| A | B |
|---|
| Tikal | large Mayan city-state located in the present day country of Guatemala |
| Copan | large Mayan city-state located in the present day country of Honduras |
| Chichen Itza | Mayan city where the temple with the image of the slithering snake is located; the ruins of an ancient ball court can be found there today |
| Cuzco | capital city of the Inca |
| Tenochtitlan | the capital city of the Aztecs; its name means "place of the prickly pear cactus" |
| Nahuatl | language of the Aztecs |
| Quechua | spoken language of the Inca |
| Halach Uinich | supreme leader of the Maya |
| Sapa Inca | supreme leader of the Inca |
| Tlatoani | supreme leader of the Aztecs |
| codex | folding book made of bark used by both Maya and Aztecs |
| quipu | a series of knotted strings used by the Inca for keeping records |
| Royal Road | built by Inca engineers, it stretched for more than 2,000 miles |
| Montezuma | the Aztec emperor at the time of the Spanish conquest (early 1500s) |
| pok-ta-pok | ritual ball game of the Maya |
| chinampas | the “floating gardens” of the Aztecs |
| Machu Picchu | city that was built as a vacation spot for Inca emperors |
| Atahualpa | killed his brother and took the Inca throne after civil war; emperor of the Inca at the time of the Spanish conquest |
| charqui | dried strips of llama meat eaten by the Inca |
| Sacred Round | calendar that kept track of religious holidays and important events for the Maya |
| tlachtli | ritual ballgame of the Aztecs |
| Hernan Cortes | Spanish conquistador who conquered the Aztecs |
| causeways | raised roads built over water |
| Popol Vuh | the sacred book of the Maya |
| Francisco Pizarro | conquistador who conquered the Inca |
| hieroglyphs | more than 800 pictures and symbols in Maya writing |
