1{"id":13976,"date":"2017-03-09T09:25:30","date_gmt":"2017-03-09T09:25:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/99viral.com\/?p=13976"},"modified":"2017-04-04T00:36:34","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T00:36:34","slug":"25-unbelievable-facts-about-the-mayans-that-might-surprise-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/25-unbelievable-facts-about-the-mayans-that-might-surprise-you\/","title":{"rendered":"25 Unbelievable Facts About The Mayans That Might Surprise You"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you haven\u2019t read our list about the <a title=\"25 Unbelievable Facts About The Aztecs That Might Surprise You\" href=\"http:\/\/list25.com\/25-unbelievable-facts-about-the-aztecs-that-might-surprise-you\/\" target=\"_blank\">Aztecs<\/a> yet, it\u2019s worth checking out. Both the Aztecs and Mayans were two of the great pre-Colombian Central American civilizations. The Mayan civilization actually preceded and outlived the Aztecs by hundreds upon hundreds of years. It rose and fell several time throughout the last 2 thousand years and actually still lives on today in the culture of numerous Mayans who inhabit the Yucatan peninsula. These are 25 unbelievable facts about the Mayans that might surprise you!<\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"620\" height=\"349\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-2sUCcaPkAE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>25. Although their civilization has declined and been conquered, in many rural parts of Mexico and Guatemala Mayan language and culture perseveres<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13977\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/254-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><br \/>\n24. In fact, there are an estimated 7 million Maya still living in and around the Yucatan Peninsula<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13978\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/244-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><\/p>\n<h3>23. Some linguists believe that the word &#8220;shark&#8221; was originally a Mayan word<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13979\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/234-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><br \/>\n22. The pre-Colombian Mayans often sought to &#8220;enhance&#8221; the physical features of their children. Mothers would press boards on the foreheads of their kids so that they would be flatter (mostly just in the upper class)<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13980\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/224-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><br \/>\n21. Objects were also often dangled in front of a baby&#8217;s eyes until the baby was cross eyed, which was another desirable trait found in nobility<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13981\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/214-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>19. Children were all named according to the day on which they were born<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13982\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/204-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>18. Mayan medicine was actually quite advanced. They sutured wounds using human hair, filled teeth, and even made prosthesis<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13983\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/194-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>17. Some Mayans today still practice blood sacrifice. Don&#8217;t worry though, human sacrifice is no longer practiced&#8230;chickens only<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13984\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/184-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>17. Mayans used painkillers taken from their natural environment in both religious rituals (as hallucinogenic drugs) and in medicine (as anesthetics)<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13985\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/174-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>16. Just like the Aztecs, the Mayans were avid players of the &#8220;Mesoamerican Ballgame&#8221;. Courts were found in all major cities and it was often associated with decapitation and sacrifice, possibly of the losing team.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13986\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/164-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>9. Contrary to popular belief, the Mayans don&#8217;t have just one calendar and none of their calendars predicted the world would end in 2012<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13987\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/104-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>8. They have three calendars that work in cycles. One of them, the Haab, has a 365 day cycle just like the modern Gregorian calendar. The Long Count calendar cycles roughly every 2,880,000 days and was said to reset in 2012. This led to the doomsday prophecies.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13988\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/94-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>7. The Mayans had one of the most advanced writing systems of any ancient civilization and wrote on almost anything they could find, including their buildings. Graffiti anyone?<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13989\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/84-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>6. Unfortunately many of their writings were lost during the Spanish conquest. Through laborious study during the 20th and 21 centuries much of their remaining writings have been recovered and translated<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13990\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/74-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>5. Like the Aztecs, Mayans never used iron or steel. Their weapons were made of obsidian, or volcanic rock.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13991\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/54-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>4. Besides having flattened foreheads and crossed eyes, Mayan nobleman had noses that were built up with putty giving them a beaked shape. Their teeth were also inlaid with jade.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13992\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/44-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>3. Speaking of teeth, nobelwomen filed their teeth into points<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13993\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/34-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>2. Outside of the Babylonian systems, the Mayans were perhaps the first civilization to explicitly use the number 0 as a place holder. Indian mathematicians later became the first to use it as a mathematical value in computations.<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13994\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/29-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><!--nextpage--><\/h3>\n<h3>1. Nobody knows how the Mayan Empire declined. Long before the Spanish came many of the great cities had already been long abandoned and lay in ruins. Scholars have hypothesized reasons ranging from drought and famine to overpopulation and climate change.<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-13995\" src=\"http:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/116-610x360.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"360\" \/><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you haven\u2019t read our list about the Aztecs yet, it\u2019s worth checking out. Both the Aztecs and Mayans were two of the great pre-Colombian Central American civilizations. The Mayan civilization actually preceded and outlived the Aztecs by hundreds upon hundreds of years. It rose and fell several time throughout the last 2 thousand years [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13976"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13976"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13997,"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13976\/revisions\/13997"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/99viral.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}