Tony Huynh04/20/2014ANTH 160The Rise and Fall of the Mayan CivilizationImagine if one of today's greatest civilizations suddenly vanished from the face of the earth without a trace. There have been countless fallen civilizations in the past that have shaped our world into what it is today, but among all civilizations, the Mayan one stands at the top as one of the most intriguing and mysterious of all. Other ancient civilizations that collapsed in the past have left many clues to answer the reason for their collapse, however, the Mayans have almost seemingly vanished without leaving a trace of why and how this happened. There is much speculation about what exactly happened to the ancient Maya, but none has been proven exactly. After centuries of research, there is finally enough evidence to believe in a logical explanation. The Mayan civilization collapsed because it suffered one of the greatest droughts in all of history. Before we get to the collapse of the Maya, it's important to understand exactly who the Maya were and why they are such an important civilization in history. The Mayan civilization is believed to have begun a few thousand years before Christ; presumably around 2000 BC, where some of the oldest Mayan stories date back. The Mayan territory geographically extended throughout Central America mainly between Chichen Itza and Guatemala. By 500 BC, the Mayan population increased dramatically, and small communities were transforming into Central America's first large Mayan cities. Maya was different from normal civilizations run by a single empire, but instead Maya was made up of many neighboring kingdoms, all with their own separate kings. Having many kingdoms would have led to wars, but there was never really a single city that...... middle of paper ......al: The Rise And Fall Of Classic Maya Rulers – By Lisa J. Lucero." Storica 69.4 (2007): 786-787. Academic Research Premier.Masson, Marilyn A. "Maya Collapse Cycles." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109.45 (2012): 18237-18238. Pringle, Heather and Richard A. Kerr. “Did Climate Change Impulses Drive the Rise and Fall of the Maya?” Science 338.6108 (2012): 730-731. Pyburn, K. Anne and Traci Ardren Ancient Maya: Solving the Mystery of Maya Collapse." Latin American Antiquities 16.2 (2005): 225-226. Academic Research Premier.Schwarz, Kevin R. "Through the Rearview Mirror: Rethinking the Classic Maya Collapse. In light of postclassical rural social transformation." Journal Of Social Archeology 13.2 (2013): 242-265. Academic Search Premier.