Traveling Back In Time: Visiting the Maya

Image an ancient civilization with lush terraces of vegetation, plumbing and irrigation systems, extensive roads, grand pyramids, advanced astronomical knowledge and time telling capabilities, and intricately carved obelisks which detail each leader's rule in beautiful, complex hieroglyphs. Think we're talking about Rome? Egypt, perhaps? When we think about the Maya, the first thing that usually comes to mind are lurid tales of human sacrifice; however, the Maya accomplished these feats as early as 600 AD.

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The exhibit featuring the Maya at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science was an amazing exploration of every aspect of Maya Culture. My favorite part of the exhibit had to be learning about the language and how complex it was. I enjoyed the interactive module where I got to choose my own Mayan name (Fire Sky) and print it out in glyphs.