The Maya Civilization

Misha Glenny delves in to the In Our Time archive to select ten episodes for listeners to revisit. His fifth choice, first released in May 2024, is the Empress Dowager Cixi, the woman who, for almost fifty years, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese court. Cixi (1835-1908) ...  Show more

Misha Glenny delves in to the In Our Time archive to select ten episodes for listeners to revisit. His fourth choice, first released in January 2008, explores how the science of plate tectonics revolutionised our understanding of the planet on which we live. America is getting fu ...  Show more

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Maya Civilization, developed by the Maya people, which flourished in central America from around 250 AD in great cities such as Chichen Itza and Uxmal with advances in mathematics, architecture and astronomy. Long before the Spanish Conquest in ...  Show more

One of the most famous, and sophisticated, cultures of Mesoamerica, why are the Maya known only for predicting the end of the world?

In the first episode of our new mini series 'The Ancient Americas', Tristan is joined by Professor Matthew Restall from Penn State Uni ...

The Mayan Civilization has long been held in an air of mystery - we're familiar with how the infamous calendar made everybody think the world was ending in 2012, due to how accurately the Mayans had mapped out the cycles and astronomy in such a primitive time.

In 1511, a Spanish lifeboat makes land on the Yucatán coast in modern-day Mexico. Thirteen days ago, the crew's caravel was wrecked on a reef. But their adventure is far from over. Now, they are about to become some of the first Europeans to make contact with the Maya. Custodians ...  Show more