Perhaps the greatest Maya mystery of all is the cause of the civilization's abrupt decline. The last dated stela erected at Tikal was put up in A.D. 869; the last anywhere in the Maya world, in 909.

Overall, it seems that we have to accept that Western civilization will decline. It is, essentially, inevitable.

I have the not altogether unsatisfying impression that civilisation is collapsing around me.

Is it my age, I wonder, or the age we live in? I am not sure. Civilisations do collapse, after all, but on the other hand people grow old with rather greater frequency.

The earliest dated monument yet discovered in Tikal and all of the Maya lowlands, Stela 29, has a Long Count date of 8.12.14.13.15, which translates to A.D. 292.

The greatest cause of our world challenges is overpopulation.

There is a great deal of ruin in a nation.