Mayan_region

The area of the Maya civilization extended throughout the northern Central American region which includes the present-day nations of Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras and El Salvador, as well as the southern Mexican states of Chiapas, Tabasco, and the Yucatán Peninsula states of Quintana Roo, Campeche and Yucatán. The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations, because there was a high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion throughout the region. Advances such as writing and the calendar did not originate with the Maya, however their civilization fully developed these. Maya influence can be detected as far afield as central Mexico, more than 1000 km from the Maya homeland. Many outside influences are to be found in Mayan art and architecture, thought to be mainly a result of trade and cultural exchange, rather than direct external conquest. The Maya peoples never disappeared, neither at the time of the Classic period decline or with the arrival of the Spanish conquistadores and the subsequent Spanish colonization of the Americas.