A civilisation in the jungle
The MAYA built soaring cities deep in the rainforest, and this word search gathers them. You'll be finding the great step PYRAMID and TEMPLE, the sacred BALLGAME, the powerful PRIEST, and famous sites like TIKAL and CHICHEN Itza now standing as JUNGLE RUINS.
Each puzzle pulls a fresh selection from the list, so the grid changes every time you play — gentle on Easy, and a Hard-mode expedition once the diagonals and backwards words appear.
Stargazers and number wizards
The Maya were brilliant thinkers, and the words are here. They were experts in ASTRONOMY, charting the STARS from their stone CITY, and built a famously accurate CALENDAR. They wrote in picture GLYPHs, kept a folding CODEX, and used a number system that even included ZERO. You'll also spot MAIZE in the fields, COCOA for drinking, green JADE for treasure and the STONE that built it all.
The geniuses who invented zero
The Maya were among the greatest scientists of the ancient world. Without telescopes, their ASTRONOMY was so precise that they tracked the movements of the STARS and planets and built a CALENDAR that predicted eclipses years ahead. They were also one of the only ancient peoples to invent the idea of ZERO as a number — a concept so powerful that modern maths and computers couldn't work without it — and they wrote real books, folding bark-paper into a CODEX covered in picture GLYPHs.
One of the strangest facts is that the Maya never truly 'vanished'. Their great stone cities like TIKAL and CHICHEN Itza were mysteriously abandoned to the JUNGLE over a thousand years ago — historians still debate whether drought, war or failed harvests were to blame — yet millions of Maya people still live in Mexico and Central America today, speaking Mayan languages. And the famous 2012 'Maya apocalypse' was a myth: their long CALENDAR simply rolled over to a new cycle, much like an odometer turning over. That mix of dazzling science and real mystery makes the Maya a captivating history topic.
Great for a history topic
It pairs perfectly with a topic on early American civilisations and Maya science — Easy mode keeps the grid small with no diagonals or reverse words. Play online, print a PDF pack, or use our Make Your Own tool to build a grid from your own Maya words.
Frequently asked questions
What's in the Mayans word search?
Key words from the Maya civilisation — pyramids and temples, the jungle cities of Tikal and Chichen Itza, the ballgame and priests, plus their famous calendar, astronomy, glyph writing and use of zero. Each puzzle uses a fresh mix.
What were the Maya famous for?
Their brilliance — ASTRONOMY, an accurate CALENDAR, GLYPH writing and even the number ZERO — plus jungle cities like TIKAL and CHICHEN Itza.
How is it different from the Aztecs puzzle?
The Maya built jungle cities and were master stargazers; the separate Aztecs puzzle covers the later empire of central Mexico. Both are early American civilisations.