The pyramid-building society reigned over much of Central America until it collapsed. Today, its descendants keep many traditions alive—a sign of resilience. This sculpture of the head of a Mayan ...

Skeletons buried near the ancient Maya city of Copán have revealed new clues about the collapse, but not total decimation, of the Maya civilization. A study of the genomes of seven people from the ...

Power struggles? Drought? Overpopulation? Whatever happened to the Maya remains a mystery—with clues hidden in the jungle. Temple in TikalAbove the thick tree roots of the Petén jungle rises Temple V ...

(CNN) — With the thick vegetation of the northern Guatemala rainforests hiding its 2,000-year-old remnants, the full extent of the early Mayan way of life was once impossible to see. But laser ...

A new study uses genome analysis to show the decline, not erasure, of the ancient Maya civilization. Researchers compared the genomes of seven skeletons to previously sequenced sets from across ...

Aerial view of Aguada Fénix. Causeways and reservoirs are at front, while the main platform is toward the back. Image: (Takeshi Inomata) The surprising discovery of a 2,800-year-old monumental ...

While Mel Gibson’s thrilling film “Apocalypto” attempted to depict a clear image of Mayan culture, it didn’t. There are in reality extensive gaps in our understanding of this civilization. In a recent ...

Imagine leaving a once thriving ancient civilization and returning 1,300 years later to find tourists buying water at the foot of your pyramid and vendors selling maps. Your people are now scattered ...