Writing
Wilderness Travel
Special Event Brochure: World of the Maya
Introduction
What better place to welcome the new millennium than at magnificent Tikal--surrounded by the spirit of the Maya, a civilization amazingly advanced in the art and science of time? Mayan astronomers were able to measure the lengths of the solar year and the lunar month--and predict eclipses--with unbelievable precision. The concept of time was vital to the Mayan religion, and their cities were designed around the movement of specific celestial bodies. On New Year's Day we'll celebrate the dawning of the year 2000 by watching the sunrise from one of Tikal's spectacular temples, towering over the jungle below. Join us to usher in the new millennium--in the world of the Maya!
Deep in the jungles of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, and Mexico lie buried fantastic sites that reveal the ancient civilization of the Maya. Archaeologists continue to discover remarkable temples and pyramids, towering stelae whose carved glyphs represent a complex system of writing, and the ruins of more cities than existed in all of ancient Egypt.
Recent developments in our knowledge of the Maya have been stunning. Considerable progress has been made in deciphering Mayan glyph writing, in which certain symbols express concepts while others are a transcription of syllables. These discoveries have enabled scientists to combine threads of names, dates, and cities that will help to weave a true Mayan history.
To gain an appreciation of the world of the Maya as we now understand it-including the diverse groups of indigenous peoples descended from the original inhabitants of this region, those known as the "Living Maya"--Wilderness Travel has invited a panel of world--renowned archaeologists and Mayanist scholars to participate in a unique symposium program featuring four separate tours, designed to explore some of the most fascinating Maya sites, and some of the most interesting present-day Maya villages.
