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Just learned the average Mayan city had way more people than I thought

I was reading this article from National Geographic last night about the Maya civilization. It said that Tikal at its peak had around 60,000 people living there. I always pictured those cities as small centers with priests and rulers, not packed full of regular folks. Has anyone else been surprised by how big these ancient cities actually were?

2 comments

2 Comments

david_stone19d ago

That Tikal number really puts it in perspective. 60,000 people is basically a small modern city just living their lives back then. Crazy how much we underestimate the scale of these places.

river_bailey219d ago

Hear me out @david_stone, I get why people say that but I think it kinda misses the point. 60,000 people is a lot sure, but calling it a "small modern city" makes it sound like they were just like us with different clothes. Those cities were way more crowded and dense than modern ones, plus they had no cars, no plumbing, no grocery stores. Everything was walkable but also everything was manual labor. It was a completely different way of life that doesnt really compare to a modern city of the same size. I think we actually overestimate how much we understand about their daily existence because we slap numbers on it and think we get it.