When Christopher Columbus landed on the Caribbean Islands, he found tribes of people still firmly rooted in the Stone Age. Within decades, however, Spanish explorers made contact with cultures in the Mesoamerican isthmus that lay beyond the Caribbean that possessed far greater technological prowess. This atlas describes in detail the religions, politics, economics, and agricultural systems of the wealthy and highly influential Aztec and Mayan civilizations, along with those of their predecessors, the Olmec and Toltec. Topics covered include the rise of the Maya, the Aztecs, city planning and urbanization, and links between landscape and architecture.