The ancient Maya occupied a broad territory roughly the size of the state of New Mexico. This area is located in the southeastern parts of Mexico including the Yucatan Peninsula and most of the modern states of Chiapas and Tabasco, much of northwestern Central America, and including the nations of Guatemala and Belize and the western parts of Honduras and El Salvador. The earliest known villages appeared along the seacoasts (6000-2000 B.C) where there was an abundance of food resources which could support year-round settled life (Sharer). There are 28 Mayan languages which are all closely related. To this day there are still around four million speakers of all these languages. It is believed that the Mayans originally traveled to this area from Asia.
There are two natural settings in the land of the Maya, the highlands and the lowlands. The highlands lie above 1,000 ft which include a vast amount of volcanoes both extinct and active. The highland flora includes a domination of......
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