As the son of archaeologists, National Geographic Explorer David Stuart spent his childhood wandering ancient Maya ruins—and helped shape what we know about the civilization today. The ruins of the ...

For centuries, the decline of the Maya civilization has remained one of history’s most compelling enigmas. At its height during the Classic Period (roughly 250 to 900 CE), the Maya world boasted ...

Between 750 and 900 CE, the population of the Maya lowlands in Central America experienced a major demographic and political decline which, according to the scientific literature, coincided with ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: A new study uses genome analysis to show the decline, not erasure, of the ancient Maya civilization. Researchers compared the genomes of seven ...

The Four Heavens: A New History of the Ancient Maya David Stuart Princeton Univ. Press (2026) Before the 1970s, ancient Maya history was impenetrable. The civilization’s grand ceremonial buildings and ...

A new, immersive exhibit has arrived at the California Science Center — and it explores an ancient, bygone civilization. “Maya: The Exhibition,” which opened earlier this week and will run through ...

Beneath 1,350 square miles of dense jungle in northern Guatemala, scientists have discovered 417 cities that date back to circa 1000 B.C. and that are connected by nearly 110 miles of “superhighways” ...

Chemical evidence from a stalagmite in Mexico has revealed that the Classic Maya civilization’s decline coincided with repeated severe wet-season droughts, including one that lasted 13 years. These ...