mystical maya by kadiatou

MYSTICAL MAYA

The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican civilization

that descended from the Olmecs. They created the most accurate calendar in history and the Maya had

the most complicated writing and number system in mesoamerica. The Maya constructed pyramids and drew murals on the walls of their homes, temples and palaces.

MAYA ORIGIN

The Maya were a mesoamerican civilization that began in 1800BC and died down in 250AD. They inhabited Mexico and Central America in the modern day states of Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize, El

Salvador and Honduras. The Maya civilization descended from the Olmec civilization. The Olmecs are well known for the 20 ton stone heads they carved for their former rulers and they were the first mesoamerican civilization to attempt to create a calendar.

MAYA MATH

Much of the beginnings of the Maya civilization is shrouded in mystery and confusion however we do know that they created their fascinating number system very early in their time because the astronomical observations they made, for

their calendars depended heavily on mathematics. Unlike our modern day base 10 number system, the Maya had a base 20 number system. This complicated math system consisted of only three symbols, dots, bars and shells. One dot represented 1; a bar represented 5 and the shell represented 0. After the number 19, numbers were written in a vertical type of place value format.

MAYA ARCHITECTURE

The ever fascinating Maya built pyramids, palaces, temples and houses of the best quality. They used limestone, sandstone and volcanic tuff as bricks. The Maya used tools mostly made out of stones like flint, obsidian, granite, limestone and quartzite. As for cement

and mortar they melted limestone to make burnt-lime cement or they used simple mud. Kukulkan Pyramid is located

in the Yucatan Peninsula in Chichen Itza and it

was built between 800AD and 900AD. Kukulkan

Pyramid was named after the Maya feathered

serpent god.

MAYA CALENDAR

They created the most accurate calendar in history. I'm not surprised. If they can do mathematics and construct pyramids that haven't crumbled away to this day they're capable of making the best calendar.

MAYA HAAB CALENDAR

The Maya Haab calendar is a solar calendar created by the Maya for everyday use. It has 18 months with 20 days in each. There was also a 19th month with only 5 days, these 5 days were deemed the most unluckiest days of the whole year. Altogether there were 365 days in the year.

MAYA TZOLKIN CALENDAR

The Tzolkin calendar was a calendar created

for religious events and ceremonies. There

were 260 days in the Tzolkin unlike the

Haab calendar. Besides the religious use

of the Tzolkin, farmers also needed the

calendar to know when to plant their crops.

The Tzolkin calendar has two cycles a 20 day

cycle and a 13 day cycle.

complete the jigsaw to find

out the fact