• Rediscovering ancient Maya cities
• Who were the Maya?
• Name variations and pronunciation
• Dates of predominance and location
• Not prehistory, but …
• For More Information

When the Spanish conquistadores (Spanish word for "conquerors") arrived in the Americas at the beginning of the sixteenth century, they found a people known as the Maya (pronounced MY-uh) living on the Yucatán peninsula (a large area separating the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, which includes the nation of Belize, the Petén territory of northern Guatemala, and the southeastern Mexican states of Campeche, Quintana Roo, and Yucatán). These lands had been the home of Maya people...