The Maya: How Their Cities Rose and Fell

0:00How did the great cities of the Maya rise and fall?

0:04The Maya lived on and around the Yucatán Peninsula.

0:08Maya farmers grew maize, or corn, along with beans and squash.

0:14Extra food let villages grow into big cities, like Tikal and Calakmul.

0:20Maya cities were at their height from about 250 to 900 CE.

0:26There was no single empire: each city-state had its own ruler.

0:31Big cities had tall stone pyramids with temples on top.

0:35Scribes wrote with glyphs, signs that stand for words and sounds.

0:41Their numbers used a dot for one, a bar for five and a shell for zero.

0:47From about 800 to 900 CE, many cities in the south were abandoned.

0:53Experts think long droughts, wars between cities and too many people for the land all played a part.

1:00Meanwhile, some northern cities, like Chichén Itzá, grew strong.

1:06The Maya did not vanish: millions of Maya people live in this region today.

1:12Farming helped Maya cities rise, and drought and war helped many of them fall.