Nakbe in the Petén Department of Guatemala is the earliest well-documented city in the Maya lowlands, where large structures have been dated to around 750 BC.
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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).
Our excavations showed that the main building of Aguada Fénix was probably built between 1050 and 750 BC. This structure is also the oldest monumental construction known so far in the Maya area. It was built before tall pyramidal constructions became common in the Maya area and other parts of Mesoamerica.
The Maya are perhaps most known for their many majestic pyramids. They built two kinds of pyramids. Both types of pyramids were similar in many ways. They each had the familiar pyramid shape.
The drought theory holds that rapid climate change in the form of severe drought (a megadrought) brought about the Classic Maya collapse. Paleoclimatologists have discovered abundant evidence that prolonged droughts occurred in the Yucatán Peninsula and Petén Basin areas during the Terminal Classic.
The term “Maya,” while describing the Maya people as a larger cultural unit, also refers to the Mayan language family. The Maya don't actually speak Mayan. Rather, they speak Tsotsil, Mam, K'iche' or any of the various languages in the Mayan language family.
Chichen Itza, in the north, became what was probably the largest, most powerful and most cosmopolitan of all Maya cities. One of the most important cities in the Guatemalan Highlands at this time was Q'umarkaj, also known as Utatlán, the capital of the aggressive K'iche' Maya kingdom.
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 the entire Yucatán Peninsula — from as early as 2600 BC.
Descendants of the ancient Maya abound throughout southern Mesoamerica. The population is estimated at eight million, likely as many as there were at the time of conquest.
The oldest and largest known monument built by the Mayan civilisation has been found in Mexico. Called Aguada Fénix, it is a huge raised platform 1.4 kilometres long. Aguada Fénix was built around 1000 BC, centuries before the Maya began constructing their famous stepped pyramids.