USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Maya astronomer-priests looked to the heavens for guidance. They used observatories, shadow-casting devices, and observations of the horizon to trace the complex motions of the sun, the stars and planets in order to observe, calculate and record this information in their chronicles, or “codices".

Detailed explanation-2: -In its service, Maya astronomers described the movements of the Sun, Moon, and planets with world-leading precision, for example tracking the waxing and waning of the Moon to the half-minute.

Detailed explanation-3: -At Chichén Itzá, two structures bear witness to Mayan astronomy: El Castillo and El Caracol. Every year, tens of thousands of visitors flock to Chichén Itzá to see “the snake, ” an apparition made of shadows that descends the stairs at El Castillo during the solar equinoxes each spring and fall.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Maya built observatories so that they could examine the nighttime sky to track Earth’s journey around the sun, which led to the development of their calendar.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Classic Maya in particular developed some of the most accurate pre-telescope astronomy in the world, aided by their fully developed writing system and their positional numeral system, both of which are fully indigenous to Mesoamerica.