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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).

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.

Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250

The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions.

The Middle Preclassic Period also saw the rise of the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs. Like other Mesamerican peoples, such as the Zapotec, Totonac, Teotihuacán and Aztec, the Maya derived a number of religious and cultural traits-as well as their number system and their famous calendar-from the Olmec.

In addition to agriculture, the Preclassic Maya also displayed more advanced cultural traits like pyramid-building, city construction and the inscribing of stone monuments.

The Late Preclassic city of Mirador, in the northern Peten, was one of the greatest cities ever built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Its size dwarfed the Classic Maya capital of Tikal, and its existence proves that the Maya flourished centuries before the Classic Period.

Mayan Pyramids of the Classic Maya, A.D. 250-900

The Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000 or as many as 10,000,000.

Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed plazas, palaces, temples and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the famous Maya ball game ulama, all ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities were surrounded and supported by a large population of farmers. Though the Maya practiced a primitive type of "slash-and-burn" agriculture, they also displayed evidence of more advanced farming methods, such as irrigation and terracing.

The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, or "kuhul ajaw" (holy lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture.

The Mayan Calendar and Culture

The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of Mesoamerica.

Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of complex calendar systems like the Calendar Round, based on 365 days, and later, the Long Count Calendar, designed to last over 5,000 years.

Serious exploration of Classic Maya sites began in the 1830s. By the early to mid-20th century, a small portion of their system of hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history and culture became known. Most of what historians know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments.

The Maya also made paper from tree bark and wrote in books made from this paper, known as codices; four of these codices are known to have survived. They are also credited with some of the earliest uses of chocolate and of rubber.

Maya Life in the Rainforest

One of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability to build a great civilization in a tropical rainforest climate. Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates, where the centralized management of water resources (through irrigation and other techniques) formed the basis of society. (This was the case for the Teotihuacan of highland Mexico, contemporaries of the Classic Maya.) In the southern Maya lowlands, however, there were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no obvious need for an irrigation system.

By the late 20th century, researchers had concluded that the climate of the lowlands was in fact quite environmentally diverse. Though foreign invaders were disappointed by the region's relative lack of silver and gold, the Maya took advantage of the area's many natural resources, including limestone (for construction), the volcanic rock obsidian (for tools and weapons) and salt.

The environment also held other treasures for the Maya, including jade, quetzal feathers (used to decorate the elaborate costumes of Maya nobility) and marine shells, which were used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare.

What Happened to the Maya?

From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Mayan civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories.

Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power.

As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic environmental change - like an extremely long, intense period of drought - may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization. Drought would have hit cities like Tikal especially hard, because rainwater there was necessary for drinking as well as for crop irrigation.

All three of these factors - overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare and drought - may have played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. In the highlands of the Yucatan, a few Maya cities, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapán, continued to flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-1500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya were living in agricultural villages, their great cities hidden under a layer of verdant rainforest.

Do the Maya Still Exist?

Descendants of the Maya still live in Central America in modern-day Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and parts of Mexico.

The majority of modern-day Maya live in Guatemala, which is home to Tikal National Park, the site of the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal. Roughly 40 percent of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent.

Fact Check

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Mayan Civilization: Calendar, Pyramids & Ruins| HISTORY

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The Maya, a civilization of Indigenous people in Central America, created a complex Mayan calendar and massive pyramids before their empire collapsed into ruins.

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Los aztecas eran una civilización del centro de México. Los Incas eran de America del sur en chile y Perú. Los Mayas eran del sur de México. cada civilización tenía su propio lenguaje. Los mayas son la civilización más viejo de america latino. Los aztecas y Incas tenían capitales y systemas centrales. Los mayas tenían muchos ciudades y estados y estaban unidos con su cultura.

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Differences between the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas include their location and language system. The Aztecs lived in what is now central Mexico, while the Mayas lived in southern Mexico and the Inca civilization was focused around Chile and Peru. Both the Aztecs and the Mayans developed a writing system for their language, while the Incas did not.

The Aztecs, Mayans and Incas were three highly developed ancient civilizations. The first Mayan settlements were founded around 1800 B.C., with the great Mayan cities being built starting in 250 A.D. The Aztec and Incan civilizations were founded later, in approximately 1325 A.D. and 1200 A.D., respectively.

The Incan civilization covered a larger area of land, extending 2,500 miles from northern South America along the Pacific coast. Each established laws and a government. The Aztec and Incan government centered around a capital: Tenochtitlan for the Aztecs, Cuzco for the Incas and Tikal for the Incas. The Mayan government created several powerful city-states, such as Tikal.

The Aztec and the Incan civilizations were conquered by the Spanish in the 16th century and their cities were largely destroyed. The Mayans were also conquered by the Spanish during that time, however, much of the civilization had collapsed before then.

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What Are Some Differences Between the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas?

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Differences between the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas include their location and language system. The Aztecs lived in what is now central Mexico, while the Mayas lived in southern Mexico and the Inca civilization was focused around Chile and Peru. Both the Aztecs and the Mayans developed a writing system for their language, while the Incas did not.

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Los Aztecas llegaron en Mesoamérica en la empieza del siglo 13. La capital de Los Aztecas se llamó Tenochtitlán, y ellos dominaron Mexico. Ellos desarrollaron los organizaciones social, político,  religioso, y comercial, se permitiendo a tener control por el siglo 15. En 1521, invasores conquistaron el imperio Azteca y capturaron la capital de Tenochtitlán. Este evento se terminaron el último civilización nativa.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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Los mayas, incas y aztecas tienen sus propios imperios. Todos ellos hablaban lenguas diferentes.  Los aztecas eran de lo que ahora es Ciudad de México. Los incas son de un lugar entre Columbia y Chile. Los mayas eran de lo que ahora es Guatemala.

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The similarity between the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas is that all had control of massive empires that eventually ceased to exist. Other than that common factor, the groups all had different ways of life and unique languages, political agendas, religious views and ways to provide for their people.

The Aztecs built an empire that was based in the area that is now known as Mexico City. At the time, the area that they controlled was known as Tenochtitlan. Their reign in this area occurred between the 12th and 15th centuries, until Hernado Cortes led the Spanish into the area and took over he city of Tenochtitlan with the help of other Indian tribes that were enemies of the Aztecs. The Sun and Moon pyramids of Tenochtitlan are still popular tourist attractions today.

Aztec Culture

Aztecs had a complicated and involved system of religion that focused on three main gods and several minor gods. Human sacrifice was often performed in the name of a god known as Huitzilopochtli. To capture prisoners to be used in human sacrifices, warriors would fight wars called "flower wars" with their enemies. It was during these wars that warriors were trained for battle by practicing their skills hands-on. Aztec designed and built the chinapas system of farming, which allowed them to grow crops in the swampy regions in which they lived. They spoke Nahuatl, a language very different from that of the Mayans and Incas.

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The Similarities & Differences of the Aztec Mayans and the Incas | Synonym

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The Mayans, Aztecs and Incas shared some similarities like farming practices, social structures, military defenses and the worship of multiple gods. They also varied greatly, however, in their ways of life, languages, politics, religious views and the ways in which they cared for their people.

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Se cree que los aztecas son una tribu del norte de Aztlan. Las ciudades del imperio azteca

tenian enormes templos, palacios, plazas y estatuas de sus muchos dioses. Estos dioses tenian un papel muy importante en la fe azteca. Muchos templos estaban dedicados a los dioses, y muchos ofrecieron ofrendas a los dioses. En 1428 los aztecas formaron una alianza con los Texcocans y los Tacubans para derrotar a los Tepanec y conquistar su capital, Azcapotzalco.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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Los Aztecas eran un grupo de personas que vivían en la civilización del año 1325 a 1521. Normalmente son reconocidos como los ancestros de los Mexicanos. Ellos se desarrollaron por 200 años alado de construyendo culturas posteriores. Los Aztecas se ubicaban en la zona de central Mesoamérica, en el centro de Valle de México. Esos lugares los conocemos ahora como Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero y Guatemala. En el año 1521 ellos pudieron tener mas de 300.000km cuadrados y una población de 7 millones. Desafortunada mente la civilización azteca llegó a su fin cuando Hernán Cortés tomo su territorio en el año 1521 y proceso como la conquista de México.

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Los Incas, Aztecas, y Mayas fueron un precolombino de las Americas. Los Mayas fue en centro americo. Las mayas fue un groupo de ciudad-Estados. La Inca fue un civilización grande en los montanos Andes. Ellos comieron las papas dulces. Las Aztecos fue un civilización en Valle de México. Las aztecas islas usadas por granjas. Los Mayas mas viejo que los Aztecas o Incas. Las Aztecas tenian mucho oro. Las incas tenian plato. https://www.ancient.eu/Aztec_Civilization/

https://www.livescience.com/41781-the-maya.html

https://www.ancient.eu/Inca_Civilization/

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Los aztecas vivieron en Tenochtitlan o la Ciuadad de México. Los aztecas eran psicópatas porque ellos sacrificaban humanos todos los días. Los aztecas eran contadores también y tuvieron una lenguaje escrita. El español llamó los aztecas, aztecas. En realidad los aztecas eran las Mexicas. No es un misterio que enfermadades como la viruela mataron los aztecas, no los conquistadores. Los aztecas jugaban el deporte de Ullamaliztil también.

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The greatest empire to rule over Mexico, the Aztecs were a phenomenal indigenous civilization which ruled far and wide for over 300 years. Brought to a grounding halt in the 1400s by invading Spanish conquistadores, the last great Mesoamerican empire has left an impressive legacy behind, overshadowing that of the Toltecs from whom the ruling crown was snatched in the early 13th century. From their inception, and within merely 50 years, their influence over the central region of Mexico was substantial and surprisingly swift. N'ahuatl, the Aztec language, was introduced immediately and even nowadays its remnants remain. From guacamole to chocolate, chilli and avocado: there are countless words in the English language which derive from the Aztec.

The local economy was single-handled driven by bartering. Colossal markets throughout the kingdom would attract tens of thousands of people. Much like the Maya, the Aztecs were also immensely advanced. Their artistic, architectural and philosophical achievements were impressive.

Plus, as many of you might know, the Aztecs invented chocolate. Reason alone to worship this incredible ancient culture, you say? We agree!

Here are 10 Interesting Facts About the Aztecs you ought to know before visiting Mexico.

1. To be brutally honest, the Aztecs were a rather psychopathic lot

Although we find it hard to believe that one's reputation could ever be tarnished - when one has invented chocolate - the Aztecs are actually most renowned for their colossal bloodshed and acts of barbarity. Renowned for being bloodthirsty warriors and for their penchant for mass human sacrifice, the Aztecs are estimated to have sacrificed 20,000 people a year, and more than four times that when a particularly revered temple, especially any dedicated to Huitzilopochtli, was built. Skinning, dismembering and decapitation were ritualistic practices, as was ripping out of a man's heart while he was still alive.

2. They were also lovers of sports and the arts

Now, you and I may think it preposterous that warriors who skinned hapless men for a living appreciate the finer things in life, like arts and sports. But to the Aztecs, one had absolutely nothing to do with the other. Sacrifices were deemed an essential part of their evolution. Appeasing the gods was something which guaranteed a more prosperous future, whereas playing sports and indulging in arts of all types - from carving to painting and even poetry - was a way to develop comradery and appreciation of skills.

3. The Aztecs developed a complex form of slavery

Unlike the more traditional forms of slavery seen the world over, the Aztecs developed a kind of indentured slavery, whereby slaves could, in fact, earn enough money to buy themselves freedom. What's more, slavery was used as a kind of currency. Aztecs would 'sell themselves' into slavery to pay off debts, and would even sell their children for a predetermined number of years. As far as slavery goes, the Aztecs didn't have it quite as rough as some. They were allowed to marry, have children, earn some money and even own land.

4. They introduced compulsory schooling

The Aztecs placed a high emphasis on education, both at home (from parents) and in school (from teachers). Since they also had a complex caste social system, the schools were divided by social class, as well as gender. Noble children would go to specific schools to learn about astronomy, philosophy and history, whilst lower caste children would be trained in warfare and skilled trade. Girls' education was, instead, focussed on home-care duties.

5. The Aztecs were probably brought undone by disease, not conflict

Knowing what we know about the Aztecs, it now seems much more plausible that the biggest threat European invaders brought to Mexico was disease, not guns. Historians believe that what decimated the Aztec population was smallpox, an infectious disease imported from Europe. In the first five years of European influence, almost 20 million Aztecs are thought to have died of this illness, mostly leaders as they were the ones in contact with the Spanish conquistadores.

6. The Aztecs were actually Mexicas

Mexico derives its name from Mexicas, the name the Aztecs people gave themselves. Aztec is a name given to the culture by the Spaniards, as they hailed from Azteca, the region of Mexico from where they originated.

7. The Aztecs were master accountants

If there's one thing many ancient cultures in Latin America had in common was their distinctive lack of written accounts. But not the Aztecs. They kept immaculate records and had a complex system of writings. Much like Egyptian hieroglyphs, their alphabet was a series of pictures, written by scholars and priests and inscribed in deer skin or tree bark.

8. Having multiple wives was a status symbol

The more the merrier, right? Well, if you were Aztec you would certainly think so! Aztecs practiced polygamy, and although strict rules were applied - only the first marriage would be publically celebrated, for example - polygamy improved a family's status due to sheer increase in workforce and, consequentially, income.

9. Mexico City is built upon the Aztec capital

The capital of the Aztec empire, Tenochtitlan, was built on an island in the heart of a lake. Today, there stands Mexico City, one of the largest and most populated capitals in the world. By the time the Spaniards arrived, Tenochtitlan was larger than most European cities, something which the Europeans took an objection to, apparently.

10. Teotihuacan is the one Aztec site every visitor to Mexico should see

North of Mexico City is where you'll find the country's most prominent site, and one of the world's most important archaeological treasures. Teotihuacan was not actually built by the Aztecs, but rather discovered by them and subsequently occupied. Here you'll find the revered Pyramid of the Sun, the Moon, and the overwhelming Avenue of the Dead. What sets this place apart from all others, aside from its sheer size, is the fact that its origins are still shrouded in mystery. No one knows who built it, nor exactly when.

Itching to visit Mexico and retrace the steps of the Aztecs? Then check out all our fantastic Mexico Tours and come discover what this incredible culture left behind. Because all that chocolate isn't going to devour itself....

Chimu Adventures offers tailor-made packages to Latin America and small ship cruises to Antarctica. Click here for more information.

Comments

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The greatest empire to rule over Mexico, the Aztecs were a phenomenal indigenous civilization which ruled far and wide for over 300 years. Brought to a grounding halt in the 1400s by invading Spanish conquistadores, the last great Mesoamerican empire has left an impressive legacy behind, overshadowing that of the Toltecs from whom the ruling crown was snatched in the early 13th century.

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Los aztecas fueron una civilización en México y Mesoamérica. Los aztecas empezaron en el siglo 13th, pero en el siglo 15th, los españoles los conquistaron. La capital de los Aztecas fue la ciudad Tenochtitlan y hubo más de 140,000 personas en esta ciudad. En otras ciudades del imperio de Aztecas, ellos construyeron templos, esculturas, y palacios para los Dioses de Aztecas. También, los Aztecas crearon un calendario sobre el sistema solar. El calendario fue el centro de religión y rituales.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

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The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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Los aztecas es una civilización muy viejo. La capítulo de esto civilización era Tenochtitlan. También la civilización es en Mexico. La civilización también era muy inteligente. Ellos tienen muchas teorías científicas. Los aztecas tiene muchas edificios en la ciudad. También ellos aprenden mucho información de geométrico para tener la estructura bien. Hoy hay muchas ruinas y pirámides fantasticas.

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Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Aztecs: Empire, Culture & Facts | HISTORY

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Aztecs ruled much of Mexico from the 13th century until their conquest by Hernán Cortés in 1521.

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Los aztecas eran miembros de una civilización del centro de México. Los aztecas compartían la misma religión con muchos grupos, especialmente los Mayas. Su religión era muy importante para sus vidas. También, ellos construyeron muchas pirámides y otras estructuras. Hay, todavía hay ruinas de las pirámides que puedes visitar.

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Azul Marino Viajes - Viajes por los 5 continentes con los 5 sentidos

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Hoy en día Latinoamérica posee una herencia cultural increíble, fruto de un proceso de mestizaje entre lo autóctono y las conquistas que ha sufrido a lo largo de su historia. Todos sus países tienen mucho en común, ya sea en costumbres religiosas, tradiciones, vestimenta o alimentación. Y es que, a pesar de que los conquistadores impusieron su estructura económica y política, basta con echar la vista atrás para comprobar similitudes. Por eso, en las siguientes líneas te proponemos un viaje a través de las culturas maya, azteca e inca.
Origen y ubicación
Azteca: El Imperio Azteca tuvo su origen en el siglo VIII en la zona central de la llamada Mesoamérica, en el centro del valle de México. Expandieron su control a lo largo de México hacia las ciudades que hoy conocemos como Veracruz, Puebla, Oaxaca, Guerrero, e incluso parte de Guatemala. Sin embargo, fue oficialmente el 13 de agosto de 1521 cuando los conquistadores españoles dieron definitivamente por terminado su reinado.

Maya: En el caso de los mayas se distinguen tres periodos en su historia. Por un lado el formativo, entre el año 1500 y 300 A.C. Por otro, el clásico entre los 300 y el 900. Y por último el postclásico, desde el 900 hasta, de nuevo, la llegada de los españoles. Su ubicación se situaba más al sur que la de los aztecas, en la mayor parte de Guatemala, Belice, y también en el lado occidental de Honduras y El Salvador.

Inca: El origen de la etnia incaica es sudamericano, concretamente del valle de Cuzco en Perú. Más tarde abarcaría gran parte de la zona andina del subcontinente, dominando a todos los pueblos que hallaban a su pasó. Surgió a finales del siglo XII y se prorrogó también hasta la conquista española.
Costumbres y religión
Azteca: Los aztecas celebraban el día de los muertos, celebración que seguimos celebrando hoy en todo el mundo. A los niños se les daba vocación guerrera, y cada vez que había un nacimiento se celebraba durante varios días. Eran politeístas y los sacrificios formaban parte de su religión.

Maya: Su religión tenía como eje central a la naturaleza, con una gran cantidad de deidades. Fueron grandes expertos en agricultura, orfebrería y arquitectura. Tenían varios métodos en lo que a cultivo de alimentos se refiere y su construcciones son reconocidas como las más perfectas del nuevo mundo. Por último la literatura maya dejó un legado espectacular, con un sistema de escritura que registró sus tradiciones y mitología.

Inca: También eran politeístas pero sus celebraciones religiosas se relacionaban finamente con la agricultura y la salud. El alcance y desarrollo de su civilización fue muy alto, por lo que construyeron muchos caminos, templos, sistemas de fortificación y estructuras. El comercio, los metales, y la caza y la pesca eran sus principales quehaceres.
Puntos de referencia
Azteca: El Templo Mayor fue el centro neurálgico de vida religiosa y política azteca. Aquí tenían lugar las fiestas que el tonalpohualli, o calendario azteca, marcaba, y también los funerales de los grandes gobernantes. Podemos encontrar sus restos en la ciudad de México.

Maya: Alrededor de Cancún podemos encontrar variedad de zonas arqueológicos con ruinas mayas. Estas ciudades eran principalmente centros ceremoniales, llenas de templos y pirámides. Las ruinas de Chichen Itza están situadas en el centro de la península de Yucatán y son muy visitadas, sobre todo por su pirámide más conocida: "El Castillo".

Inca: Machu Picchu tal vez es el exponente más conocido de la cultura inca. Está considerada una obra maestra tanto de la arquitectura como de la ingeniería y aún hoy en día alberga varios misterios. Aunque fue construida en el siglo XV, después de la conquista de los españoles estuvo largo tiempo olvidada. Hoy en día es uno de los lugares más turísticos del planeta. Se encuentra a 112 km de Cuzco.

Nosotros te llevamos?

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Aztecas, mayas o incas, he ahí la cuestión

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Latinoamérica tiene una herencia cultural increíble. En las siguiente blog te proponemos un viaje a través de las culturas maya, azteca e inca.

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Para los incas, mayas, y aztecas las pirámides estan importante. Las ruinas dan arqueólogos con evidencia para el historia misterioso. Las pirámides de Maya son 3,000 años antigua. La pirádmide Santa Cecilia Acatitlan es en Mexico City ahora. Este ser los Aztecas en el pasado. Los pirámides de Inca son La Pirámide de el sol y la luna son Teotihuacán, el Central de Mexico.

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Mesoamerican pyramids or pyramid-shaped structures form a prominent part of ancient Mesoamerican architecture. Although similar to each other in some ways these New World structures with their flat tops (many with temples on the top) and their stairs bear only a very weak architectural resemblance to Egyptian pyramids. The Mesoamerican region's largest pyramid by volume - the largest pyramid in the world by volume - is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the east-central Mexican state of Puebla. The builders of certain classic Mesoamerican pyramids have decorated them copiously with stories about the Hero Twins, the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl, Mesoamerican creation myths, ritualistic sacrifice, etc.written in the form of hieroglyphs on the rises of the steps of the pyramids, on the walls, and on the sculptures contained within.

The Aztecs, a people with a rich mythology and cultural heritage, dominated central Mexico in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. Their capital was Tenochtitlan on the shore of Lake Texcoco - the site of modern-day Mexico City. They were related to the preceding cultures in the basin of Mexico such as the culture of Teotihuacan whose building style they adopted and adapted.

The Maya are a people of southern Mexico and northern Central America ( Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador) with some 3,000 years of history. Archaeological evidence shows the Maya started to build ceremonial architecture approximately 3,000 years ago. The earliest monuments consisted of simple burial mounds, the precursors to the spectacular stepped pyramids from the Terminal Pre-classic period and beyond.

These pyramids relied on intricate carved stone in order to create a stair-stepped design. Many of these structures featured a top platform upon which a smaller dedicatory building was constructed, associated with a particular Maya deity. Maya pyramid-like structures were also erected to serve as a place of interment for powerful rulers. Maya pyramidal structures occur in a great variety of forms and functions, bounded by regional and periodical differences.

Purépechans

The Tarascan state was a precolumbian culture located in the modern day Mexican state of Michoacán. The region is currently inhabited by the modern descendants of the Purépecha. Purépechan architecture is noted for "T"-shaped step pyramids known as .

The Teotihuacan civilization, which flourished from around 300 BCE to 500 CE, at its greatest extent included most of Mesoamerica. Teotihuacano culture collapsed around 550 and was followed by several large city-states such as Xochicalco (whose inhabitants were probably of Matlatzinca ethnicity), Cholula (whose inhabitants were probably Oto-Manguean), and later the ceremonial site of Tula (which has traditionally been claimed to have been built by Toltecs but which now is thought to have been founded by the Huastec culture).

The site called Tula, the Toltec capitol, in the state of Mexico is one of the best preserved five-tier pyramids in Mesoamerican civilization. The ground plan of the site has two pyramids, Pyramid B and Pyramid C.

The Toltec empire lasted from around 700 to 1100. Although the origin of the Toltec Empire is a mystery, they are said to have migrated Mexico's northern plateau until they set up their empire's capital in central Mexico, called Tula, which is 70 km/40 mi northwest of modern day Mexico City. When the city of Tula was in its prime it had around 40,000 people living in it and the city flourished from 900 to 1100. The city of Tula had a main plaza surrounded by 2 pyramids and a ritual ball court. The most popular pyramid on this site (pyramid b) is the pyramid of Quetzalcoatl which is a five-tiered pyramid with four giant carved pillars on top. The pyramid of Quetzalcoatl was named after a story of a legendary priest, also named Quetzalcoatl who was exiled from Tula around the year 1000. He is said to have ended warfare between Mayan city states and after that the Toltecs started worshiping Quetzalcoatl.

The best known Classic Veracruz pyramid, the Pyramid of Niches in El Tajín, is smaller than those of their neighbours and successors but more intricate.

The Zapotecs were one of the earliest Mesoamerican cultures and held sway over the Valley of Oaxaca region from the early first millennium BCE to about the 14th century.

The following sites are from northern Mesoamerica, built by cultures whose ethnic affiliations are unknown:

This astronomical and also ceremonial center was the product of the Chalchihuite culture. Its occupation and development had a period of approximately 800 years (ca. 200-1000). This zone is considered an important archaeological center because of the astonishing, accurate functions of the edifications. The ones that stand out the most are: The Moon Plaza, The Votive Pyramid, the Ladder of Gamio and The labyrinth. In The Labyrinth you can appreciate with precision and accuracy, the respective equinoxes and the seasons.

A great quantity of buildings were constructed on artificial terraces upon the slopes of a hill. The materials used here include stone slab and clay. The most important structures are: The Hall of Columns, The Ball Court, The Votive Pyramid, and The Palace and the Barracks. On the most elevated part of the hill is The Fortress. This is composed of a small pyramid and a platform, encircled by a wall that is more than 800m long and up to six feet high. La Quemada was occupied from 800 to 1200. Their founders and occupants have not been identified with certainty but probably belonged to either the Chalchihuites culture or that of the neighbouring Malpaso culture.

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Mesoamerican pyramids or pyramid-shaped structures form a prominent part of ancient Mesoamerican architecture. Although similar to each other in some ways these New World structures with their flat tops (many with temples on the top) and their stairs bear only a very weak architectural resemblance to Egyptian pyramids.

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Las civilizaciones de Aztec, Maya, y Inca eran Mesoamericanas. Los Aztecs plantaron maíz y buscaron para los animales que pudieron comer. Los Mayan eran talentosos en escritura y las matemáticas. Los Incas tuvieron muchos calles para funciones diferentes. Todos las civilizaciones construyeron estructuras fenómenos como las pirámides.

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Featured

The Americas contain multiple pyramid structures built by civilizations like the Olmec, Maya, Aztec and Inca. The pyramids were constructed to house deities, as well as to bury kings.
Read more Read more about Pyramids in Latin America

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Ancient America: Maya, Inca, Aztec and Olmec | HISTORY

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Ancient America was the home of many large, advanced civilizations including the Maya, Inca, Olmec and Aztec societies.

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Los Incas, mayas, y aztecas son civilizacions antiguas que tenían diferentes formas de vivir. Los Mayas vivieron en america central y  Los incas y aztecas vivieron in sudamerica. Los aztecas y incas fueron gobernados por un emperador. Los mayas fueron gobernados por ciudades estado. 2 millones mayas personas todavía vivo en guatemala y el sur de México hoy.

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Difference Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

Maya, Inca, and Aztecs were three remarkable civilizations that thrived in the southern parts of America at different points in history. The Maya civilization, known for its amazing calendar that accurately predicted events such as floods and eclipses, holds a prominent place among these civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas also contributed immensely to America with their culture, heritage, power, and intelligence.

This article explores some captivating stories and notable differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca civilizations. But before we jump into their rich histories, let's first learn some basic facts about these three civilizations.

Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization appeared around 2600 B.C. in southeastern tropical parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya people had a highly advanced culture, a developed writing system, and remarkable advances in mathematics, astronomy, etc. It was unique among the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. They lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the southern highlands.

Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs, on the other hand, grew in the Valley of Mexico from 1300 to 1521 with a good environment for agriculture due to its moderate climate and rich natural resources. The Aztec capital, named Tenochtitlan, was the largest city. The Aztecs were famous for their farming, warfare, and temple-building skills. They were also famous for their diverse culture, beautiful sculptures, and advances in many other aspects.

Inca Civilization

Around the year 1200, the Inca civilization settled in central Peru of South America and also parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca was the largest in pre-Columbian America, extending approximately 2500 miles (4000 km) from north to south. The population was around 16 million people. They were famous for their impressive stonework and temples made without mortar (a mixture of cement and sand).

Head To Head Comparison Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

The Maya were native people of Mexico and Central America, while the Aztec covered most of northern Mesoamerica between c.1345 and 1521 CE, whereas Inca flourished in ancient Peru between c.1400 and 1533 CE and extended across western South America.

Given below is a detailed explanation of each difference between the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

1. Political Organization

Maya: Maya society was in city-states handled by a king or ruler. The kings held political and religious authority, believed to be divine rulers communicating with the gods. The city-states were usually organized hierarchically, with the ruling elite at the top and commoners at the bottom.

Aztec: The Aztec Empire was under the rule of an emperor, Huey Tlatoani, who held absolute power. Each province of the empire was under the governance of a local ruler appointed by the emperor.

Inca: The Inca Empire had a single emperor, the Sapa Inca, who was divine and held absolute power. The empire was a division of provinces governed by a local leader called an Apu, who reported to the Sapa Inca. The administrative and political center of the empire was Cusco, the capital city.

2. Social Structure

Maya: Maya society had a hierarchical social structure. At the top were the ruling elite: the king, nobles, and high-ranking priests. The ruling elite enjoyed privileges and controlled the wealth and resources of the civilization. Below them were the skilled craftspeople, merchants, and soldiers who played important societal roles. The major part of the population was farmers and laborers. Slavery was also practiced, with prisoners from war often serving as slaves.

Aztec: The Aztec society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobles at the top, followed by the warrior class, merchants, artisans, and commoners. Slavery was also a part of Aztec society, although it differed from the chattel slavery system that treated people as materials in other civilizations. Slaves in Aztec culture had certain rights and could even own property.

Inca: The Inca society was of distinct social classes similar to the Aztec. The lowest class included slaves or individuals who the Inca had conquered.

3. Agriculture

Maya: Maya civilization developed advanced farming techniques to support their growing population. One of their contributions was the domestication and cultivation of maize (corn). Maya farmers also grew beans, squash, peppers, cacao, avocados, and various fruits. To maximize productivity, they had innovative agricultural practices, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation systems.

Aztec: The Aztecs constructed chinampas and artificial islands as fertile floating gardens. They cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers.

Inca: The Inca cultivated crops like potatoes, maize (corn), quinoa, and beans. They also developed a system of irrigation and storage facilities to ensure a stable food supply.

They all had terrace farming by building steps into the mountainsides to create flat areas for cultivation.

4. Architecture

Maya: Maya architecture is well-known for its impressive pyramids, temples, palaces, ball courts, and observatories. These buildings were often constructed with stone and decorated with detailed carvings and murals. The Maya displayed advanced engineering skills, using corbel arches, slanting roofs, and exact alignment with astronomical phenomena.

Aztec: The most iconic design in Aztec civilization was the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc (the god of rain and fertility) and Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war).

Inca: The Inca were well-known for their massive stone structures without mortar, using "ashlar masonry." The most famous example of their architectural achievement is Machu Picchu, a stunning city in the Andes Mountains.

5. Writing and Communication

Maya: The Maya developed a complex writing system using a combination of visual symbols and phonetic elements. They carved inscriptions on stone monuments, painted murals, and created intricate codices (books) made from bark paper. Maya writing recorded historical events, religious rituals, astronomical observations, and genealogical information.

Aztec: The Aztecs created codices and bark-paper books containing illustrations and glyphs that conveyed historical, religious, and astrological information. However, the Spanish destroyed most of these codices during the conquest.

Inca: The Inca civilization did not maintain a written language in the traditional sense. Instead, they used Quipu, strings of different colors and knots describing various numerical and symbolic meanings. The quipu recorded numerical and statistical data.

6. Religion and Beliefs

Maya: The Maya worshipped many gods and goddesses associated with natural elements, celestial bodies, fertility, and agricultural cycles. Maya priests, who held significant power and knowledge, performed complex ceremonies, including bloodletting and human sacrifice, as offerings to the gods.

Aztec: Aztec society worshipped gods and goddesses, with Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc among the most important gods. Human sacrifice was a central aspect of their religious rituals, believed to confirm the sun's rising and the continuation of the world.

Inca: The Inca had a polytheistic religion, worshiping various gods and goddesses. Inti, the sun god, considered the Inca rulers' ancestor, was the most important deity. Other significant gods included Viracocha, the creator god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess.

7. Economy

Maya: The Mayans' complex economic system relied on trade, agriculture, and craft production. Trade networks connected Maya cities and extended beyond their region, facilitating the exchange of goods such as jade, obsidian, textiles, feathers, pottery, and luxury items. Maya society also had a market economy where they could buy and sell goods. Tribute and taxation systems were to support the ruling elite and maintain social order.

Aztec: The Aztec economy survived on agriculture, trade, and tribute. The empire had a vast trade network, exchanging goods such as cocoa beans, jade, feathers, and textiles.

Inca: The Inca empire implemented a labor praise system known as mit'a, where individuals owed compulsory labor to the state. The Inca also developed an extensive network of roads and bridges, known as the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan.

8. Calendar

Maya: The Maya had multiple calendars, including the 365-day solar calendar (Haab), the 260-day sacred calendar (Tzolk'in), and the Long Count. The Maya used their calendar system for tracking time, religious ceremonies, agricultural cycles, and star observations.

Aztec: The Aztecs had a complex calendar system. They used two calendars simultaneously: a solar calendar of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli and a ritual calendar of 260 days known as the tonalpohualli.

Inca: The Inca used a calendar divided into twelve lunar months and had a solar calendar. The Inca tracked time using celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Mathematics

Maya: The Maya made significant advancements in mathematics, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. They had a positional numeral system that included the concept of zero.

Aztec: The Aztecs developed a sophisticated mathematical system that included positional notation and a base-20 number system. They made astronomical advancements, accurately predicting celestial events and using them in their religious rituals and architecture.

Inca: The Inca civilization had a decimal system and a concept of zero. The Inca had skills in measurement and engineering, as obvious in their precise stonework and agricultural terraces.

10. Arts and Craftsmanship

Maya: Maya art was diverse that depicted religious scenes, mythological narratives, historical events, and everyday life. They used various materials, such as jade, obsidian, clay, pigments, and feathers.

Aztec: Aztec art included various forms such as sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and textiles. They were famous for their elaborate stone carvings, colorful featherwork, and detailed gold and silver ornaments using sophisticated metalworking techniques.

Inca: The Incas had excellence in pottery, metalwork (particularly gold and silver), textiles, and stone carving with intricate designs and vibrant colors.

11. Education and Science

Maya: Education in Maya society was primarily for the elite and those destined for leadership roles. Maya scientists made significant advancements in astronomy, accurately predicting celestial events, understanding celestial bodies' movements, and developing a complex understanding of the cosmos.

Aztec: Education in the Aztec civilization was mainly within the family and community. Young boys and girls studied practical skills, religious rituals, and the cultural traditions of their society. They also had specialized schools for training priests, scribes, and warriors.

Inca: Young boys in the Inca civilization attended schools known as Yachay Wasi, where they learned farming techniques, engineering, and religious rituals. Girls received education at home, where they were taught domestic skills and weaving.

12. Healthcare

Maya: The Maya healers, often shamans or priests, combined herbal remedies with rituals and spiritual practices to treat illnesses. They practiced surgery, including trepanation (drilling holes in the skull), and knew anatomy and herbal medicine.

Aztec: Aztec medicine had a detailed understanding of medicinal plants and used them for treating various diseases. Healing practices included herbal remedies, surgical procedures, and spiritual rituals to restore health.

Inca: The Inca utilized herbal remedies, such as coca leaves, for medicinal purposes. The Inca also had a system of public health that included sanitary measures and the establishment of hospitals, known as kallankas, where individuals could receive medical treatment.

13. Decline and Conquest

Maya: The reasons for the fall of the Maya civilization are environmental factors like deforestation, soil erosion, and drought. Internal conflicts, political instability, and overpopulation may have also contributed to the decline. Due to the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, many Maya cities had already been abandoned, and the remaining city-states fell under Spanish conquest.

Aztec: The decline of the Aztec civilization began with the Spanish invasion led by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Factors such as superior weaponry, diseases brought by the Spanish, and the disruption of Aztec society contributed to their defeat. The Spanish exploited internal divisions within the empire, formed partnerships with local tribes who were enemies of the Aztecs, and ultimately conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Inca: The Inca Empire faced its decline with the arrival of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. The Spanish exploited the Incas with superior weapons and diseases like smallpox. The capture and death of the last emperor, Atahualpa, marked the end of the Inca and the beginning of Spanish colonization.

Maya vs Aztec vs Inca Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Do any Mayans still exist?
Answer: Yes, there are still Mayans alive today. They comprise around six million individuals, making them the largest indigenous group in North America after Peru. The main Mayan populations are in Mexico, with significant groups such as the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000), and Tzeltal (80,000).

Q2. What Indian languages did the Aztecs speak?
Answer: The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations in central and western Mexico.

Q3. Is the Maya language still spoken today?
Answer: Yes, Maya is still spoken today. There are approximately 7 million speakers of Mayan languages, with around 4 million in Guatemala and 2.5 million in Mexico.

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La civilización de Inca era de los Andes. Aquí, ellos hicieron una civilización con 12 millones personas. Ellos tuvieron muchas calles y fuentes para comida. Ya que sus militares fuertes, había mucha expansión en el siglo 15. Sin embargo, había muchas enfermedades que destruyeron la civilización. Las enfermedades era de los conquistadores españoles.

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Inca Empire Begins

The Inca first appeared in modern-day Peru sometime during the 12th century, arising from earlier pre-Inca groups in the region. These earlier groups have been credited with creating the ancient Nazca Lines, immense drawings etched into the landscape.

According to some versions of their origin myths, they were created by the sun god, Inti, who sent his son Manco Capac to Earth through the middle of three caves in the village of Paccari Tampu. After killing his brothers, Manco Capac led his sisters and their followers through the wilderness before settling in the fertile valley near Cusco.

The Inca began expanding their land holdings by the reign of their fourth emperor, Mayta Capac. However, they did not truly become an expansive power until the eighth emperor, Viracocha Inca, took control in the early 15th century.

Bolstered by the military capabilities of two uncles, Viracocha Inca defeated the Ayarmaca kingdom to the south and took over the Urubamba Valley. He also established the Inca practice of leaving military garrisons to maintain peace in conquered lands.

Pachacuti

When the rival Chancas attacked circa 1438, Viracocha Inca retreated to a military outpost while his son, Cusi Inca Yupanqui, successfully defended Cusco.

Cusi Inca Yupanqui - who soon took the title Pachacuti - became one of the Inca's most influential rulers. His military campaigns extended the kingdom to the southern end of the Lake Titicaca Basin, and hundreds of miles north to subject the Cajamarca and Chimu kingdoms.

The expanding reach of the Inca state - now called Tawantinsuyu or "Land of the Four Quarters" - prompted strategic logistical considerations. Pachacuti is believed to have been the first Inca emperor to order forced resettlement to squash the possibility of an uprising from one ethnic group.

In addition, Pachacuti established the practice in which rulers were prevented from inheriting the possessions of their predecessors, thereby ensuring that successive leaders would conquer new lands and accumulate new wealth.

Inca Government

Pachacuti also focused his efforts on strengthening Cusco, the government center of the vast empire. He expanded Sacsahuaman, the massive fortress that guarded the city, and embarked on an expansive irrigation project by channeling rivers and creating intricate agricultural terraces.

Although Tawantinsuyu was comprised of more than 100 distinct ethnic groups among its 12 million inhabitants, a well-developed societal structure kept the empire running smoothly.

Most Inca subjects were self-sufficient farmers who tended to corn, potatoes, squash, llamas, alpacas and dogs, and paid taxes through public labor.

There was no written language, but a form of the Quechua language became the primary dialect, and knotted cords known as quipu were used to keep track of historical and accounting records.

Inca Achievements

The Inca are today celebrated for many artistic and cultural achievement, including their monumental architecture, of which the magnificent fortress complex Machu Picchu is but one example.

The Inca also developed sophisticated calendars, elaborate textiles, functional and decorative ceramics, surgical techniques, productive terrace agriculture and the use of coca leaves as medicine and in religious ceremonies. They also practiced mummification of their dead.

An elaborate system of roadways adding up to approximately 15,000 miles crisscrossed the kingdom, with relay runners capable of advancing messages at the impressive rate of 150 miles per day.

Unfortunately, many of the gold and silver creations of the Inca were melted down by Spanish conquistadors and sent back to Europe.

Inca Religion

The Inca religion centered on a pantheon of gods that included Inti; a creator god named Viracocha; and Apu Illapu, the rain god. Impressive shrines were built throughout the kingdom, including a massive Sun Temple in Cusco that measured more than 1,200 feet in circumference.

Powerful priests depended on divination to diagnose illness, solve crimes and predict the outcomes of warfare, in many cases requiring animal sacrifice. The mummified remains of previous emperors were also treated as sacred figures and paraded around at ceremonies with their stores of gold and silver.

Upon ascending to the throne in 1471, Topa Inca Yupanqui pushed the southern border of the empire to the Maule River in modern-day Chile, and instituted a tribute system in which each province provided women to serve as temple maidens or brides for celebrated soldiers. His successor, Huayna Capac, embarked on successful northern campaigns that stretched the vast civilization to the Ancasmayo River, the current boundary between Ecuador and Colombia.

Spanish Arrival

Despite these advances, the arrival of Spanish explorers in the 1500s soon set into motion the events that would lead to the collapse of the Inca Empire. The Spanish carried such alien diseases as smallpox and influenza, which wiped out a huge chunk of the population before killing Huayna Capac and his chosen successor around 1525.

Those two deaths sparked a civil war as would-be emperors battled for power, with Atahualpa eventually outlasting his half-brother, Huascar, to grab the throne of the now-weakened empire.

Enamored by the stories of Inca wealth, Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro lured Atahualpa to meeting in November 1532 for a supposed dinner in his honor - and then kidnapped the emperor. Atahualpa was executed the following summer, and although the Spanish were far outnumbered by the locals, they easily sacked Cusco in late 1533 with their superior weaponry.

Attempting to keep the peace, the Spanish installed a young prince named Manco as a puppet king, a move that backfired during a spirited rebellion in 1536. However, Manco and his men were eventually forced to retreat to the jungle village of Vilcabamba, which remained the last stronghold of the empire for about 36 years.

Eventually, however, the Spaniards took control of Vilcabamba in 1572, when the last remaining Inca ruler, Manco's son Tupak Amaru, was captured and executed, bringing the Inca Empire to an end.

As the only written accounts of the Inca were composed by outsiders, its mythology and culture passed to successive generations by trained storytellers.

Traces of its existence were mainly found in the ruins of cities and temples, but in 1911 archaeologist Hiram Bingham discovered the intact 15th century mountaintop citadel of Machu Picchu, its magnificent stone structures reflecting the power and capabilities of this proud and powerful pre-Colombian civilization.

Sources

Rise of the Inca. NOVA. PBS.
From Chavin to the Inca, a Timeline of the Central Andes. The British Museum.
The Last Days of the Incas. Kim MacQuarrie; Simon & Schuster.
The Inca and Machu Picchu. Smithsonian Associates.

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Inca: Empire, Religion & Civilization - HISTORY

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The Inca Empire was a vast South American civilization that at its peak stretched over 2,500 miles. Overwhelmed by Spanish invaders, the Inca Empire collapsed in 1572.

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Los Mayas fue una civilación bien de Mesoamerica. Los Mayas vivieron en Yucatan. Tambien viveron en Guatemala. Los mayas existió en 1800 BC a 900 AD. Construían las pirámides. Los pueblos de Maya son ruinas hoy.
https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya

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Los mayas eran un grupo fuerte en Mesoamérica. Algunas civilizaciones eran buenas en agricultura. También ellos construyeron pirámides. Fue impresionante que ellos vivieron en una clima tropical porque  la mayoría de los indígenas personas vivieron en una clima seca. Finalmente, es un misterio cómo los mayas desaparecieron.

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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).

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.

Early Maya, 1800 B.C. to A.D. 250

The earliest Maya settlements date to around 1800 B.C., or the beginning of what is called the Preclassic or Formative Period. The earliest Maya were agricultural, growing crops such as corn (maize), beans, squash and cassava (manioc). During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 B.C., Maya farmers began to expand their presence both in the highland and lowland regions.

The Middle Preclassic Period also saw the rise of the first major Mesoamerican civilization, the Olmecs. Like other Mesamerican peoples, such as the Zapotec, Totonac, Teotihuacán and Aztec, the Maya derived a number of religious and cultural traits-as well as their number system and their famous calendar-from the Olmec.

In addition to agriculture, the Preclassic Maya also displayed more advanced cultural traits like pyramid-building, city construction and the inscribing of stone monuments.

The Late Preclassic city of Mirador, in the northern Peten, was one of the greatest cities ever built in the pre-Columbian Americas. Its size dwarfed the Classic Maya capital of Tikal, and its existence proves that the Maya flourished centuries before the Classic Period.

Mayan Pyramids of the Classic Maya, A.D. 250-900

The Classic Period, which began around A.D. 250, was the golden age of the Maya Empire. Classic Maya civilization grew to some 40 cities, including Tikal, Uaxactún, Copán, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, Calakmul, Palenque and Río Bec; each city held a population of between 5,000 and 50,000 people. At its peak, the Maya population may have reached 2,000,000 or as many as 10,000,000.

Excavations of Maya sites have unearthed plazas, palaces, temples and pyramids, as well as courts for playing the famous Maya ball game ulama, all ritually and politically significant to Maya culture. Maya cities were surrounded and supported by a large population of farmers. Though the Maya practiced a primitive type of "slash-and-burn" agriculture, they also displayed evidence of more advanced farming methods, such as irrigation and terracing.

The Maya were deeply religious, and worshiped various gods related to nature, including the gods of the sun, the moon, rain and corn. At the top of Maya society were the kings, or "kuhul ajaw" (holy lords), who claimed to be related to gods and followed a hereditary succession. They were thought to serve as mediators between the gods and people on earth, and performed the elaborate religious ceremonies and rituals so important to the Maya culture.

The Mayan Calendar and Culture

The Classic Maya built many of their temples and palaces in a stepped pyramid shape, decorating them with elaborate reliefs and inscriptions. These structures have earned the Maya their reputation as the great artists of Mesoamerica.

Guided by their religious ritual, the Maya also made significant advances in mathematics and astronomy, including the use of the zero and the development of complex calendar systems like the Calendar Round, based on 365 days, and later, the Long Count Calendar, designed to last over 5,000 years.

Serious exploration of Classic Maya sites began in the 1830s. By the early to mid-20th century, a small portion of their system of hieroglyph writing had been deciphered, and more about their history and culture became known. Most of what historians know about the Maya comes from what remains of their architecture and art, including stone carvings and inscriptions on their buildings and monuments.

The Maya also made paper from tree bark and wrote in books made from this paper, known as codices; four of these codices are known to have survived. They are also credited with some of the earliest uses of chocolate and of rubber.

Maya Life in the Rainforest

One of the many intriguing things about the Maya was their ability to build a great civilization in a tropical rainforest climate. Traditionally, ancient peoples had flourished in drier climates, where the centralized management of water resources (through irrigation and other techniques) formed the basis of society. (This was the case for the Teotihuacan of highland Mexico, contemporaries of the Classic Maya.) In the southern Maya lowlands, however, there were few navigable rivers for trade and transport, as well as no obvious need for an irrigation system.

By the late 20th century, researchers had concluded that the climate of the lowlands was in fact quite environmentally diverse. Though foreign invaders were disappointed by the region's relative lack of silver and gold, the Maya took advantage of the area's many natural resources, including limestone (for construction), the volcanic rock obsidian (for tools and weapons) and salt.

The environment also held other treasures for the Maya, including jade, quetzal feathers (used to decorate the elaborate costumes of Maya nobility) and marine shells, which were used as trumpets in ceremonies and warfare.

What Happened to the Maya?

From the late eighth through the end of the ninth century, something unknown happened to shake the Maya civilization to its foundations. One by one, the Classic cities in the southern lowlands were abandoned, and by A.D. 900, Mayan civilization in that region had collapsed. The reason for this mysterious decline is unknown, though scholars have developed several competing theories.

Some believe that by the ninth century the Maya had exhausted the environment around them to the point that it could no longer sustain a very large population. Other Maya scholars argue that constant warfare among competing city-states led the complicated military, family (by marriage) and trade alliances between them to break down, along with the traditional system of dynastic power.

As the stature of the holy lords diminished, their complex traditions of rituals and ceremonies dissolved into chaos. Finally, some catastrophic environmental change - like an extremely long, intense period of drought - may have wiped out the Classic Maya civilization. Drought would have hit cities like Tikal especially hard, because rainwater there was necessary for drinking as well as for crop irrigation.

All three of these factors - overpopulation and overuse of the land, endemic warfare and drought - may have played a part in the downfall of the Maya in the southern lowlands. In the highlands of the Yucatan, a few Maya cities, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal and Mayapán, continued to flourish in the Post-Classic Period (A.D. 900-1500). By the time the Spanish invaders arrived, however, most Maya were living in agricultural villages, their great cities hidden under a layer of verdant rainforest.

Do the Maya Still Exist?

Descendants of the Maya still live in Central America in modern-day Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and parts of Mexico.

The majority of modern-day Maya live in Guatemala, which is home to Tikal National Park, the site of the ruins of the ancient city of Tikal. Roughly 40 percent of Guatemalans are of Mayan descent.

Fact Check

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Mayan Civilization: Calendar, Pyramids & Ruins| HISTORY

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The Maya, a civilization of Indigenous people in Central America, created a complex Mayan calendar and massive pyramids before their empire collapsed into ruins.

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Los Incas estan en Peru en 1400 y 1533 Ce. Los Incas tienen el arte fantastico y interesante por ejemplo, Machu Picchu. Los incas hablaron en 30 differente lenguas. Los Incas tienen muy fuerte muy rapido. La capital del Incas es Cuzco. El arte y technologia es de los ideas del Chimu personas.

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The Inca civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE, and their empire eventually extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south. It is the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time.

Undaunted by the often harsh Andean environment, the Incas conquered people and exploited landscapes in such diverse settings as plains, mountains, deserts, and tropical jungle. Famed for their unique art and architecture, they constructed finely-built and imposing buildings wherever they conquered, and their spectacular adaptation of natural landscapes with terracing, highways, and mountaintop settlements continues to impress modern visitors at such world-famous sites as Machu Picchu.

Historical Overview

As with other ancient Americas cultures, the historical origins of the Incas are difficult to disentangle from the founding myths they themselves created. According to legend, in the beginning, the creator god Viracocha came out of the Pacific Ocean, and when he arrived at Lake Titicaca, he created the sun and all ethnic groups. These first people were buried by the god and only later did they emerge from springs and rocks (sacred pacarinas) back into the world. The Incas, specifically, were brought into existence at Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) from the sun god Inti; hence, they regarded themselves as the chosen few, the 'Children of the Sun', and the Inca ruler was Inti's representative and embodiment on earth. In another version of the creation myth, the first Incas came from a sacred cave known as Tampu T'oqo or 'The House of Windows', which was located at Pacariqtambo, the 'Inn of Dawn', south of Cuzco. The first pair of humans were Manco Capac (or Manqo Qhapaq) and his sister (also his wife) Mama Oqllu (or Ocllo). Three more brother-sister siblings were born, and the group set off together to found their civilization. Defeating the Chanca people with the help of stone warriors ( pururaucas), the first Incas finally settled in the Valley of Cuzco and Manco Capac, throwing a golden rod into the ground, established what would become the Inca capital, Cuzco.

40,000 Incas governed a territory with 10 million subjects speaking over 30 different languages.

More concrete archaeological evidence has revealed that the first settlements in the Cuzco Valley actually date to 4500 BCE when hunter-gather communities occupied the area. However, Cuzco only became a significant centre sometime at the beginning of the Late Intermediate Period (1000-1400 CE). A process of regional unification began from the late 14th century CE, and from the early 15th century CE, with the arrival of the first great Inca leader Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui ('Reverser of the World') and the defeat of the Chanca in 1438 CE, the Incas began to expand in search of plunder and production resources, first to the south and then in all directions. They eventually built an empire which stretched across the Andes, conquering such peoples as the Lupaka, Colla, Chimor, and Wanka civilizations along the way. Once established, a nationwide system of tax and administration was instigated which consolidated the power of Cuzco.

The rise of the Inca Empire was spectacularly quick. First, all speakers of the Inca language Quechua (or Runasimi) were given privileged status, and this noble class then dominated all the important roles within the empire. Thupa Inca Yupanqui (also known as Topa Inca Yupanqui), Pachacuti's successor from 1471 CE, is credited with having expanded the empire by a massive 4,000 km (2,500 miles). The Incas themselves called their empire Tawantinsuyo (or Tahuantinsuyu) meaning 'Land of the Four Quarters' or 'The Four Parts Together'. Cuzco was considered the navel of the world, and radiating out were highways and sacred sighting lines ( ceques) to each quarter: Chinchaysuyu (north), Antisuyu (east), Collasuyu (south), and Cuntisuyu (west). Spreading across ancient Ecuador, Peru, northern Chile, Bolivia, upland Argentina, and southern Colombia and stretching 5,500 km (3,400 miles) north to south, 40,000 Incas governed a huge territory with some 10 million subjects speaking over 30 different languages.

Government & Administration

The Incas kept lists of their kings ( Sapa Inca) so that we know of such names as Pachacuti Inca Yupanqui (reign c. 1438-63 CE), Thupa Inca Yupanqui (reign c. 1471-93 CE), and Wayna Qhapaq (the last pre-Hispanic ruler, reign c. 1493-1525 CE). It is possible that two kings ruled at the same time and that queens may have had some significant powers, but the Spanish records are not clear on both points. The Sapa Inca was an absolute ruler, and he lived a life of great opulence. Drinking from gold and silver cups, wearing silver shoes, and living in a palace furnished with the finest textiles, he was pampered to the extreme. He was even looked after following his death, as the Inca mummified their rulers. Stored in the Coricancha temple in Cuzco, the mummies ( mallquis) were, in elaborate ceremonies, regularly brought outside wearing their finest regalia, given offerings of food and drink, and 'consulted' for their opinion on pressing state affairs.

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Inca rule was, much like their architecture, based on compartmentalised and interlocking units. At the top was the ruler and ten kindred groups of nobles called panaqa. Next in line came ten more kindred groups, more distantly related to the king and then, a third group of nobles not of Inca blood but made Incas as a privilege. At the bottom of the state apparatus were locally recruited administrators who oversaw settlements and the smallest Andean population unit the ayllu, which was a collection of households, typically of related families who worked an area of land, lived together and provided mutual support in times of need. Each ayllu was governed by a small number of nobles or kurakas, a role which could include women.

Local administrators reported to over 80 regional-level administrators who, in turn, reported to a governor responsible for each quarter of the empire. The four governors reported to the supreme Inca ruler in Cuzco. To ensure loyalty, the heirs of local rulers were also kept as well-kept prisoners at the Inca capital. The most important political, religious, and military roles within the empire were, then, kept in the hands of the Inca elite, called by the Spanish the orejones or 'big ears' because they wore large earspools to indicate their status. To better ensure the control of this elite over their subjects, garrisons dotted the empire, and entirely new administrative centres were built, notably at Tambo Colorado, Huánuco Pampa and Hatun Xauxa.

For tax purposes, censuses were taken and populations divided up into groups based on multiples of ten (Inca mathematics was almost identical to the system we use today). As there was no currency in the Inca world, taxes were paid in kind - usually foodstuffs, precious metals, textiles, exotic feathers, dyes, and spondylus shell - but also in labourers who could be shifted about the empire to be used where they were most needed, known as mit'a service. Agricultural land and herds were divided into three parts: production for the state religion and the gods, for the Inca ruler, and for the farmer's own use. Local communities were also expected to help build and maintain such imperial projects as the road system which stretched across the empire. To keep track of all these statistics, the Inca used the , a sophisticated assembly of knotted cords which was also highly transportable and could record decimals up to 10,000.

Although the Incas imposed their religion and administration on conquered peoples, extracted tribute, and even moved loyal populations ( mitmaqs) to better integrate new territories into the empire, Inca culture also brought certain benefits such as food redistribution in times of environmental disaster, better storage facilities for foodstuffs, work via state-sponsored projects, state-sponsored religious feasts, roads, irrigation systems, terrace farms, military assistance, and luxury goods, especially art objects enjoyed by the local elite.

Most splendid were the temples built in honour of Inti & Mama Kilya - the former was lined with 700 2 kg sheets of beaten gold.

Cuzco

The Inca capital of Cuzco (from qosqo, meaning 'dried-up lake bed' or perhaps derived from cozco, a particular stone marker in the city) was the religious and administrative centre of the empire and had a population of up to 150,000 at its peak. Dominated by the sacred gold-covered and emerald-studded Coricancha complex (or Temple of the Sun), its greatest buildings were credited to Pachacuti. Most splendid were the temples built in honour of Inti and Mama Kilya - the former was lined with 700 2 kg sheets of beaten gold, the latter with silver. The whole capital was laid out in the form of a puma (although some scholars dispute this and take the description metaphorically) with the imperial metropolis of Pumachupan forming the tail and the temple complex of Sacsayhuaman (or Saqsawaman) forming the head. Incorporating vast plazas, parklands, shrines, fountains, and canals, the splendour of Inca Cuzco now, unfortunately, survives only in the eye-witness accounts of the first Europeans who marvelled at its architecture and riches.

The Inca had great reverence for two earlier civilizations who had occupied much the same territory - the Wari and Tiwanaku. As we have seen, the sites of Tiwanaku and Lake Titicaca played an important part in Inca creation myths and so were especially revered. Inca rulers made regular pilgrimages to Tiwanaku and the islands of the lake, where two shrines were built to Inti the Sun god and supreme Inca deity, and the moon goddess Mama Kilya. Also in the Coricancha complex at Cuzco, these deities were represented by large precious metal artworks which were attended and worshipped by priests and priestesses led by the second most important person after the king: the High Priest of the Sun ( Willaq Umu). Thus, the religion of the Inca was preoccupied with controlling the natural world and avoiding such disasters as earthquake, floods, and drought, which inevitably brought about the natural cycle of change, the turning over of time involving death and renewal which the Inca called pachakuti.

Sacred sites were also established, often taking advantage of prominent natural features such as mountain tops, caves, and springs. These huacas could be used to take astronomical observations at specific times of the year. Religious ceremonies took place according to the astronomical calendar, especially the movements of the sun, moon, and Milky Way ( Mayu). Processions and ceremonies could also be connected to agriculture, especially the planting and harvesting seasons. Along with Titicaca's Island of the Sun, the most sacred Inca site was Pachacamac, a temple city built in honour of the god with the same name, who created humans, plants, and was responsible for earthquakes. A large wooden statue of the god, considered an oracle, brought pilgrims from across the Andes to worship at Pachacamac. Shamans were another important part of Inca religion and were active in every settlement. Cuzco had 475, the most important being the yacarca, the personal advisor to the ruler.

Inca religious rituals also involved ancestor worship as seen through the practice of mummification and making offerings to the gods of food, drink, and precious materials. Sacrifices - both animals and humans, including children - were also made to pacify and honour the gods and ensure the good health of the king. The pouring of libations, either water or chicha beer, was also an important part of Inca religious ceremonies.

The Incas imposed their religion on local populations by building their own temples and sacred sites, and they also commandeered sacred relics from conquered peoples and held them in Cuzco. Stored in the Coricancha, they were perhaps considered hostages which ensured compliance to the Inca view of the world.

Master stonemasons, the Incas constructed large buildings, walls and fortifications using finely-worked blocks - either regular or polygonal - which fitted together so precisely no mortar was needed. With an emphasis on clean lines, trapezoid shapes, and incorporating natural features into these buildings, they have easily withstood the powerful earthquakes which frequently hit the region. The distinctive sloping trapezoid form and fine masonry of Inca buildings were, besides their obvious aesthetic value, also used as a recognisable symbol of Inca domination throughout the empire.

One of the most common Inca buildings was the ubiquitous one-room storage warehouse the qollqa. Built in stone and well-ventilated, they were either round and stored maize or square for potatoes and tubers. The kallanka was a very large hall used for community gatherings. More modest buildings include the kancha - a group of small single-room and rectangular buildings ( wasi and masma) with thatched roofs built around a courtyard enclosed by a high wall. The kancha was a typical architectural feature of Inca towns, and the idea was exported to conquered regions. Terracing to maximise land area for agriculture (especially for maize) was another Inca practice, which they exported wherever they went. These terraces often included canals, as the Incas were expert at diverting water, carrying it across great distances, channelling it underground, and creating spectacular outlets and fountains.

Goods were transported across the empire along purpose-built roads using llamas and porters (there were no wheeled vehicles). The Inca road network covered over 40,000 km and as well as allowing for the easy movement of armies, administrators, and trade goods, it was also a very powerful visual symbol of Inca authority over their empire. The roads had rest stations along their way, and there was also a relay system of runners ( chasquis) who carried messages up to 240 km in a single day from one settlement to another.

Although influenced by the art and techniques of the Chimu civilization, the Incas did create their own distinctive style which was an instantly recognisable symbol of imperial dominance across the empire. Inca art is best seen in highly polished metalwork (in gold - considered the sweat of the sun, silver - considered the tears of the moon, and copper), ceramics, and textiles, with the last being considered the most prestigious by the Incas themselves. Designs often use geometrical shapes, are technically accomplished, and standardized. The checkerboard stands out as a very popular design. One of the reasons for repeated designs was that pottery and textiles were often produced for the state as a tax, and so artworks were representative of specific communities and their cultural heritage. Just as today coins and stamps reflect a nation's history, so, too, Andean artwork offered recognisable motifs which either represented the specific communities making them or the imposed designs of the ruling Inca class ordering them.

Works using precious metals such as discs, jewellery, figures, and everyday objects were made exclusively for Inca nobles, and even some textiles were restricted for their use alone. Goods made using the super-soft vicuña wool were similarly restricted, and only the Inca ruler could own vicuña herds. Ceramics were for wider use, and the most common shape was the urpu, a bulbous vessel with a long neck and two small handles low on the pot which was used for storing maize. It is notable that the pottery decoration, textiles, and architectural sculpture of the Incas did not usually include representations of themselves, their rituals, or such common Andean images as monsters and half-human, half-animal figures.

The Inca produced textiles, ceramics, and metal sculpture technically superior to any previous Andean culture, and this despite stiff competition from such masters of metal work as the expert craftsmen of the Moche civilization. Just as the Inca imposed a political dominance over their conquered subjects, so, too, with art they imposed standard Inca forms and designs, but they did allow local traditions to maintain their preferred colours and proportions. Gifted artists such as those from Chan Chan or the Titicaca area and women particularly skilled at weaving were brought to Cuzco so that they could produce beautiful things for the Inca rulers.

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The Inca Empire was founded on, and maintained by, force, and the ruling Incas were very often unpopular with their subjects (especially in the northern territories), a situation that the Spanish conquerors ( conquistadores), led by Francisco Pizarro, would take full advantage of in the middle decades of the 16th century CE. The Inca Empire, in fact, had still not reached a stage of consolidated maturity when it faced its greatest challenge. Rebellions were rife, and the Incas were engaged in a war in Ecuador where a second Inca capital had been established at Quito. Even more serious, the Incas were hit by an epidemic of European diseases, such as smallpox, which had spread from central America even faster than the European invaders themselves, and the wave killed a staggering 65-90% of the population. Such a disease killed Wayna Qhapaq in 1528 CE, and two of his sons, Waskar and Atahualpa, battled in a damaging civil war for control of the empire just when the European treasure-hunters arrived. It was this combination of factors - a perfect storm of rebellion, disease, and invasion - which brought the downfall of the mighty Inca Empire, the largest and richest ever seen in the Americas.

The Inca language Quechua lives on today and is still spoken by some eight million people. There are also a good number of buildings, artefacts, and written accounts which have survived the ravages of conquerors, looters, and time. These remains are proportionally few to the vast riches which have been lost, but they remain indisputable witnesses to the wealth, ingenuity, and high cultural achievements of this great but short-lived civilization.

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The Inca civilization flourished in ancient Peru between c. 1400 and 1533 CE, and their empire eventually extended across western South America from Quito in the north to Santiago in the south. It is the largest empire ever seen in the Americas and the largest in the world at that time.

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Durante mucho tiempo la gente de mayas vive aquí. Vivían en los bosques de Mexico. El maíz y el chocolate son comidas favoritas de Mayas. Los Incas vivían en Peru. Los Incas vivían en los montañas de Andes. La ciudad capital se llama Cuzco. Finalmente, el civilización de Aztecs vivía en Mexico. Aztecs vivían en los montańas de Sierra Madres. Aztecs tenían muchos plantas, frutas, y verduras.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.

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Los mayas, incas y aztecas on civilizaciones antiguas de Central y South America. Los grupos fueron fuertes en diferentes momentos de la historia. El primer grupo fueron los mayas, que tenían el control durante los años 250 y 900 A.D. La gente no sabe por qué los mayas dejaron sus civilizaciones. Los aztecas tenían el control de sus tierras durante el siglo 14 hasta las conquistas españolas en el siglo 16. Los incas tuvieron el control por un pequeño período. Tenían control por menos de 100 años antes de ser conquistados.

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The Mayas, Incas and Aztecs were three groups of people in Central and South America. The Aztecs and the Mayas lived in what is now southern and central Mexico, and the Incas lived around the Andes on South America's Pacific Coast.

The three groups flourished at different times. The earliest of the three were the Mayan people, who dominated their area between A.D. 250 and 900, when they mysteriously abandoned their cities. The Aztecs dominated a similar region beginning in the 14th century and ending with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. The Incas had a relatively short-lived reign, consolidating power in the mid-15th century and falling to the Spanish less than a century later.

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The Mayas, Incas and Aztecs were three groups of people in Central and South America. The Aztecs and the Mayas lived in what is now southern and central Mexico, and the Incas lived around the Andes on South America's Pacific Coast. The three groups flourished at different times.

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Los aztecas fueron personas que vinieron al centro y sur de México. Vinieron en los siglos 15th y 16th. Los aztecas y sus tribus fueron cazadores y recolectores. Se establecieron a cerca del ague y el mar. Todas aztecas usaron sistemas de riego con el agua para sus plantas y agricultura.

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The name Aztec is derived from Aztlán (variously translated as "White Land," "Land of White Herons," or "Place of Herons"), an allusion to their origins, probably in northwestern Mexico. They were also called the Tenochca, from an eponymous ancestor, Tenoch, and the Mexica, probably from Metzliapán ("Moon Lake"), the mystical name for Lake Texcoco. From Tenochca was derived the name of their great city, Tenochtitlán, founded on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico. From Mexica came the name for the city that superseded the Aztec capital and for the surrounding valley, which was applied later to the whole Mexican nation. The Aztecs referred to themselves as Culhua-Mexica, to link themselves with Colhuacán, the centre of the most-civilized people of the Valley of Mexico. See also pre-Columbian civilizations: Aztec culture to the time of the Spanish conquest.

Origins of the Aztec people

The origin of the Aztec people is uncertain, but elements of their own tradition suggest that they were a tribe of hunters and gatherers on the northern Mexican plateau before their appearance in Mesoamerica in perhaps the 12th century ce; Aztlán, however, may be legendary. It is possible that their migration southward was part of a general movement of peoples that followed, or perhaps helped trigger, the collapse of the highly developed Toltec civilization of central Mexico and its capital, Tula, a spectacular urban centre that featured pyramids, temples, public buildings, and statuary.

At the beginning of the 12th century, catastrophe befell Toltec civilization when Tula was attacked and destroyed, as were other important Toltec centres. Tribes of hunters and gatherers, including a group of Chichimec under the leadership of Xólotl, took advantage of the situation and traveled from the arid plateau of northern Mexico toward the fertile, heavily settled central zone. Xólotl's Chichimec joined forces with the remaining Toltecs, resulting in a period of relative peace and cultural progress in the Valley of Mexico. During this time the Aztecs, who, according to legend, had been wandering in search of a new place to settle, established a precarious home near the ruins of Tula. There they improved their approach to agriculture and acquired other technological knowledge.

However, their stay was temporary. Aztec tradition holds that the god Huitzilopochtli instructed them to depart again in search of a permanent home, the location of which would be revealed by the appearance of an eagle perched on a nopal cactus with a serpent in its beak (an image that is memorialized on Mexico's national flag). A long pilgrimage ensued that ended in 1325 on a small island in Lake Texcoco, where, it is said, elder members of the people spotted the eagle, the cactus, and the serpent. There they built a temple and, around it, on islands in Lake Texcoco, the first dwellings of what was to become the powerful city of Tenochtitlán.

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Aztec | History, Empire, Facts, Location, & Culture

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Aztec, Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. The ninth emperor, Montezuma II, was taken prisoner by Hernan Cortes and died in custody. His successors were unable to stave off Cortes, and the empire came to an end in 1521.

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En 2600 B.C el comienzo de los mayas comenzó. Ellos vivían en el peninsula Yucatan y  ellos son conocidos por su estructura de escritura. El misterioso es cómo desaparecieron.  La siguiente civilización fue la azteca de 1300 a 1521 B.C. La ciudad más popular era Tenochtitlan, y la evidencia es que eran buenos agricultores, luchadores, y constructores.  La última civilización fue Incas de 1200 B.C. Ellos vivían en las montañas de Andes. Tenían una población de dieciséis millones y en la teoría, los Incas son conocidos por su construcción y diseño.

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Difference Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

Maya, Inca, and Aztecs were three remarkable civilizations that thrived in the southern parts of America at different points in history. The Maya civilization, known for its amazing calendar that accurately predicted events such as floods and eclipses, holds a prominent place among these civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas also contributed immensely to America with their culture, heritage, power, and intelligence.

This article explores some captivating stories and notable differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca civilizations. But before we jump into their rich histories, let's first learn some basic facts about these three civilizations.

Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization appeared around 2600 B.C. in southeastern tropical parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya people had a highly advanced culture, a developed writing system, and remarkable advances in mathematics, astronomy, etc. It was unique among the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. They lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the southern highlands.

Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs, on the other hand, grew in the Valley of Mexico from 1300 to 1521 with a good environment for agriculture due to its moderate climate and rich natural resources. The Aztec capital, named Tenochtitlan, was the largest city. The Aztecs were famous for their farming, warfare, and temple-building skills. They were also famous for their diverse culture, beautiful sculptures, and advances in many other aspects.

Inca Civilization

Around the year 1200, the Inca civilization settled in central Peru of South America and also parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca was the largest in pre-Columbian America, extending approximately 2500 miles (4000 km) from north to south. The population was around 16 million people. They were famous for their impressive stonework and temples made without mortar (a mixture of cement and sand).

Head To Head Comparison Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

The Maya were native people of Mexico and Central America, while the Aztec covered most of northern Mesoamerica between c.1345 and 1521 CE, whereas Inca flourished in ancient Peru between c.1400 and 1533 CE and extended across western South America.

Given below is a detailed explanation of each difference between the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

1. Political Organization

Maya: Maya society was in city-states handled by a king or ruler. The kings held political and religious authority, believed to be divine rulers communicating with the gods. The city-states were usually organized hierarchically, with the ruling elite at the top and commoners at the bottom.

Aztec: The Aztec Empire was under the rule of an emperor, Huey Tlatoani, who held absolute power. Each province of the empire was under the governance of a local ruler appointed by the emperor.

Inca: The Inca Empire had a single emperor, the Sapa Inca, who was divine and held absolute power. The empire was a division of provinces governed by a local leader called an Apu, who reported to the Sapa Inca. The administrative and political center of the empire was Cusco, the capital city.

2. Social Structure

Maya: Maya society had a hierarchical social structure. At the top were the ruling elite: the king, nobles, and high-ranking priests. The ruling elite enjoyed privileges and controlled the wealth and resources of the civilization. Below them were the skilled craftspeople, merchants, and soldiers who played important societal roles. The major part of the population was farmers and laborers. Slavery was also practiced, with prisoners from war often serving as slaves.

Aztec: The Aztec society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobles at the top, followed by the warrior class, merchants, artisans, and commoners. Slavery was also a part of Aztec society, although it differed from the chattel slavery system that treated people as materials in other civilizations. Slaves in Aztec culture had certain rights and could even own property.

Inca: The Inca society was of distinct social classes similar to the Aztec. The lowest class included slaves or individuals who the Inca had conquered.

3. Agriculture

Maya: Maya civilization developed advanced farming techniques to support their growing population. One of their contributions was the domestication and cultivation of maize (corn). Maya farmers also grew beans, squash, peppers, cacao, avocados, and various fruits. To maximize productivity, they had innovative agricultural practices, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation systems.

Aztec: The Aztecs constructed chinampas and artificial islands as fertile floating gardens. They cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers.

Inca: The Inca cultivated crops like potatoes, maize (corn), quinoa, and beans. They also developed a system of irrigation and storage facilities to ensure a stable food supply.

They all had terrace farming by building steps into the mountainsides to create flat areas for cultivation.

4. Architecture

Maya: Maya architecture is well-known for its impressive pyramids, temples, palaces, ball courts, and observatories. These buildings were often constructed with stone and decorated with detailed carvings and murals. The Maya displayed advanced engineering skills, using corbel arches, slanting roofs, and exact alignment with astronomical phenomena.

Aztec: The most iconic design in Aztec civilization was the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc (the god of rain and fertility) and Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war).

Inca: The Inca were well-known for their massive stone structures without mortar, using "ashlar masonry." The most famous example of their architectural achievement is Machu Picchu, a stunning city in the Andes Mountains.

5. Writing and Communication

Maya: The Maya developed a complex writing system using a combination of visual symbols and phonetic elements. They carved inscriptions on stone monuments, painted murals, and created intricate codices (books) made from bark paper. Maya writing recorded historical events, religious rituals, astronomical observations, and genealogical information.

Aztec: The Aztecs created codices and bark-paper books containing illustrations and glyphs that conveyed historical, religious, and astrological information. However, the Spanish destroyed most of these codices during the conquest.

Inca: The Inca civilization did not maintain a written language in the traditional sense. Instead, they used Quipu, strings of different colors and knots describing various numerical and symbolic meanings. The quipu recorded numerical and statistical data.

6. Religion and Beliefs

Maya: The Maya worshipped many gods and goddesses associated with natural elements, celestial bodies, fertility, and agricultural cycles. Maya priests, who held significant power and knowledge, performed complex ceremonies, including bloodletting and human sacrifice, as offerings to the gods.

Aztec: Aztec society worshipped gods and goddesses, with Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc among the most important gods. Human sacrifice was a central aspect of their religious rituals, believed to confirm the sun's rising and the continuation of the world.

Inca: The Inca had a polytheistic religion, worshiping various gods and goddesses. Inti, the sun god, considered the Inca rulers' ancestor, was the most important deity. Other significant gods included Viracocha, the creator god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess.

7. Economy

Maya: The Mayans' complex economic system relied on trade, agriculture, and craft production. Trade networks connected Maya cities and extended beyond their region, facilitating the exchange of goods such as jade, obsidian, textiles, feathers, pottery, and luxury items. Maya society also had a market economy where they could buy and sell goods. Tribute and taxation systems were to support the ruling elite and maintain social order.

Aztec: The Aztec economy survived on agriculture, trade, and tribute. The empire had a vast trade network, exchanging goods such as cocoa beans, jade, feathers, and textiles.

Inca: The Inca empire implemented a labor praise system known as mit'a, where individuals owed compulsory labor to the state. The Inca also developed an extensive network of roads and bridges, known as the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan.

8. Calendar

Maya: The Maya had multiple calendars, including the 365-day solar calendar (Haab), the 260-day sacred calendar (Tzolk'in), and the Long Count. The Maya used their calendar system for tracking time, religious ceremonies, agricultural cycles, and star observations.

Aztec: The Aztecs had a complex calendar system. They used two calendars simultaneously: a solar calendar of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli and a ritual calendar of 260 days known as the tonalpohualli.

Inca: The Inca used a calendar divided into twelve lunar months and had a solar calendar. The Inca tracked time using celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Mathematics

Maya: The Maya made significant advancements in mathematics, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. They had a positional numeral system that included the concept of zero.

Aztec: The Aztecs developed a sophisticated mathematical system that included positional notation and a base-20 number system. They made astronomical advancements, accurately predicting celestial events and using them in their religious rituals and architecture.

Inca: The Inca civilization had a decimal system and a concept of zero. The Inca had skills in measurement and engineering, as obvious in their precise stonework and agricultural terraces.

10. Arts and Craftsmanship

Maya: Maya art was diverse that depicted religious scenes, mythological narratives, historical events, and everyday life. They used various materials, such as jade, obsidian, clay, pigments, and feathers.

Aztec: Aztec art included various forms such as sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and textiles. They were famous for their elaborate stone carvings, colorful featherwork, and detailed gold and silver ornaments using sophisticated metalworking techniques.

Inca: The Incas had excellence in pottery, metalwork (particularly gold and silver), textiles, and stone carving with intricate designs and vibrant colors.

11. Education and Science

Maya: Education in Maya society was primarily for the elite and those destined for leadership roles. Maya scientists made significant advancements in astronomy, accurately predicting celestial events, understanding celestial bodies' movements, and developing a complex understanding of the cosmos.

Aztec: Education in the Aztec civilization was mainly within the family and community. Young boys and girls studied practical skills, religious rituals, and the cultural traditions of their society. They also had specialized schools for training priests, scribes, and warriors.

Inca: Young boys in the Inca civilization attended schools known as Yachay Wasi, where they learned farming techniques, engineering, and religious rituals. Girls received education at home, where they were taught domestic skills and weaving.

12. Healthcare

Maya: The Maya healers, often shamans or priests, combined herbal remedies with rituals and spiritual practices to treat illnesses. They practiced surgery, including trepanation (drilling holes in the skull), and knew anatomy and herbal medicine.

Aztec: Aztec medicine had a detailed understanding of medicinal plants and used them for treating various diseases. Healing practices included herbal remedies, surgical procedures, and spiritual rituals to restore health.

Inca: The Inca utilized herbal remedies, such as coca leaves, for medicinal purposes. The Inca also had a system of public health that included sanitary measures and the establishment of hospitals, known as kallankas, where individuals could receive medical treatment.

13. Decline and Conquest

Maya: The reasons for the fall of the Maya civilization are environmental factors like deforestation, soil erosion, and drought. Internal conflicts, political instability, and overpopulation may have also contributed to the decline. Due to the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, many Maya cities had already been abandoned, and the remaining city-states fell under Spanish conquest.

Aztec: The decline of the Aztec civilization began with the Spanish invasion led by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Factors such as superior weaponry, diseases brought by the Spanish, and the disruption of Aztec society contributed to their defeat. The Spanish exploited internal divisions within the empire, formed partnerships with local tribes who were enemies of the Aztecs, and ultimately conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Inca: The Inca Empire faced its decline with the arrival of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. The Spanish exploited the Incas with superior weapons and diseases like smallpox. The capture and death of the last emperor, Atahualpa, marked the end of the Inca and the beginning of Spanish colonization.

Maya vs Aztec vs Inca Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Do any Mayans still exist?
Answer: Yes, there are still Mayans alive today. They comprise around six million individuals, making them the largest indigenous group in North America after Peru. The main Mayan populations are in Mexico, with significant groups such as the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000), and Tzeltal (80,000).

Q2. What Indian languages did the Aztecs speak?
Answer: The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations in central and western Mexico.

Q3. Is the Maya language still spoken today?
Answer: Yes, Maya is still spoken today. There are approximately 7 million speakers of Mayan languages, with around 4 million in Guatemala and 2.5 million in Mexico.

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Maya vs Aztec vs Inca | Find out the Top 13 Differences and Comparison

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Explore key differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca, including their religious beliefs, social structure, and education systems...

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Los aztecas son una civilización extraño. Tenemos muchas teorías sobre el pueblo. Los Aztecos existió en Mexico. El empiezo estaba un misterio porque no hay mucha evidencia.

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The Aztecs, who probably originated as a nomadic tribe in northern Mexico, arrived in Mesoamerica around the beginning of the 13th century. From their magnificent capital city, Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs emerged as the dominant force in central Mexico, developing an intricate social, political, religi…

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La antigua América fue el hogar de civilizaciones como las sociedades mayas, incas y aztecas. Maya estaba formada por ciudades-estado y no estaba unida políticamente. Había una regla independiente para cada ciudad-estado. Mayas se instaló en la península de Yucatán en América central. Los aztecas fueron gobernados por un emperador cuyo objetivo principal era liderar las guerras. Los aztecas  vivió en el valle de mexico.  Y finalmente las incas, quién fue gobernado por Sapa Inca el emperador. Las Incas Tenía un imperio en la montaña de los Andes en áfrica.

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Difference Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

Maya, Inca, and Aztecs were three remarkable civilizations that thrived in the southern parts of America at different points in history. The Maya civilization, known for its amazing calendar that accurately predicted events such as floods and eclipses, holds a prominent place among these civilizations. The Aztecs and Incas also contributed immensely to America with their culture, heritage, power, and intelligence.

This article explores some captivating stories and notable differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca civilizations. But before we jump into their rich histories, let's first learn some basic facts about these three civilizations.

Maya Civilization

The Maya civilization appeared around 2600 B.C. in southeastern tropical parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The Maya people had a highly advanced culture, a developed writing system, and remarkable advances in mathematics, astronomy, etc. It was unique among the pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas. They lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the southern highlands.

Aztec Civilization

The Aztecs, on the other hand, grew in the Valley of Mexico from 1300 to 1521 with a good environment for agriculture due to its moderate climate and rich natural resources. The Aztec capital, named Tenochtitlan, was the largest city. The Aztecs were famous for their farming, warfare, and temple-building skills. They were also famous for their diverse culture, beautiful sculptures, and advances in many other aspects.

Inca Civilization

Around the year 1200, the Inca civilization settled in central Peru of South America and also parts of Ecuador, Bolivia, Columbia, Chile, and Argentina. The Inca was the largest in pre-Columbian America, extending approximately 2500 miles (4000 km) from north to south. The population was around 16 million people. They were famous for their impressive stonework and temples made without mortar (a mixture of cement and sand).

Head To Head Comparison Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca (Infographics)

Key Differences Between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca

The Maya were native people of Mexico and Central America, while the Aztec covered most of northern Mesoamerica between c.1345 and 1521 CE, whereas Inca flourished in ancient Peru between c.1400 and 1533 CE and extended across western South America.

Given below is a detailed explanation of each difference between the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations.

1. Political Organization

Maya: Maya society was in city-states handled by a king or ruler. The kings held political and religious authority, believed to be divine rulers communicating with the gods. The city-states were usually organized hierarchically, with the ruling elite at the top and commoners at the bottom.

Aztec: The Aztec Empire was under the rule of an emperor, Huey Tlatoani, who held absolute power. Each province of the empire was under the governance of a local ruler appointed by the emperor.

Inca: The Inca Empire had a single emperor, the Sapa Inca, who was divine and held absolute power. The empire was a division of provinces governed by a local leader called an Apu, who reported to the Sapa Inca. The administrative and political center of the empire was Cusco, the capital city.

2. Social Structure

Maya: Maya society had a hierarchical social structure. At the top were the ruling elite: the king, nobles, and high-ranking priests. The ruling elite enjoyed privileges and controlled the wealth and resources of the civilization. Below them were the skilled craftspeople, merchants, and soldiers who played important societal roles. The major part of the population was farmers and laborers. Slavery was also practiced, with prisoners from war often serving as slaves.

Aztec: The Aztec society was hierarchical, with the emperor and nobles at the top, followed by the warrior class, merchants, artisans, and commoners. Slavery was also a part of Aztec society, although it differed from the chattel slavery system that treated people as materials in other civilizations. Slaves in Aztec culture had certain rights and could even own property.

Inca: The Inca society was of distinct social classes similar to the Aztec. The lowest class included slaves or individuals who the Inca had conquered.

3. Agriculture

Maya: Maya civilization developed advanced farming techniques to support their growing population. One of their contributions was the domestication and cultivation of maize (corn). Maya farmers also grew beans, squash, peppers, cacao, avocados, and various fruits. To maximize productivity, they had innovative agricultural practices, such as terracing, raised fields, and irrigation systems.

Aztec: The Aztecs constructed chinampas and artificial islands as fertile floating gardens. They cultivated maize (corn), beans, squash, and chili peppers.

Inca: The Inca cultivated crops like potatoes, maize (corn), quinoa, and beans. They also developed a system of irrigation and storage facilities to ensure a stable food supply.

They all had terrace farming by building steps into the mountainsides to create flat areas for cultivation.

4. Architecture

Maya: Maya architecture is well-known for its impressive pyramids, temples, palaces, ball courts, and observatories. These buildings were often constructed with stone and decorated with detailed carvings and murals. The Maya displayed advanced engineering skills, using corbel arches, slanting roofs, and exact alignment with astronomical phenomena.

Aztec: The most iconic design in Aztec civilization was the Templo Mayor, devoted to Tlaloc (the god of rain and fertility) and Huitzilopochtli (the god of the sun and war).

Inca: The Inca were well-known for their massive stone structures without mortar, using "ashlar masonry." The most famous example of their architectural achievement is Machu Picchu, a stunning city in the Andes Mountains.

5. Writing and Communication

Maya: The Maya developed a complex writing system using a combination of visual symbols and phonetic elements. They carved inscriptions on stone monuments, painted murals, and created intricate codices (books) made from bark paper. Maya writing recorded historical events, religious rituals, astronomical observations, and genealogical information.

Aztec: The Aztecs created codices and bark-paper books containing illustrations and glyphs that conveyed historical, religious, and astrological information. However, the Spanish destroyed most of these codices during the conquest.

Inca: The Inca civilization did not maintain a written language in the traditional sense. Instead, they used Quipu, strings of different colors and knots describing various numerical and symbolic meanings. The quipu recorded numerical and statistical data.

6. Religion and Beliefs

Maya: The Maya worshipped many gods and goddesses associated with natural elements, celestial bodies, fertility, and agricultural cycles. Maya priests, who held significant power and knowledge, performed complex ceremonies, including bloodletting and human sacrifice, as offerings to the gods.

Aztec: Aztec society worshipped gods and goddesses, with Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc among the most important gods. Human sacrifice was a central aspect of their religious rituals, believed to confirm the sun's rising and the continuation of the world.

Inca: The Inca had a polytheistic religion, worshiping various gods and goddesses. Inti, the sun god, considered the Inca rulers' ancestor, was the most important deity. Other significant gods included Viracocha, the creator god, and Mama Quilla, the moon goddess.

7. Economy

Maya: The Mayans' complex economic system relied on trade, agriculture, and craft production. Trade networks connected Maya cities and extended beyond their region, facilitating the exchange of goods such as jade, obsidian, textiles, feathers, pottery, and luxury items. Maya society also had a market economy where they could buy and sell goods. Tribute and taxation systems were to support the ruling elite and maintain social order.

Aztec: The Aztec economy survived on agriculture, trade, and tribute. The empire had a vast trade network, exchanging goods such as cocoa beans, jade, feathers, and textiles.

Inca: The Inca empire implemented a labor praise system known as mit'a, where individuals owed compulsory labor to the state. The Inca also developed an extensive network of roads and bridges, known as the Inca Road or Qhapaq Ñan.

8. Calendar

Maya: The Maya had multiple calendars, including the 365-day solar calendar (Haab), the 260-day sacred calendar (Tzolk'in), and the Long Count. The Maya used their calendar system for tracking time, religious ceremonies, agricultural cycles, and star observations.

Aztec: The Aztecs had a complex calendar system. They used two calendars simultaneously: a solar calendar of 365 days called the xiuhpohualli and a ritual calendar of 260 days known as the tonalpohualli.

Inca: The Inca used a calendar divided into twelve lunar months and had a solar calendar. The Inca tracked time using celestial events such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Mathematics

Maya: The Maya made significant advancements in mathematics, particularly in arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. They had a positional numeral system that included the concept of zero.

Aztec: The Aztecs developed a sophisticated mathematical system that included positional notation and a base-20 number system. They made astronomical advancements, accurately predicting celestial events and using them in their religious rituals and architecture.

Inca: The Inca civilization had a decimal system and a concept of zero. The Inca had skills in measurement and engineering, as obvious in their precise stonework and agricultural terraces.

10. Arts and Craftsmanship

Maya: Maya art was diverse that depicted religious scenes, mythological narratives, historical events, and everyday life. They used various materials, such as jade, obsidian, clay, pigments, and feathers.

Aztec: Aztec art included various forms such as sculptures, pottery, jewelry, and textiles. They were famous for their elaborate stone carvings, colorful featherwork, and detailed gold and silver ornaments using sophisticated metalworking techniques.

Inca: The Incas had excellence in pottery, metalwork (particularly gold and silver), textiles, and stone carving with intricate designs and vibrant colors.

11. Education and Science

Maya: Education in Maya society was primarily for the elite and those destined for leadership roles. Maya scientists made significant advancements in astronomy, accurately predicting celestial events, understanding celestial bodies' movements, and developing a complex understanding of the cosmos.

Aztec: Education in the Aztec civilization was mainly within the family and community. Young boys and girls studied practical skills, religious rituals, and the cultural traditions of their society. They also had specialized schools for training priests, scribes, and warriors.

Inca: Young boys in the Inca civilization attended schools known as Yachay Wasi, where they learned farming techniques, engineering, and religious rituals. Girls received education at home, where they were taught domestic skills and weaving.

12. Healthcare

Maya: The Maya healers, often shamans or priests, combined herbal remedies with rituals and spiritual practices to treat illnesses. They practiced surgery, including trepanation (drilling holes in the skull), and knew anatomy and herbal medicine.

Aztec: Aztec medicine had a detailed understanding of medicinal plants and used them for treating various diseases. Healing practices included herbal remedies, surgical procedures, and spiritual rituals to restore health.

Inca: The Inca utilized herbal remedies, such as coca leaves, for medicinal purposes. The Inca also had a system of public health that included sanitary measures and the establishment of hospitals, known as kallankas, where individuals could receive medical treatment.

13. Decline and Conquest

Maya: The reasons for the fall of the Maya civilization are environmental factors like deforestation, soil erosion, and drought. Internal conflicts, political instability, and overpopulation may have also contributed to the decline. Due to the Spanish arrival in the 16th century, many Maya cities had already been abandoned, and the remaining city-states fell under Spanish conquest.

Aztec: The decline of the Aztec civilization began with the Spanish invasion led by Hernán Cortés in 1519. Factors such as superior weaponry, diseases brought by the Spanish, and the disruption of Aztec society contributed to their defeat. The Spanish exploited internal divisions within the empire, formed partnerships with local tribes who were enemies of the Aztecs, and ultimately conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Inca: The Inca Empire faced its decline with the arrival of Spanish conquerors led by Francisco Pizarro in the early 16th century. The Spanish exploited the Incas with superior weapons and diseases like smallpox. The capture and death of the last emperor, Atahualpa, marked the end of the Inca and the beginning of Spanish colonization.

Maya vs Aztec vs Inca Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Do any Mayans still exist?
Answer: Yes, there are still Mayans alive today. They comprise around six million individuals, making them the largest indigenous group in North America after Peru. The main Mayan populations are in Mexico, with significant groups such as the Yucatecs (300,000), Tzotzil (120,000), and Tzeltal (80,000).

Q2. What Indian languages did the Aztecs speak?
Answer: The Aztecs spoke the Nahuatl language, a member of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Nahuatl was the primary language of the Aztec and Toltec civilizations in central and western Mexico.

Q3. Is the Maya language still spoken today?
Answer: Yes, Maya is still spoken today. There are approximately 7 million speakers of Mayan languages, with around 4 million in Guatemala and 2.5 million in Mexico.

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Explore key differences between Maya vs Aztec vs Inca, including their religious beliefs, social structure, and education systems...

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Los mayas, incas y aztecas construyeron grandes civilizaciones en México y en América Central y del Sur entre 1800 y 500 años atrás. Los mayas vivían en aldeas agrícolas en la península de Yucatán y las tierras altas del sur. Construyeron ciudades-estado en América Central que incluían grandes templos piramidales y plazas públicas con enormes columnas de piedra que relataban su historia. El gobierno central inca en Cuzco tenía un fuerte ejército y aprobó leyes para crear costumbres oficiales y un idioma y calendario oficiales. Los aztecas fueron a una isla en el lago Texcoco, donde construyeron su capital y ciudad más grande, Tenochtitlán. Se hacían llamar los mexicas y eran granjeros de maíz, guerreros y constructores de templos.

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Maya Civilization
About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history. Excavations at Tikal, Guatemala, one of the greatest and oldest Maya centers, have revealed thousands of structures and artifacts. The findings include temples, pyramids, ball-playing courts, stone monuments, tools, ceremonial objects, and a great many pottery fragments.

The limestone of the Yucatan Peninsula was easily quarried and used for building and tool making. In the south, volcanoes stretched over the highlands and yielded valuable resources. The fertile volcanic soil allowed the people to grow crops.

Incan Civilization
The Inca began settling in the Valley of Cuzco in the Andes Mountains of central Peru around the year 1200. Between 1440 and 1500, they expanded their empire until it extended nearly 2,500 miles from north to south and included as many as 16 million people. The lands they occupied included mountains, coastal desert, and low-lying jungle.

The Incan central government at Cuzco maintained a strong military and passed laws to create official customs and an official language and calendar. The Inca engineered 14,000 miles of roads, including tunnels and bridges, and built the great fortress of Sacsahuaman. They also developed highly advanced terracing and irrigation methods to allow farming in difficult mountain terrain.

Aztec Civilization
The center of the Aztec civilization was in the Valley of Mexico, a huge high-elevation basin in the Sierra Madre Mountains. This valley had a mild climate that was good for agriculture. The surrounding lowlands offered a hotter, wetter tropical climate and an abundance of natural resources.

Around 1325, the Aztecs settled on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they built their capital and largest city, Tenochtitlán. They called themselves the Mexica (pronounced me-shee-ka) and became accomplished corn farmers, warriors, and temple builders. The ceramic shown here is one of a pair of life-size statues discovered during the recent excavation of the Great Temple of Tenochtitlán. The statues stood guard at the doorway of the meeting room of the Aztec warriors. The aggression and warrior skill of the Aztecs allowed them to conquer neighboring people. Eventually, the empire stretched over most of central Mexico and included millions of people.

Civilizations Measure Time and Record Information

The Maya built their great cities between A.D. 250 and A.D. 900. Their accomplishments included the development of complex writing and mathematical systems and impressive advances in astronomy. They used two calendars. One calendar was based on a solar year, while the other was a kind of sacred almanac. A sophisticated three-symbol numerical system allowed the Maya to record numbers into the millions.

The Aztec civilization, which emerged beginning in the 1200s, is considered the greatest of the civilizations that developed in Mesoamerica, the area extending from central Mexico to Honduras. Settling first on an island in Lake Texcoco, the Aztecs expanded their control to most of central Mexico. Like the Maya, the Aztec used a sacred calendar and a 365-day agricultural calendar. The Aztec writing system was based on glyphs, symbols that stand for sounds or words. The few remaining Aztec books, called codices, provide rich depictions of Aztec legends, beliefs, and daily life.

At about the same time that the Aztecs flourished in Mexico, the highly developed Incan Empire flourished in the Andes Mountains and along the west coast of South America. The vast Incan Empire had a central government that established laws, developed a complex road system, planned cities, and created farmlands along the sides of mountains. Unlike the Aztecs and the Maya, the Inca did not develop a writing system. Records of inventories were kept on bundles of knotted cords called quipus.

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Maya Civilization About 2,800 years ago, people known as the Maya lived in farming villages on the Yucatan Peninsula and the highlands to the south. From about A.D. 250 to A.D. 900, they built city-states in Central America that included great pyramid temples and public plazas featuring huge stone columns that recounted their history.