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Experiencing the Maya

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Chichén Itzá, the famed Mayan ruins in Mexico's Yucatán, one of the modern "Seven Wonders of the World" When we hear about the “Mayan civilization”, many of us think of an ancient “lost” culture that flourished hundreds of years ago and then mysteriously disappeared.    That’s not completely true, as I learned recently on a tour of Mayan sites in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula, and Guatemala.    Many descendants of the original Maya still live and worship to various extents traditionally and are eager to share their ways with visitors. Traditional weaving demonstration in Zinacantán, Chiapas, Mexico “Maya” is a modern term given by the 16 th  century Spanish colonizers to collectively name the multiple indigenous (or “Indian”) populations of the Yucatán, Guatemala and Belize, as well as farther south in Central America.    While there are signs of agricultural activity from as early as 2000 BCE (Before the Common Era), the first Mayan cities were built around 750