Page 120 - Key to Social Studies 6

The Mayas
The Aztecs
Unlike the Aztecs and the Incas, the Mayas created their own
The Aztecs settled in Central
language and even used it to keep records and tracks of their
Mexico because of a prophecy by
days and farming seasons.
their sun god, where they built
The Mayas used this language, the glyphs, to make two
one of the biggest and most
well-known calendars. One of the calendars had 360 days,
unique cities at the time.
which they created by tracking the movements in the sky; the
Tenochtitlan, the Aztecs’ main city,
other one had only 260 days and was used for sacred rituals.
was built on an island, which
The Incas
made the Aztecs build canals and
Living in the hard conditions of the Andes Mountains and
move around in canoes. The
across a huge space, the Incas built bridges and roads to get
Aztecs also took it as a defensive
to each other and even send messages. They built almost
strategy, where enemies could not
16,000 km of roads, and messengers used these roads to travel
attack the city unless they had
and deliver messages from one place to another.
boats.

Surprisingly, even though the Incas cared about keeping
However, all three civilizations
records and sending messages, they did not have a written
were ended by the Spanish
language; however, they used knots on strings that only
invasion to the region.
certain people could read.

Let’s Research!

• Divide your classroom into three groups. Each group should pick one civilization: the

Incas, Mayas, or Aztecs and research how each civilization lived. Each group should

present their ndings.

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