Where Did the Maya Go? A Jungle City Mystery

Deep in the jungles of Mexico and Guatemala, explorers found giant stone pyramids taller than a ten-story building — hiding under trees and vines! The city of Tikal once had 60,000 people living in it. Then, a long time ago, most of the people left. Where did they go?

- Say who the Maya people were and where they lived - Name two reasons cities like Tikal became hard to live in - Understand that the Maya people did not disappear — many still live in the same lands today - Look closely at a picture clue like a real explorer

The Maya built huge stone pyramids, palaces, and roads without metal tools or wheels for hauling — they carried the stones by hand! Their biggest cities, like Tikal and Calakmul, had tens of thousands of people. They were skilled at math, invented their own writing with pictures called glyphs, and tracked the stars so well they could predict eclipses.

Scientists studied old lake mud and tree rings near Tikal and found clues of a very long, very dry period — years and years with much less rain than usual. Without enough rain, crops of corn failed. At the same time, some cities had grown very crowded, cutting down trees to build more houses and farms, which made the dry soil even worse. Around the same time, records carved in stone show more wars between rival Maya cities fighting over food and water.

When food and water became scarce, families packed up and moved to smaller towns where farming was easier, or closer to rivers and coasts. Over about 100 years, the huge pyramid cities slowly emptied, and the jungle grew back over them — which is why explorers later found pyramids hidden under trees.