Maya Farming Methods Part II

Maya farming methods part two. So as we've learned before geography, influences farming methods. You also learn that lots of geographic features in the area made it difficult for Mayans to farm, which was of course very very important. Mayans farmers that lived in tropical rainforests would often use. The slash and burn farming method. But what about the Mayan farmers that lived in the hilly areas of the region? Same problem, different geographic feature, flat land is still needed to grow crops. So what's a Mayan farmer to do to keep the civilization fed? Eureka, terrace farming. Terrace farming is the act of creating steps of land. Down a hill or mountainside where crops could be grown. So each step that you see, a little slow, that's where farmers actually farm their crops. Oh my gosh, look at these hills. How can we even farm all that it's gonna be awful? Oh, we're gonna starve to death. Wow, look at these terraces. Oh my goodness, let's go ahead and farm some crops. Corn beans and squash anyone. Look at those nice step. Oh yeah, oh my gosh, no, my in farmers do something too many hills. We need flat land of farm flat lead up. Yes, terrace farming worked that terrace farming flat landed go ahead and grow crops. Awesome, awesome work it, work it. So you'd see these Mayan farmers basically turn these hillsides into terraces to allow them to go ahead and farm their crops. The cool thing is that a lot of people even use this method today. Like these folks on lower right hand corner of the photograph. Or this man right here. Notice the terrace is in the background on the actual photo. Or this couple right here. This photograph was actually taken somewhere in Asia. Perhaps Cambodia or Vietnam. But they used terrace farming there too. So as you can see, geography influences farming methods. Where you live, influences how you live.