The Maya area is divided into three zones: the southern Maya highlands like Guatemala, the central lowlands El Salvador, and the northern lowlands including Puuc hills. Chichén Itza in Mexico's Yucatán has the famous huge pyramid of the sun. It became the capital of the Yucatán Maya after the end of the Classic period.
The ancient Maya are well-known for their exotic, vibrant, appearances. Everyday dress included a loincloth or short skirt for men or long skirt for women. Women wear either traditional woven and embroidered clothing, or stylish dresses and skirt-and-blouse outfits. Outfits would often be embellished with jewelry such as bracelets and anklets, necklaces, and ear jewelry.
90% of the Maya populations were involved in farming. Some of the most important crops are beans, squash and chile peppers. Animals which were hunted include deer, turkeys, quails, ducks, and spider monkeys. Sometime dogs were eaten too as well as fish.
A Maya house was one rectangular room with rounded corners, no windows, and one central door built to face east. Traditional kitchens, women would cook on a grill set over three rocks. The floor in a Maya home was made of a foundation of gravel covered with white packed soil. The roof itself is made of shorn wood, which is tied together to form beams. The walls had a wood matrix that was covered whitened with lime.
LOCATION: Southeastern Mexico; Guatemala; Belize; Honduras; El Salvador
CLOTHING: The Maya wear both modern Western-style clothing and traditional garb (although the latter is more commonly worn by women). Men generally wear trousers and sport shirts or guayaberas— dress shirts with decorative tucks worn outside the belt in place of a jacket. Women wear either traditional woven and embroidered clothing, or stylish dresses and skirt-and-blouse outfits. Traditional women's attire includes the huipil (plural: huipiles ), a long, sleeveless tunic; the quechquémitli, a shoulder cape; and the enredo, a wrap-around...