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Monday, April 9, 2018

April 09, 2018

10 Interesting Facts About Mercury (The Smallest Planet!!!)



Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and due to its proximity it is not easily seen except during twilight. Mercury is only the second hottest planet. Despite being further from the Sun, Venus experiences higher temperatures. Being so close to the Sun, the daytime temperature on Mercury is scorching – reaching over 400 °C (752 °F). At night however, without an atmosphere to hold the heat in, the temperatures plummet, dropping to -180°C (-292°F). The surface of Mercury is very similar to our moon. It has a very barren, rocky surface covered with many craters.

Interesting Facts about Facts:
  1. Mercury has been known to humanity since ancient times and although its discovery date is unknown, the first mentions of the planet are believed to be around 3000 BC by the Sumerians.
  2. A year in Mercury is 88 days, yet a Mercury day is 176 Earth days. Mercury is nearly tidally locked to the Sun – also known as a gravitational lock – and over time this has slowed the rotation of the planet to almost match its orbit around the Sun.
  3. Mercury is the smallest planet in the solar system with a diameter of 4,879 km and is one of five planets that is visible to the naked eye.
  4. After the Earth, Mercury is the second densest planet. Despite its small size, Mercury is very dense because it is composed mainly of heavy metals and rock, the main characteristic of terrestrial planets.
  5. Mercury is only the second hottest planet. Venus, though farther from the Sun than Mercury, actually experiences higher temperatures. This is because Mercury has no atmosphere to regulate temperature and results in the most extreme temperature change of all the planets, ranging from -170°C or -280°F during the night to 430°C or 800°F during the day.
  6. The planet has just 38% of the gravity on Earth. This means that Mercury isn’t able to hold the atmosphere it has and it instead gets blown away by solar winds. However those same solar winds are also bringing in new gases, radioactive decay and dust from micrometeorites, replenishing the atmosphere.
  7. Mercury has a weak magnetic field whose strength is about 1% of the magnetic field on Earth.
  8. Mercury has no moons or rings because of its low gravity and lack of atmosphere.
  9. Mercury has a large iron core that is around 40% of its volume (compared to a core volume of 17% for Earth) in its center whose radius is 1800 to 1900 kilometers (1100 to 1180 miles). Scientists believe the core of Mercury is probably molten.
  10. It is difficult to reach the planet due to its proximity to the Sun and any spacecraft visiting would need to travel 91 million kilometers into the Sun’s gravitational potential well. The Mariner 10 visited during 1974-75, flying by Mercury three times and mapping half its surface. On March 24, 1975 it ran out of fuel and is still believed to be orbiting the Sun. The MESSENGER probe was launched in 2004 to explore Mercury’s high density, its geological history, the nature of its magnetic field and more. Another mission, Bepi Colombo, is to be launched in 2015 by the European Space Agency and Japan is expected to reach Mercury in 2019.

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Saturday, April 7, 2018

April 07, 2018

10 Interesting Facts About Earth (The Blue Planet!!!)



Earth is the third planet from the sun and the fifth largest in the solar system in terms of size and mass. It is the densest of all the planets, having density equal to 5513 kilogram per cubic meter. Earth is the only planet in the solar system not named after a mythological being. Instead, its name is derived from the Old English word "ertha" and the Anglo-Saxon word "erda" which means ground or soil. Earth was formed somewhere around 4.54 billion years ago and is currently the only known planet to support life - and lots of it.

Earth Planet Profile
Equatorial Diameter: 12,756 km
Polar Diameter: 12,714 km
Mass: 5.97 x 1024 kg
Moons: 1 (The Moon)
Orbit Distance: 149,598,262 km (1 AU)
Orbit Period: 365.24 days
Surface Temperature: -88 to 58°C

Earth is the only planet not named for a mythological God or Goddess
The other seven planets in the solar system were named after Roman gods or goddesses. For the five visible to the naked eye, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn they we named during ancient times. This Roman method was also used after the discovery of Uranus and Neptune. Although word “Earth” comes from the Old English word “ertha”, meaning ground or land, which sometimes worship as the goddess in Hinduism.

The Earth was once believed to be the Centre of the Universe
For 2000 years ancient astronomers believed that the Earth was static and had other celestial bodies travelling in circular orbits around it. They believed this because of the apparent movement on the Sun and planets in relation to their viewpoint. In 1543, Copernicus published his Sun-centered model of the Solar System which put the Sun at the Centre of our solar system.

Earth is the densest planet in the Solar System
The density of Earth differs in each part of the planet, the core, for example, is denser than the Earth’s crust, but the average density of the planet is around 5.52 grams per cubic centimeter. Which makes earth the densest planet of the solar system.

The Rotation of the Earth is gradually slowing down
Recent discoveries has shown that he deceleration of the Earth’s rotation is very slow, approximately 17 milliseconds per hundred years. Eventually this will lengthen our days but it will take around 140 million years before our day will have increased from 24 to 25 hours.

Earth’s Atmosphere
Earth’s atmosphere is composed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and trace amounts of other gases including argon and carbon dioxide. While 70% of earth’s surface is covered with water. The remainder consists of continents and islands which together have many lakes and other sources of water.

Earth has a powerful magnetic field
The Earth is like a great big magnet, with poles at the top and bottom near to the actual geographic poles. The magnetic field it creates extends thousands of kilometers out from the surface of the Earth – forming a region called the “magnetosphere“. Scientists think that this magnetic field is generated by the molten outer core of the Earth, where heat creates convection motions of conducting materials to generate electric currents. Be grateful for the magnetosphere. Without it, particles from the Sun’s solar wind would hit the Earth directly, exposing the surface of the planet to significant amounts of radiation. Instead, the magnetosphere channels the solar wind around the Earth, protecting us from harm.

The Day of Earth is Not 24 Hours
It actually takes 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds for the Earth to rotate once completely on its axis, which astronomers refer to as a Sidereal Day. Now wait a second, doesn’t that mean that a day is 4 minutes shorter than we think it is? You’d think that this time would add up, day by day, and within a few months, day would be night, and night would be day.
But remember that the Earth orbits around the Sun. Every day, the Sun moves compared to the background stars by about 1° – about the size of the Moon in the sky. And so, if you add up that little motion from the Sun that we see because the Earth is orbiting around it, as well as the rotation on its axis, you get a total of 24 hours.
This is what is known as a Solar Day, which – contrary to a Sidereal Day – is the amount of time it takes the Sun to return to the same place in the sky.

A year on Earth isn’t 365 days
It’s actually 365.2564 days. It’s this extra .2564 days that creates the need for a Leap Year once every four years. That’s why we tack on an extra day in February every four years.

The Gravity between the Earth and the Moon causes the tides on Earth
This effect on the Moon means it is tidally locked to Earth. Its rotation period is the same as its orbit time so it always presents the same face to Earth.

The Earth has an Ozone Layer which protects it from harmful solar radiation
This shell is a special type of oxygen that absorbs most of the Sun’s powerful UV rays. But recently scientist shows that the ozone layer is being continuously damaged by global warming.

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Saturday, March 24, 2018

March 24, 2018

10 Interesting Facts About Mars (The Red Giant!!!)



Mars has remained in the human imagination, and not even the rise of science and technology has interrupted our wary fascination with this neighboring world. Telescopes in the 1880s revealed strange markings on Mars which convinced masses of people that Mars had canals built by an alien race. But today in this video we will discover the 10 interesting facts about mars.

Gravity on Mars is about 62% less Than Gravity on Earth that is 3.711m/s2. That means if person on our Earth weighs 100kg, it weighs 60kg on Mars. If we jump on mars we will reach 3 times more than taking jump on earth.

Mars has Largest and Long Lasting Sandstorms with enormous power, they can last several months. “Every year there are some moderately big dust storms that pop up on Mars and they cover continent-sized areas and last for weeks at a time,” said Michael Smith, a planetary scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

When you think of a day, you normally think of one cycle of daytime to nighttime. That is called a solar day. On Earth, a solar day is around 24 hours. However, Earth’s orbit is elliptical, meaning it’s not a perfect circle. That means some solar days on Earth are a few minutes longer than 24 hours and some are a few minutes shorter. But On Mars, a solar day lasts 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35 seconds. Rounding that out, we say that a day here on Earth works out to an even 24 hours while on Mars, a day lasts 24 hours and 40 minutes. That means if One Year on Earth was 365 days than on Mars One Year Will be have 687 days.

The largest canyon in the Solar System cuts a wide swath across the face of Mars. Named Valles Marineris, the grand valley extends over 3,000 kilometers long, spans as much as 600 kilometers across, and delves as much as 8 kilometers deep. This Indicates that Mars used to have Long Rivers.

Mars is a harsh, cold world because it is about 227.9 million km away from the sun almost twice of distance between earth and sun. Mars's atmosphere is about 100 times thinner than Earth's. Without a "thermal blanket," Mars can't retain any heat energy. On average, the temperature on Mars is about minus 60 degrees Celsius. NASA's Mars Curiosity rover measured air temperatures as high as 6 degrees Celsius in the afternoon, with temperatures climbing above freezing for a significant number of days.

Mars has two moon one is Phobos and other is Deimos. The moons of Mars are so small that no detail can be seen with an Earth based telescope. It was not until 1971 that the US Mariner 9 spacecraft obtained the first images to show surface detail. Both moons are irregular in shape, and have surfaces that are pockmarked by many craters. Phobos is the larger of the two moons and is roughly an ellipsoid 19.2 by 21.4 by 27.0 km across its 3 axes. Deimos is about 11 by 12 by 15 km.

The Size of Mars is approximately 4220 Million Miles that is almost twice smaller than our Earth which has about 7926 million Miles. This can also be illustrates as, about Six Mars would take up to fill the volume of Earth.

Scientist suggest that Mars was once like the earth but its gravity captures several satellites that later crushed into mars causing to cool down the core and thus Mars Stop spinning.

Right Now there are about seven robots that are roaming on the surface on Mars, such as: Viking 1 with Viking 2, Pathfinder, Curiosity Rover, Opportunity, Phoenix and Spirit, sent by different countries including USA, USSR and China.

Mars has Largest Mountains of Solar system. Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the solar system. The massive Martian mountain towers high above the surrounding plains of the red planet, and may be biding its time until the next eruption. Olympus Mons rises three times higher than Earth's highest mountain, Mount Everest, whose peak is 5.5 miles above sea level.

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Saturday, March 10, 2018

March 10, 2018

Interesting Facts about Mohen-jo-Daro | Ancient Indus Valley Civilization | Fireup Facts


Mohen-jo-daro is a site of ancient ruins in Sindh, Pakistan built approximately 8,000 years ago, as the discovery, published in the prestigious Nature journal on May 25, 2016, by Scientists from IIT-Kharagpur and Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), makes it not just older than the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations but also the oldest in the world.

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The ruins of the city remained undocumented for around 3,700 years until R. D. Banerji, an officer of the Archaeological Survey of India, visited the site in 1919–20, identifying the Buddhist stupa known to be there and finding a flint scraper which convinced him of the site's antiquity. This led to large-scale excavations of Mohenjo-Daro led by Kashinath Narayan Dikshit in 1924–25, and John Marshall in 1925–26 and has become an important archaeological find because it once housed the Indus Valley civilization. In 1980 Mohenjo-Daro became the first UNESCO world heritage site in South Asia.

Here are a few mind-boggling facts about this civilization.

The original name of the site is not Mohenjo Daro, in fact nobody knows the real name, but the words Mohenjo Daro which literally can be translate to 'the mound of the dead'. Because the Indus Valley sites were found on a series of mounds over 250 acres of land, and destroyed hence such a name is given to the place.

Mohenjo-Daro was one of the Indus Valley civilization's largest settlements, or cities. The Indus Valley civilization existed in most of North India and today’s Pakistan. It spanned from Iran to Gujarat and went North till Bactria.

Mohenjo-Daro was well-designed and had a layout of streets on a well-planned grid. Mohenjo-Daro is divided into two sections including the Lower City and the Citadel. The Citadel was a mud brick 39 foot high structure that housed the public baths, assembly halls, and about 5000 people. Buildings in Mohenjo-Daro were made of fired and mortared bricks, as well as some sun-dried mud bricks and some wooden structures.

Mohenjo-Daro also had sophisticated water system, houses had baths and toilets, and waste water was channeled through the streets into covered drains. The town featured both an elaborate sewage system and fresh water and 700 well throughout the city.

Mohenjo-Daro did not have any temples, monuments, or palaces like many of the other ancient civilizations. It appears that there was no real central controlling government or royalty, but there may have been elected officials from each region in the city representing them in a larger government. It has been suggested that Mohenjo-Daro was run as a city-state.

Mohenjo-Daro did have wealth however as there are artifacts made of ivory and gold. The Statue of Dancing Girl is also found from site shows that presence of some dance form as well as skilled craftsmanship.

There are around 1,500 sites of the Indus Valley Civilization and no sign of warfare or weapons have been found. This implies that the Indus natives were peaceful in nature, which might have made it vulnerable to foreign invaders.

In 1927, a seated male soapstone figure was found in a building with unusually ornamental brickwork and a wall-niche. Though there is no evidence that priests or monarchs ruled Mohenjo-Daro, archaeologists dubbed this dignified figure a "Priest-King."

After approximately 600 years the city collapsed no one is quite sure why but the cause could potentially have been a change within the culture or in the path of the river without its crucial source of water the city's residents may have moved away leaving Mohenjo-Daro nearly abandoned in 1911 nearly 4,000 years after the city fell into ruin archeologists paid their first visit the ensuing decades of excavations have unearthed countless clues that tell the tale of Mohenjo-Daro but it still holds secrets for us to discover.

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Friday, March 9, 2018

March 09, 2018

Atlantis The Lost City | Myth Or Reality | Fireup Facts


Atlantis Myth or Reality
The world is full of unsolved mysteries. Despite of the great achievements in the field of science, we, the human beings remain
clueless about many things around us. Rather than the land we live, what seems stranger to us is the ocean, which is home to many myths, legends and mysteries. While scientists have succeeded in explaining many of these mysteries, there are quite a few still
remaining as unexplained. Lost cities, hidden treasures, mystic ships are all part of the alluring marine world. Of all these, the lost city of Atlantis tops the list.

The Lost City of Atlantis, first mentioned by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato more than 2,300 years ago, is known as one of the oldest and greatest mysteries of the world. According to Plato, the utopian island kingdom existed some 9,000 years before his time and mysteriously disappeared one day. Famed for having been the exhibit of all worldly pleasures in the world, this city is as enigmatic as it is inviting. Even after years of research, the exact truth about this city has not been found and that adds even more to all the folklores attached with it. Read on to find what’s so
fascinating about this city?

Origin of Atlantis Story
Atlantis is first time discussed in two of Plato's dialogues, Timaeus and Critias. Timaeus provides a description of the island continent and how Atlanteans conquered all the known world except for the Athenians and, Critias says he heard the story of Atlantis from his grandfather, who had heard it from the Athenian statesman Solon (300 years before Plato’s time), who had learned it from an Egyptian priest, who said it had happened 9,000 years before that.

The historicity of Plato’s tale was controversial in ancient
times—his follower Crantor is said to have believed it, while Strabo (writing a few centuries later) records Aristotle’s joke about Plato’s ability to conjure nations out of thin air and then destroy them.

Atlantis Emergence
In the first centuries of the Christian era, Aristotle was taken at his word and Atlantis was little discussed. In 1627, the English philosopher and scientist Francis Bacon published a utopian novel titled “The New Atlantis,” depicting, like Plato before him, a politically and scientifically advanced society on a previously unknown oceanic island.

In 1882, former U.S. Congressman Ignatious L. Donnelly published “Atlantis: The Antediluvian World,” which touched off a frenzy of works attempting to locate and learn from a historical Atlantis. Donnelly hypothesized an advanced civilization whose immigrants had populated much of ancient Europe, Africa and the Americas, and whose heroes had inspired Greek, Hindu and Scandinavian mythology. From time to time, archaeologists and historians locate evidence—a swampy, prehistoric city in coastal Spain; a suspicious undersea rock formation in the Bahamas—that might be a source of the Atlantis story. Of these, the site with the widest acceptance is the Greek island of Santorini (ancient Thera), a half-submerged caldera created by the massive second-millennium-B.C. volcanic eruption whose tsunami may have hastened the collapse of the Minoan civilization on Crete.

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Myths and Stories
The Tale of God’s Love
Legend says that the Atlantis city was built by Poseidon-the God of Sea, of storms and earthquakes- when he fell in love with a mortal woman Cleito. He made this city on top of a hill, in an isolated island in the sea, to protect her and named it Atlantis.

 According to the story, Poseidon walked through the world in an effort to find the biggest island until he reached the biggest of them all- Atlantis and found it to be inhabited by people who were more beautiful and intelligent than rest of the world. It was then he fell in love with Cleito when he finds her in the island.

City Named After
Atlas, the Poseidon’s Son
The city of Atlantis, in the innermost circle, had palaces and temples where wise and powerful rulers lived. The ruling coalition descended from Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea. Poseidon and Cleito had five sets of twin sons, according to Greek mythology, each of which was given a region of Atlantis. Atlas, the firstborn son, was given the largest province, which became the city of Atlantis, a name that derives from Atlas. The finest structure on the island, the Temple of Poseidon, honored the god and served as the home of the primary ruler.

Disappearing of Atlantis
According to most accounts, Atlantis was suddenly destroyed by a cataclysm of earthquakes and floods and swallowed up by the sea. No definitive remnants have ever been found, and the exact location of the "lost continent" remains debatable. The idea of Atlantis was first expressed in the works of Plato (c. 428–348 or 347 B.C.E), the Greek philosopher, who stressed that a perfect world exists in Ideas.

In Plato's account, the people of Atlantis eventually became corrupt and greedy, putting selfish pursuits above the greater good. They began invading other lands with the idea of world domination. Angered by these developments, Poseidon set about destroying the civilization, battering the continent with earthquakes and floods until Atlantis was swallowed up by the ocean.

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Tuesday, March 6, 2018

March 06, 2018

Interesting Facts and Question About Easter Island (Rapa Nui) | Solved | Fireup Facts



Easter Island is a Chilean island in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the south-easternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania.
Easter Island is famous for its 887 extant monumental statues, called moai, created by the early Rapa Nuii people.

Easter Island covers roughly 64 square miles in the South Pacific Ocean, and is located some 2,300 miles from Chile’s west coast and 2,500 miles east of Tahiti.
It was annexed by Chile in the late 19th century and now maintains an economy based largely on tourism.

Interesting Facts about Easter Island:

How it get the name as “Easter Island”?
Do you ever think how the island get the name as Easter Island even it has no connection with the Easter egg or bunnies or any festival.

The island was originally known as Rapa Nuii to its earliest inhabitants, the island was christened Paaseiland, or Easter Island, by Dutch explorers in honor of the day of their arrival in 1722.

Who created the Hugh stone heads?
The moai or Easter Island heads or Easter Island statues, represent the most important pieces of Rapa Nuii art and they have become its trademark.

However, in spite of their abundance, there are around 600 moai distributed throughout the whole island and 397 are in the Rano Raraku quarry, there are still plenty of unanswered questions regarding these stone giants.

Even though oral tradition states that it was Hotu Matu’a, or the seven explorers that reached the island before him, who brought the first Moai to the island, the most accepted theory is that it was the first Polynesian villagers who started sculpting stone once they were settled.

These stone giants were created by the Rapa Nuii to represent their ancestors or past rulers, who after dying had the ability to extend their mana (spiritual power) over the tribe to protect it.

How the Stone Heads Move?
Of all the interesting Easter Island facts, the transportation of the island’s statues “moai” is considered remarkable given that they were moved n across the island without the use of wheels, cranes or large animals.

Scientists have tested several theories most commonly concluding that islanders used a combination of log rollers, ropes and wooden sledges.

In 2011, however, Terry Hunt of the University of Hawaii and Carl Lipo of California State University Long Beach worked with National Geographic to prove that a mere 18 people could move a 3m (10ft) moai replica weighing 5 tonnes a few hundred metres with just three strong ropes and some practice.

Who is Tukuturi?
Tukuturi is an unusual moai. Its beard and kneeling posture distinguish it from standard moai. The peculiar posture of this statue is well known on Easter Island and is called tuku turi or simply tuku. It was the posture used by the men and women who formed the chorus in the festivals called riu, where the posture was known as tuku riu.

Typical also of the singers was the slightly backward inclination of the trunk, the raised head, and the goatee, all also seen in the statue.

Tukuturi is made of red scoria from Puna Pau, but sits at Rano Raraku, the tuff quarry.
It is possibly related to the Tangata manu cult, in which case it would be one of the last moai ever made.

It seems likely that this statue represents a riu singer and was made after the production of classic statues had ceased.

Rongo Rongo
Rongorongo scripture, or kohau rongo rongo as the natives call it, is a scripture system consisting of glyphs carved on wood or tablets, which to this day have yet to be deciphered.

The most common translation of the term kohau is “wood used for making the hull of the canoe” and rongo rongo means “the great message” or “great study”, for which the kohau rongo rongo has been translated to “recitation wood’ or “narrator staffs”.
According to oral tradition, the first king to arrive on Easter Island, ariki Hotu Matu’a, had 67 tablets that corresponded with the 67 Maori wisdoms, such as knowing how to sail and knowing astronomy; however, no other writing of this kind has been found anywhere in Polynesia.

Other researchers think that the Rongorongo scripture was invented after the arrival of the Spaniards in 1770, since they asked the ariki to sign the island assignment contract.
This being the first contact the Rapa Nuii had with Eastern scripture.

Tapati Rapa Nuii
The Tapati Rapa Nuii festival, which literally means “Rapa Nuii week”, is the most important cultural festival in Easter Island, and it is celebrated every year during the first two weeks of February.

This festival was born in 1968 with the goal of promoting the RapaNuii culture among the islanders and instilling a sense of belonging within the youth.

During the Tapati celebration, the town is divided in two, each part constituting an “alliance” or clan representing the ancient races of the island. Each clan chooses a queen to represent and “lead” them during the competitions and the winner will have the right to the title of “Queen of the Island” for that year.


It’s not a beauty contest, but rather a peaceful confrontation between the two clans that will compete through the days and night; where each participant will be able to express their physical and artistic skills to earn points for each candidate.
The queen of the clan with the most points will win the crown.

Hugh Stone Heads are Not Just Heads
Archaeologists have known since the earliest excavations in 1914 that the Easter Island statues have bodies.

The public, however, widely referred to them as ‘Easter Island heads’ because the most commonly photographed moai were those buried up to their shoulders.
In 2012, photos of an excavation led by the Easter Island Statue Project coupled with a photo taken in the 1950s began to circulate, illustrating just how big the statues actually are. The sight was so striking that several national publications ran a story about it.

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Monday, March 5, 2018

March 05, 2018

10 Interesting Facts About Mayan Civilization (You Never Know Before!!!) | Fireup Facts


The Mayan Civilization

 The ancient Maya civilization was without a doubt, one of the most dominant ancient societies of Mesoamerica. The ancient Maya excelled at agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar-making, and mathematics and were one of the most impressive astronomers in the past.

 They were a unique and advanced ancient culture and according to studies, the Maya were centered in one geographical block covering all of the Yucatan Peninsula and modern-day Guatemala, Belize and Chiapas and Tabasco in modern day Mexico.

 Interesting Mariana Trench Facts:
  • According to the ancient Maya, the world was created on August 11, 3114BC, which is the date their calendar counts from.
  • The traditional view of the Maya was that they were a peaceful people, content to gaze at the stars and trade with one another for jade and pretty feathers. That was before modern researchers deciphered the glyphs left behind on the statues and temples. It turns out that the Maya were as fierce and warlike as their later neighbors to the north, the Aztecs. Scenes of wars, massacres, and human sacrifices were carved into stone and left behind on public buildings.
  • The Maya were literate and had a written language and books. To the untrained eye, Maya books look like a series of pictures and peculiar dots and scribbles. In reality, the ancient Maya used a complex language where glyphs could represent a complete word or syllable. A Maya book is referred to as a codex (plural: codices). The codices were painted onto a paper made of bark from the fig tree and folded out like an accordion. The four books are as:
  1. The Dresden Codex
  2. The Paris Codex
  3. The Madrid Codex
  4. The Grolier Codex
  • The Ancient Maya played sports. The Mesoamerican ballgame or also called Ōllamaliztli in Nahuatl was a “sport” practiced by all the major civilizations from the Olmecs to the Aztecs.  The objective of the ball game was to strike a rubber ball through the hoop using any part of the body except the hands. After the game, the outcome of which was predetermined to reflect the battle it represented, the captives were ritually sacrificed.
  • The Maya were obsessive astronomers who kept very detailed records of the movements of the stars, sun, moon, and planets. They kept accurate tables predicting eclipses, solstices, and other celestial events.
  • Each major city-state had a king, or Ahau. The Maya rulers claimed to be descended directly from the Sun, Moon or planets, which gave them divine ancestry. Because he had the blood of Gods, the Ahau was an important conduit between the realm of man and the heavens and underworld, and often had key roles in ceremonies. The Ahau was also a wartime leader, expected to fight and play in the ceremonial ball game. When the Ahau died, rulership generally passed to his son, although there were exceptions: there were even a handful of Queens of mighty Maya city-states.
  • When talking about Ancient Maya culture, experts generally lament how little is known today and how much has been lost. One remarkable document has survived, however: the Popol Vuh, a sacred book of the Maya that describes the creation of mankind and the story of Hunahpu and Xbalanque, the hero twins, and their struggles with the Gods of the underworld.
  • The Ancient Maya were incredible engineers, constructing incredible Pyramids and temples that match the ones in Egypt. The peak of La Danta—one of the world’s largest pyramids. According to researchers the Peak of La Danta is more massive than the Great Pyramid of Giza containing around 99 million cubic feet of rock and fill.
  • There was a lot of talk in certain paranoid corners of the Internet that doomsday, as predicted by the Maya calendar, would come on December 21, 2012. The date came and went and the apocalypse never materialized, but any Mayanist could have told you that you had nothing to worry about. December 21, 2012 just happened to coincide with the end of a full cycle of 5125 years in the Maya’s so-called Long Count calendar. This calendar was impressive because it used zero as a placeholder—one of the earliest uses of zero as a mathematical concept in history.
  • Now a symbol of American Thanksgiving, turkeys may have first been domesticated by the Maya. Turkeys weren’t just used for food; the Maya also used the birds’ parts like bones and feathers to create fans, tools, and musical instruments. Mexican turkey bones dating to the Preclassic Maya period were discovered at the archaeological site of El Mirador in Guatemala.
No One Knows What Happened to Them

 In 700 A.D. or so, the Maya civilization was going strong. Powerful city-states ruled weaker vassals, trade was brisk and cultural achievements such as art, architecture, and astronomy peaked. By 900 A.D., however, the Classic Maya powerhouses like Tikal, Palenque, and Calakmul had all fallen into decline and would soon be abandoned. So, what happened? No one knows for sure. Some blame warfare, others climate change and still other experts claim it was disease or famine. Possibly it was a combination of all of these factors, but the experts can’t seem to agree.

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