One of the three great Mesoamerican civilizations was the Maya, the people who spoke the Mayan language. They lived in the tropical rainforests of the Yucatán Peninsula, which today is the Southern tip of Mexico and parts of Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua. Maya civilization consisted of city-states, isolated urban centers that were independent governments. Unlike the Aztecs or Inca, the Maya were never a unified empire, largely because of geography. The dense, thick jungle was simply too great an obstacle for widespread urbanization. The landscape kept the many Maya cities naturally isolated from each other, so each one maintained an independent identity. Yes, the cities went to war and invaded each other, but this took immense effort. Many Maya cities were also built on cliffs overlooking the Gulf of Mexico, which was another use of landscape for natural defense. Although the jungle isolated the cities, it also provided for them. The rainforest has an incredibly diverse food supply and lots of fresh water. The ocean provided fish and an easy route for transportation. In the Yucatán Peninsula, the rainforest also featured many cenotes, large sinkholes in the middle of jungle with fresh water. These cenotes were so important to the development of Maya civilization that they were seen as homes of the gods and sacrifices were often made to the cenotes. Hope this helped,
An ecosystem consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows
