When most people think of ancient Maya civilization, they imagine godlike kings building towering pyramids and reveling in bloody human sacrifice. But commoners also played a significant role in the ...

At the height of the Mayan empire 1,400 years ago, the city of Tikal in modern-day Guatemala was a bustling metropolis the size of London during the Middle Ages. But when the Spanish conquistadors ...

Whether it's Tulum with its breathtaking ocean view, Cobá with its jungle setting and climbable pyramid, or Chichén Itzá with its grand architecture, each offers a unique yet equally impressive ...

Chichén Itzá, "the mouth of the well of the Itzás," was likely the most important city in the Yucatán from the 10th to the 12th centuries. Evidence indicates that the site was first settled as ...

This story appears in the September 2016 issue of National Geographic magazine. Your National Geographic Society membership helped fund recent excavations at Holmul and La Corona, Guatemala.

Venture beyond Guatemala’s famed Maya ruins at Tikal and you’ll find family-run museums and communities preserving age-old ...

M argaritas at sunset, palm-fringed beaches, cooling dips in azure waters: picture the perfect break on the Caribbean coast ...

FOR DECADES, scholars have argued about what caused the so-called Maya collapse. Several million Maya lived in southeastern Mexico and northern Central America in the early 800s. A hundred years later ...

The Yucatán Peninsula is rich in ancient history, and predominantly known for the famous ruins of Chichén Itzá. However, as a ...

The Maya civilisation lasted a long time. In Britain at this time, Stonehenge was constructed, the Romans invaded, and the Tudors ruled England. Image caption, Maya people were very clever.

Jade Skirt in AD732: Look at our beautiful city of Yax Mutul. I imagine our people will live here for hundreds of years. But who knows what the future holds? Jade Skirt in 1150: We now live ...

In its heyday from about A.D. 300 to 900, the Maya civilization boasted hundreds of cities across a vast swath of Central America. Now archeological sites, these once-flourishing cities extended ...