🗿 Aztec, Maya & Inca!

What you’ll learn

1. Three Amazing EmpiresLearn who the Maya, Aztec, and Inca were, where and when each empire lived, and what foods they shared.Three great empires arose in the ancient Americas: the Maya in the rainforests of southern Mexico and Central America over two thousand years ago, the Aztec in central Mexico about seven hundred years ago, and the Inca high in the Andes Mountains of South America. Each built cities and created art without modern machines, all grew corn and other crops, and descendants of all three still live in these lands today.
2. The Maya: Pyramids, Stars, and ChocolateExplore Maya pyramids, their star-based calendar and writing, their use of chocolate, and daily city life.The Maya were brilliant builders and thinkers. They raised tall stepped pyramids topped with temples, watched the stars to make an accurate calendar, and invented picture writing called glyphs. They were among the first to make chocolate from cacao beans, which were so precious they were used as money. Maya cities buzzed with markets, ball games, food, and beautiful art.
3. The Aztec: The Island CityDiscover the Aztec island capital Tenochtitlan, its floating gardens, causeways, canals, and busy daily life.The Aztec built their great capital Tenochtitlan on an island in the middle of a lake, growing it into one of the largest cities in the world. They solved every problem their watery home posed, farming on floating gardens called chinampas, connecting to land with raised causeways, and traveling by canoe along canals. A giant market and lively culture filled daily life.
4. The Inca and What Came AfterLearn about Inca roads, Machu Picchu, and quipu record-keeping, understand honestly how the empires ended, and meet their living descendants.The Inca built the largest ancient American empire, linking it with thousands of miles of mountain roads and the breathtaking stone city of Machu Picchu, all without wheels or iron tools, and kept records with knotted strings called quipu. About five hundred years ago, newcomers from Europe arrived with horses, weapons, and diseases, and the great empires ended. But the Maya, Aztec, and Inca did not disappear, and millions of their descendants keep their languages and traditions alive today.

Questions this course answers

Grounded in trusted sources

• Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
• National Geographic
• The British Museum
• The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Every Wunder lesson is built from real, reputable sources — never invented.

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