Day One

A Capital American City

Valladolid, Mexico - Imagine being in a very big city, filled with tall skyscrapers and crowds of people. In the center of the city, mathematicians, architects, artists, politicians, and astronomers are at work. Outside of the city, farmers are working to feed a growing population. Once a bustling city of 70,000, Tikal now lies in ruins. This could be New York City today. Or it could be the Maya capital of Tikal in the year A.D. 790. Located in the largest rainforest in Central America, Tikal was once a bustling city of some 70,000 people that controlled a large region stretching into Belize on the east and Mexico on the west. Within one lifetime - perhaps 80 years - Tikal and most other Maya cities would collapse and the jungle would begin to reclaim more than a thousand years of learning. Why? That's what we are here to find out! Dan and the team check their road maps on the way to Chunchucmil. Today we met with an archaeologist named Tracy. She studies how the common people of the Maya civilization lived, at a site named Chunchucmil. "If we could slow down and think about how civilizations lived for thousands of years in a single spot, I think we might rethink about how we live today. We've only been living on our land for a little over two hundred years and we're already starting to have problems." This sounded like a good answer to me. Not only did it get me thinking about the demise of Tikal, it started to make me wonder about other great American cities-like the one I live in. Pedals Up! - Dan Buettner

MayaQuest Home   next >

MayaQuest is produced by Classroom Connect as part of The Quest Channel series of online adventures.