Many outside influences also are found in Maya art and architecture, which are thought to result from trade and cultural exchange rather than direct external conquest. Maya influence can be detected as far as central Mexico, more than 1000 km (625 miles) from the Maya area comprising southern Mexico and northern Central America ( Guatemala, Belize, western Honduras, and El Salvador).

Advances such as writing, epigraphy, and the calendar did not originate with the Maya however, their civilization fully developed them. The Maya civilization shares many features with other Mesoamerican civilizations due to the high degree of interaction and cultural diffusion that characterized the region. At its peak, the Mayan Civilization was one of the most densely populated and culturally dynamic societies in the world. 250 to 900), and continued throughout the Postclassic period until the arrival of the Spanish in the 1520s. Initially established during the Preclassic period, many of the Mayan's cultural features reached their apogee of development during the following Classic period (c. Unfortunately, a public fascination with the morbid has meant that for many people in Europe and the Americas the ancient Mayans are perhaps best known for their use of their pyramids in public bloodletting rituals. The Maya civilization is a Mesoamerican culture, noted for having the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its spectacular art, monumental architecture, and sophisticated mathematical and astronomical systems.

A fresco mural at Bonampak in Chiapas, Mexico

Mayan civilization