<em style="color: #00ff00;">Classic period royal palace at Palenque</em>

<em>Section of stucco frieze with a prominent human face in the centre, surrounded by elaborate decoration.</em>
<em>Maya civilization</em>
<em>People Society Languages Writing Religion Mythology Sacrifice Cities Architecture Calendar Stelae Art Textiles Trade Music Dance Medicine Cuisine</em>
<em>History</em>
<em>Preclassic Maya</em>
<em>Classic Maya collapse</em>
<em>Spanish conquest of the Maya</em>
<em>Yucatán Chiapas Guatemala Petén</em>
<em>v t e</em>
<em>The ancient Maya civilization was a Mesoamerican civilization developed by the Maya peoples, noted for Maya script, the only known fully developed writing system of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. This region consists of the northern lowlands, encompassing the Yucatán Peninsula, the highlands of the Sierra Madre, running from the Mexican state of Chiapas, across southern Guatemala and onwards into El Salvador, and the southern lowlands of the Pacific littoral plain.</em>

<em>The Preclassic period saw the establishment of the first sedentary communities in the Maya region, and the cultivation of the staple crops of the Maya diet, including maize, beans, squashes, and chili peppers. The first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC. In the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is largely defined by when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization give rise to a large number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands, the two great rivals Tikal and Calakmul became powerful. The Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a widespread political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities, and a northward shift of population. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, and the expansion of the aggressive K'iche' kingdom in the Guatemalan Highlands. In the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonised the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of the last Maya city in 1697.</em>

<em>Classic period rule was centred around the concept of the "divine king", who acted as a mediator between mortals and the supernatural realm. Kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was also expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a closed system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the corresponding reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. The Maya civilization developed highly sophisticated art forms, and the Maya created art using both perishable and non-perishable materials, including wood, jade, obsidian, ceramics, sculpted stone monuments, stucco, and finely painted murals.</em>