been called by some scholars, were organized into wide-ranging alliance networks.

Not all of the earlier great cities survived into classic times: El Mirador and Nakbe, for example, collapsed in late-preclassic times. Two cities that apparently capitalized on the collapse of the others (if they were not directly responsible for it) were tikal and Kalak’mul (Calakmul); in classic times they grew to dominate the Maya world, and they were deadly enemies. Hieroglyphic records show how most other sites were organized into either the Tikal or Kalak’mul spheres, and battles were continually taking place between sites on either side of the divide in a kind of “proxy” war. Occasionally there were major wars that could even wreak havoc on Tikal and Kalak’mul themselves. In a.d. 562 the city of Caracol, under the aegis of Kalak’mul, attacked Tikal, and its city was sacked. Tikal was again attacked in a.d. 679, but not too long afterward, in a.d. 695, Tikal reasserted its power by capturing and sacrificing the king of Kalak’mul.

Until the 1970s most scholars assumed that Maya subsistence was based solely on the “slash-and-burn” system of agriculture that is widespread in the Yucatán Peninsula today. It is now clear, however, that the Maya had a wide range of agricultural techniques, including more intensive “raised-field” agriculture, agricultural terracing, and extensive backyard gardens. The Maya had few domesticated animals (with dogs, an important food source, and turkeys chief among them), but they augmented their diet through hunting and fishing. It may seem strange that water was a problem in such a wet environment, but in many sites it was, due to the porous limestone bedrock and the general lack of groundwater. The Maya solved the problem by constructing reservoirs—lining the “borrow pits” they used for quarrying their construction stone and underground cisterns with lime plaster.

Modern tourists are attracted to the sites of ancient Maya cities because of the distinct character each possesses. Although they all have many features in common, individual site layout and architecture vary widely. Cities have an open plan, with temple-pyramids and palaces arranged around plazas. Further out from the center, elite and commoner residential compounds also incorporate buildings arranged around courtyards, and these are scattered across the landscape (usually on higher, well-drained terrain) with open spaces between them that would have been used for household gardens.

The formal public architecture and art of classic Maya centers is prodigious. From great temple-pyramids such as those at Tikal to more intimate buildings such as those of the royal palace at palenque, there is almost an infinite variety of styles. Maya art, too, had many different forms and styles, from huge public monuments (stelae) erected in plazas to recount the exploits of the kings to smaller, beautifully carved jades worn by individuals in life and buried with them after death.

One of the greatest features of Maya civilization is its hieroglyphic writing system. Inscriptions were carved on stone and wood, modeled in stucco, and painted on murals and ceramics; several thousand inscriptions survive, most of them from the classic period spanning from about a.d. 200 to 900. Increasingly over the past few decades, Maya glyphs, as they are called, have been translated by epigraphers—to the point that over 90 percent of most texts can now be read. Mayan hieroglyphic inscriptions address a variety of subjects. Most of the stone monument texts are framed in the political history of the various city-states, detailing the exploits of the kings and momentous events in the history of the state. Other inscriptions describe various rituals and ceremonies conducted, in most cases, by the king. Still others are more personal, such as the “name tagging” of ceramic vessels and other objects.