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.