The Maya were an indigenous people that predominantly inhabited an area encompassing present-day southeastern Mexico (including the Yucatán Peninsula), Belize, and Guatemala. Dating back to 2000–3000 BC, the Maya civilization reached its pinnacle during the period AD 300–900. In particular, the Maya developed a complex urban society, with notable achievements in architecture and city planning. They also excelled in astronomy, mathematics, and writing (with an elaborate hieroglyphic-based written language). See also: Archeology; Civil engineering; Ethnoarcheology; Linguistics; Maya civilization; North America

The initial growth and development of the Maya civilization depended on a number of agricultural innovations. Mesoamerica (including the area of Mexico and the adjacent northern part of Central America in which the Maya lived) is where the domestication of crops first took hold in the Americas. Maize (corn) and beans were the major founder crops of many agricultural systems in the New World. The agricultural productivity and the resulting economic superiority derived from these domesticated communities enabled the Maya to grow and advance into a powerful empire. See also: Agricultural science (plant); Agriculture; Bean; Corn; Domestication (anthropology)

Because of their accomplishments in mathematics and astronomy, the Maya were able to figure out highly sophisticated and accurate calendric calculations. In fact, one of the great Maya step pyramids—the pyramid of Kukulkan at Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico—was built as an architectural representation of a calendar. Its four 91-step stairways and top platform comprise 365 horizontal surfaces, one for each day in a year. See also: Archeoastronomy; Astronomy; Calendar; Mathematics

The disappearance of the Maya civilization predates the arrival of the Spanish explorers in the fifteenth century. Sometime after AD 900, the Maya abandoned their stone cities, although their descendants continue to live in Mesoamerica to this day. A number of factors might have caused the collapse of the Maya civilization, with the most likely reasons being severe drought, overpopulation, land-use exploitation, and internal warfare. See also: Climate modification; Drought