How does a civilization that thrived for the better part of six centuries just disappear? That's a mystery that archaeologists working in southern Mexico and northern Central America have been trying to solve for decades.
Around A.D. 900, the flourishing Mayan civilization collapsed, but the reasons for this downfall are unclear. Scientific studies suggest that drought may have played a key role in the fall of the Maya. As the Maya cleared forests to make way for bigger cities and farmland, they may have inadvertently worsened the frequent droughts that were their undoing, according to a study published in the journal Science in 2012.
Other researchers speculate that soil degradation and declining prey populations (white-tailed deer, in particular) contributed to the end of the Maya. Still others experts note that shifting trade routes, as well as internal political conflicts likely hurried the demise of the once great empire.
