The Maya civilization had one of the most intricate religious systems in the ancient world. From powerful gods like the maize god and the rain god Chaac to the complex calendar cycles and ancestor ...

Then, in 964, the Itzás, a Maya-speaking people from the Petén rain forest around Tikal, moved into the city. Archeologists have fully explored only about 20 or 30 of several hundred buildings ...

Each bore ceremonial centers where theocratic rulers practiced a complex religion based on a host of ... ball game and human sacrifice. The ancient Maya also mastered astronomy, mathematics ...