Five Stops in Maya Lands: Hills, Swamps and Wells

Follow a described map from Copán to Chichen Itza and explain how the Maya farmed and found water.

Answer Key

The map and the route

Read the map description and the five stops. Then answer the questions.

Map of a study trip through Maya lands
1. Copán lies in a river valley among steep hills, in what is now western Honduras. The trip starts here.
2. Caracol lies about 210 km north of Copán, in the hills of what is now western Belize.
3. A stretch of wetlands lies about 150 km north of Caracol, in northern Belize.
4. Uxmal lies about 290 km northwest of the wetlands, in the low Puuc hills of the Yucatán Peninsula.
5. Chichen Itza lies about 130 km east of Uxmal, on a flat plain. The trip ends here.

Five Stops

1Copán. In the 700s CE, Copán was a large Maya city in the green valley of the Copán River. Farmers first grew maize on the flat valley floor. As the city grew, people cleared the forests on the steep hillsides above it, both for new fields and for wood to cook and to burn limestone into plaster. Studies of the valley's soil suggest that much earth from the cleared slopes washed down into the valley, leaving thin, stony ground behind. By about 900, far fewer people lived in the valley.

2Caracol. Around this city, archaeologists have mapped many thousands of stone terraces on the hillsides, many of them close to houses. Builders laid low stone walls across the slopes and piled soil behind them to make flat steps of farmland. On the flat steps, rain soaked into the ground instead of rushing downhill.

3The wetlands. Here archaeologists have found traces of canals dug by Maya farmers. The farmers heaped the mud from the canals into long platforms that stood higher than the water in the rainy season, and they planted crops on top. Water stayed in the canals between the platforms.

4Uxmal. The Puuc hills have rich soil, but there are no rivers, and the water underground lies too deep to reach. Almost all of the year's rain falls between about May and October. The people of Uxmal cut bottle-shaped chambers, called chultuns, into the limestone and lined them with plaster. Paved patios and plazas sloped toward the chultuns' openings.

5Chichen Itza. This city sits on a plain of limestone, a rock full of cracks and holes. Rain sinks quickly through it, so the plain has almost no rivers or lakes. In places, the rock above underground water has collapsed and formed cenotes, deep natural wells that hold water all year, even in the dry months. The city's name means "at the mouth of the well of the Itza." Many Maya people live in this region today. In villages nearby, some farmers still plant milpas: they clear a patch of forest, burn the cut plants and grow maize, beans and squash together. After a few harvests the soil wears thin, so they leave the field for many years while the forest grows back.

In which direction does the trip travel from the wetlands to Uxmal?

A. Northeast
B. Northwest
C. Southeast
D. Southwest

Use the map. Add the distances of all four parts of the trip.

The whole trip from Copán to Chichen Itza is about 780 km long.

Based on stop 2, what did the terraces at Caracol most likely do for farmers?

A. They kept soil and rainwater from running downhill.
B. They stored drinking water in chambers underground.
C. They gave crops shade from the hot sun.
D. They drained floodwater away from the valley floor.

Sort each method by the problem it helped solve.

Plaster-lined chambers cut into limestoneMud heaped into platforms above the waterLow stone walls built across hillsidesPatios paved to slope toward an openingWater drawn from a cenote in the dry monthsSoil piled into flat steps of farmland

Too little water in the dry months	Too much water in the rainy season	Soil washing off steep slopes
Plaster-lined chambers cut into limestone Patios paved to slope toward an opening Water drawn from a cenote in the dry months	Mud heaped into platforms above the water	Low stone walls built across hillsides Soil piled into flat steps of farmland

Circle the sentence from stop 1 that shows a cost of changing the environment at Copán.

Farmers first grew maize on the flat valley floor.As the city grew, people cleared the forests on the steep hillsides above it, both for new fields and for wood to cook and to burn limestone into plaster.Studies of the valley's soil suggest that much earth from the cleared slopes washed down into the valley, leaving thin, stony ground behind.

Use what you learned

Use the stops and the table to answer the questions.

A Maya town stands on a limestone plain where the nearest cenote is a day's walk away and the water underground is too deep to reach. Which method would most likely help the town get through the dry months?

A. Canals dug to carry water from a nearby river
B. Plastered chambers filled by rain from paved patios
C. Raised platforms heaped up from wetland mud
D. Stone terraces built across steep hillsides

A farmer near Chichen Itza plants maize in the same milpa for ten years in a row and never lets it rest. What would most likely happen?

A. The field would flood each rainy season.
B. A new cenote would open beneath the field.
C. The forest would grow back faster over the field.
D. The harvests would shrink as the soil wore thin.

The wetlands of northern Belize flood in the rainy season. How did the raised platforms most likely help the farmers there?

A. They caught rain for the dry months in the hills.
B. They kept the crops above the floodwater.
C. They let the forest grow back between harvests.
D. They held soil on the sides of steep hills.

Two Other Peoples of the Americas
People	Land	Farming method
Mexica (Aztec)	Shallow lakes in a high valley	Chinampas: plots built up from lake mud
Inca	Steep slopes of the Andes	Stone terraces with layers of soil

Which statement do the table and the stops best support together?

A. The Inca built chinampas high in the Andes.
B. The Mexica and the Maya both drew water from cenotes.
C. The Maya and the Inca both built terraces on slopes.
D. The Maya farmed in shallow lakes in a high valley.

10.

Which conclusion best fits the whole trip?

A. The Maya matched their methods to each kind of land.
B. Maya lands were mostly wetlands that flooded each year.
C. The Maya used one farming method wherever they lived.
D. The Maya changed the land without any harm to it.

11.

Claim: The Maya both adapted to their environment and changed it, and changing it brought costs as well as benefits. Do you agree? Use evidence from at least two stops and explain your reasoning.

I agree. The Maya adapted to what each place offered: at Chichen Itza, where rain sinks through limestone and there are almost no rivers, people drew water from natural cenotes, and milpa farmers let fields rest so the forest could grow back. They also changed the land: at Caracol they built stone walls and flat steps of soil so rain soaked in instead of washing the soil away, and in the wetlands they dug canals and heaped mud into platforms that stayed above the floodwater. These changes helped them grow more food. But changes could cost them too. At Copán, people cleared the hillside forests, and soil from the slopes washed into the valley, leaving thin, stony ground. By about 900, far fewer people lived there.