Aztec art in Cancun, Mexico

The Mayan civilization was located in the Yucatán Peninsula in the jungles of Mexico and Central America. Structured into independent city-states, its government consisted of rule by a king. Many of the architectural structures of this civilization, like the pyramid of Chichén Itzá, still exist today on the Yucatán Peninsula, where the legacy of the Mayan civilization lives on.

The Aztec civilization was located in the arid Valley of Mexico. The capital of the empire was in Tenochtitlan, which is modern day Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. The Aztecs practiced a polytheistic religion around which their lives and daily rituals were built. Their survival was based on agriculture, sustained by chinapas. The Aztecs were an important Mesoamerican culture, whose impact is still seen in modern Mexico.

The Incans were located in the Andes Mountains of South America. Like the cultures of Central America, they practiced polytheism and built pyramids to worship gods. Their survival was based on high altitude agriculture. They built an empire that was ruled by an emperor. The Incans created a calendar, mathematics, and a writing system to keep records, much like the Mayas and Aztecs. They left behind the massive stone structure of Machu Picchu in the Cuzco region of Peru.