Step Puzzle-360. 73041 Скутер

To continue with our series of hitherto unanswered questions: why did the Mayas build their oldest cities in the jungle, and not on a river, or by the sea? Tikal, for example, lies 109 miles as the crow flies from the Gulf of Honduras, 161 miles north-west of the Bay of Campeche and 236 miles as the crow flies north of the Pacific Ocean. The fact that the Mayas were quite familiar with the sea is shown by the wealth of objects which were made of coral, mussels and shellfish. Why, then, the 'flight' into the jungle? Why did they build water reservoirs when they could have settled by the water? In Tikal alone there are thirteen reservoirs with a capacity of 214,504 cubic yards. Why did they absolutely have to live, build and work here and not in some more 'logically' situated place? After their long trek the disappointed Mayas founded a new kingdom in the north. And once again cities, temples and pyramids arose according to the dates pre-fixed by the calendar. To give some idea of the accuracy of the Mayan calendar, here are the periods of time they used: 20 kins = 1 uinal or 20 days 18 uinals = 1 tun or 360 days 20 tuns = 1 katun or 7,200 days 20 katuns = 1 baktun or 144,000 days 20 baktuns = 1 pictun or 21,880,000 days 20 pictuns = 1 calabtun or 571,600,000 days 20 calabtuns = 1 kinchiltun or 12,1521,000,000 days 20 kinchiltuns = 1 atautun or 232,0401,000,000 days But the stone steps based on calendar dates are not the only things that tower above the green roof of the jungle, for observatories were built, too ...»