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Question 1

Meso-America

Answer 1

Mesoamerica was a region and cultural area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica, within which …

Question 2

Glyph

Answer 2

a hieroglyphic character or symbol; a pictograph.

Question 3

Olmec

Answer 3

a member of a prehistoric people inhabiting the coast of Veracruz and western Tabasco on the Gulf of Mexico ( circa 1200–400 BC), who established what was probably the first Meso-American civilization.

Question 4

Aztec

Answer 4

a member of the American Indian people dominant in Mexico before the Spanish conquest of the 16th century.

Question 5

Hernan cortes

Answer 5

Hernán Cortés de Monroy y Pizarro Altamirano, Marquis of the Valley of Oaxaca (Spanish pronunciation: [erˈnaŋ korˈtes ðe monˈroj i piˈθaro]; 1485 – December 2, 1547) was a Spanish Conquistador who led an expedition that caused the fall of the Aztec Empire and brought large portions of mainland Mexico under the rule of …

Question 6

Montezuma

Answer 6

Montezuma was emperor of the Aztecs at the time of the Spanish conquest. Montezuma tried to appease the Spanish but failed and was captured by them and deposed. During the ensuing Aztec revolt he was either killed by his own people or murdered by the Spanish.

Question 7

Yucatán

Answer 7

a peninsula in SE Mexico and N Central America comprising parts of SE Mexico, N Guatemala, and Belize. 2. a state in SE Mexico, in N Yucatán Peninsula. 14,868 sq. mi. (38,510 sq. km). Capital: Mérida.

Question 8

tikal

Answer 8

Tikal (/tiˈkäl/) (Tik’al in modern Mayan orthography) is the ruin of an ancient city, which was likely to have been called Yax Mutal, found in a rainforest in Guatemala. Ambrosio Tut, a gum-sapper, reported the ruins to La Gaceta, a Guatemalan newspaper, which named the site Tikal.

Question 9

Chichenitza

Answer 9

Chichén Itzá is a world-famous complex of Mayan ruins on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. A massive step pyramid known as El Castillo dominates the 6.5-sq.-km. ancient city, which thrived from around 600 A.D. to the 1200s. Graphic stone carvings survive at structures like the ball court, Temple of the Warriors and the Wall of the Skulls. Nightly sound-and-light shows illuminate the buildings’ sophisticated geometry.

Question 10

Lake texcoco

Answer 10

Lake Texcoco was a natural lake within the Anáhuac or Valley of Mexico. Lake Texcoco is most well known as where the Aztecs built the city of Tenochtitlan, which was located on an island within the lake.

Question 11

Tenochtitlan

Answer 11

Mexico-Tenochtitlan, commonly known as Tenochtitlan was an Aztec altepetl located on an island in Lake Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico.

Question 12

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Answer 12

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Question 13

Chavin

Answer 13

vin. or Cha·vín (chä-vēn′) n. An early pre-Incan civilization that flourished in northern and central Peru from about 900 to 200 bc, known for its carved stone sculptures and boldly designed ceramics. [After Chavín de Huántar.]

Question 14

Inca

Answer 14

a South American hummingbird having mainly blackish or bronze-colored plumage with one or two white breast patches.

Question 15

Andes

Answer 15

a mountain range in W South America, extending about 4500 miles (7250 km) from N Colombia and Venezuela S to Cape Horn. Highest peak, Aconcagua, 22,834 feet (6960 meters).

Question 16

Quechua

Answer 16

the language of the Inca civilization, presently spoken by about 7 million people in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.

Question 17

Sacrifice

Answer 17

the offering of animal, plant, or human life or of some material possession to a deity, as in propitiation or homage.

Question 18

Francisco pizarro

Answer 18

Francisco Pizarro González was a Spanish conquistador who led an expedition that conquered the Inca Empire. He captured and killed Incan emperor Atahualpa and claimed the lands for Spain.

Question 19

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Answer 19

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Question 20

Stoneheads

Answer 20

The Olmec colossal heads are at least seventeen monumental stone representations of human heads sculpted from large basalt boulders. The heads date from at least before 900 BC and are a distinctive feature of the Olmec civilization of ancient Mesoamerica.

Question 21

Maize

Answer 21

technical or chiefly British term for corn1.

Question 22

Long count

Answer 22

a system of dating in the Maya calendar according to the time in numbers of baktuns, katuns, tuns, uinals, and days elapsed since an arbitrary point prior to 3000 b.c. — compare short count.

Question 23

Machu pichu

Answer 23

Machu Picchu is an Incan citadel set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, above the Urubamba River valley. Built in the 15th century and later abandoned, it’s renowned for its sophisticated dry-stone walls that fuse huge blocks without the use of mortar, intriguing buildings that play on astronomical alignments and panoramic views. Its exact former use remains a mystery.

Question 24

Copan

Answer 24

Copan is a city, in the Department of Copan, near the boundary between Honduras and Guatemala. As you’ll see, if you take the trouble to go through it, as I did, Copan is, or maybe was, for all I know, one of the most important centers of the Mayan civilization.

Question 25

Cusco

Answer 25

a city in S Peru: Inca ruins. 255,568.

Question 26

Popol vuh

Answer 26

The Popol Vuh is the story of creation according to the Quiche Maya of the region known today as Guatemala. Translated as The Council Book', The Book of the People' or, literally, The Book of the Mat’, the work has been referred to as “The Mayan Bible” although this comparison is imprecise.

Question 27

Caral

Answer 27

A place in peru

Question 28

Calendar

Answer 28

a chart or series of pages showing the days, weeks, and months of a particular year, or giving particular seasonal information.

Question 29

Observatory

Answer 29

a room or building housing an astronomical telescope or other scientific equipment for the study of natural phenomena.

Question 30

Pyramids

Answer 30

a monumental structure with a square or triangular base and sloping sides that meet in a point at the top, especially one built of stone as a royal tomb in ancient Egypt.