Need to clear a few things up

Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan

This is the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacan, located outside of Mexico City. It is NOT Aztec and it is NOT Maya. Far too common misconceptions. This is a Teotihuacano temple part of the Teotihuacan civilization that existed 625 years BEFORE the Aztec civilization even existed. This civilization shared no co existence with the Aztec, however it did share coexistence with the Maya who lived roughly 500 miles to the south of this city. The Teotihuacan civilization actually influenced the Maya civilization. In fact on January 17th year 378 A.D. Teotihuacan conquered the Maya city of Tikal, in present day Guatemala and spread their influence in the Maya world. In the year 700 A.D. Teotihuacan was abandoned, its residents and royalty fled. Recent findings suggest that a massive volcanic eruption south of the city was responsible for this, as crops failed due to high levels of ash rendering the high population, estimated to be around 125,000, of the city unsustainable. Later, when the Aztecs came upon it for the first time, it is said they believed the gods had built the city and left it alone as a sacred place.

The Aztec Capital, Tenochtitlan

These are what Aztec temples looked like in the Capital of Tenochtitlan, the center of the Aztec Empire. It was a city built in the middle of a lake in the valley of Mexico. It was founded in the year 1325, during the time of the European Middle ages, which means it's not technically "ancient" in the way we think about Egypt or Greece. The famous English University of Oxford is older than the Aztec Civilization since that was said to be founded in the 11th Century whereas the Aztec civilization was founded in the 14th Century. When Hernan Cortes arrived in this great city, some of his conquistadors thought they were dreaming. It was unlike anything Europe had ever seen. For one, the city was very very clean, no litter or waste polluted the streets. Even more astonishing were the spectacular large temple pyramids of grand size and great in number that floated in the lake on large stone plazas with canals running through the streets. Not even Venice had this splendor.

The ghost of the Templo Mayor in the Zocalo square in Mexico City.

Cortes and the Spanish eventually conquered the Aztecs, and tore down every single Aztec temple, using the stones to build much of what is now the center square in Mexico City known as the Zocalo. The faded image of the main Aztec temple is where it once stood. As you can see the vast and large Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral was build next to it using the stones from the temple. Across from it is the National Palace of Mexico where the seat of the Executive Branch of the Mexican Government lies. The lake and the canals of Tenochtitlan were all filled in until the lake was no more. This is why today, Mexico City is notorious for sinking deeper into the ground with every passing year. It is perhaps the largest city in the world that was literally built on top of a lake.

The Sun Stone

This is NOT the Maya calendar. This is an Aztec "calendar". Though the Aztec did share some similarities in the measurements of time, it kept popping up everywhere when the 2012 panic came around, this despite the fact that it was estimated to be made at the time when the Maya civilization was already at its end. Unfortunately due to the pervasiveness of this image, and the lack of scrutiny from the public, it is ubiquitously shared everywhere as "Maya".

"The Aztec Sun Stone (or Calendar Stone) depicts the five consecutive worlds of the sun from Aztec mythology. The stone is not, therefore, in any sense a functioning calendar, but rather it is an elaborately carved solar disk, which for the Aztecs and other Mesoamerican cultures represented rulership." - Ancient.Eu

One of the 7 Wonders of the World, Chichen Itza - UNESCO World Heritage Site

This is The Temple of Kukulkan, in Chichen Itza Yucatan. It is NOT Aztec, it is Maya. Named as one of the 7 Wonders of the World, Chichen Itza is perhaps the most well known and famous of the Maya sites. "Chichen Itza" is an Abbreviation of the Mayan Phrase "At the mouth of the well of the Itza". The Itzas were a Group of Mayans who Dominated the Area, thus the City named after them. This great pyramid is known as the Temple of Kukulkan, in honor of the their god, a feathered Serpent. It has 365 steps, one for each day of the year. Twice during the year at the equinox the shadow of the sun forms the body of a serpent on the steps of the temple. Estimates have it being built around the year 750 A.D. Although the Maya were incredible astronomers, architects, builders, mathematicians, farmers, artists, and warriors, they never developed the use of metal which means the Maya civilization was technically a "stone age" one.

The temple entrance to Pyramid of the Sorcerer in Uxmal.

To the Maya, their pyramids weren't just ordinary temples. They were interdimensional portals to realms of the living and the dead. The temple pyramid would act as a conduit for them to travel into other worlds. A royal king or queen would stand atop the entrance and practice bloodletting, a practice of piercing their penis or tongue in order for their royal blood to drip out onto sheets of paper below. The soaked sheets would be burned. The combination of smoke inhalation and blood loss would cause them to have visions and travel to visit their ancestors in the underworld or the heavens with the gods above. Most Maya pyramids were specifically designed for this purpose.

The Temple of Inscriptions, Palenque - UNESCO World Heritage Site

There are more pyramids in Mesoamerica than anywhere else in the world. However unlike the famous Egyptian ones they were not built to be tombs for their Kings. However this temple, the Temple of Inscriptions is a rare exception. The most famous Maya king known today, Pakal The Great, was buried inside of it, his sarcophagus lay to rest at the bottom of the temple.

The Sarcophagus of K'inich Janaab' Pakal (Pakal the Great)

Discovered in 1948 by a Mexican archaeologist, it remains one of the most enduring and most iconic pieces of art in the Maya world. It depicts the King underneath the Sacred Tree in the afterlife.

Mural at Bonampak, Lacandon Rainforest

Although there are an abundance of temples and pyramids in Mesoamerica, due to the tropical climate very few paintings have survived. There are literally only a handful of Maya paintings in the world. Only around 3-4 have ever been discovered. The Maya nobles and kings loved to glorify war and reveled in violence. In fact many of their surviving art attests to this violent way of life as frescos, some surviving, paintings, and statues around the Maya world depict sacrifices, torture, and the brutalizing of war captives. This mural in Bonampak depicts the Maya ruler of the city and his tortured war captives, most likely the nobles from a rival city, having their fingernails being been cut out & bleeding from their hands.

Map of the Maya world.

The Maya civilization was never a Kingdom ruled by a single ruler like Teotihuacan, nor were they ever an Empire like the Aztecs who came after them. Think of the Aztecs like the Romans, who were unified in their political power and geographical reach, an actual Empire. Think of the Maya like the Greeks, a peoples who shared a geographical region with a shared language, religion, and culture, but whom lived in polisis, independent city states. Each city of the Maya was ruled by it's own king and or religious authorities. Like Game of Thrones, the Maya were a hyper violent culture, frequently engaging in war with their neighbors and engaging in wars of conquest. Though occasional alliances with other city states would occur, the ancient Maya were NEVER unified politically.

Maya book known as a Codex

The Maya language is in fact one of only a few original languages around the world to develop on its own. This means it was not an offshoot or a deviation that has its roots or was influenced by any other language that came before it. It was entirely an original dialect. The Maya were the first people in the Americas to develop a writing system meaning that recorded history in the Americas literally starts with them. Unfortunately, in an effort to wipe out Maya culture, all of the Maya books were gathered up and burned by Diego de Landa in Izamal, Yucatan in the the 16th Century. Tragically, literally only a handful ever survived, and even more tragically don't belong to the Mexican people as they currently sit in a museum in Dresden, Germany.

"The American chronicle does not begin with the landing of Columbus or the arrival of the Pilgrims, but with the lives of the Maya kings in the 2nd Century B.C.. We who live in this part of the world inherit a written history two millennia old and as important to us as the history of the ancient Egyptians or the Chinese, a history equal in longevity to that of Europe or Asia" - A Forest of Kings, Linda Schele

Machu Picchu, Peru

This is Machu Picchu in the Andes. It is NOT Aztec and it is NOT Maya. It is Inca. And though I won't be going into the Inca today it is important to distinguish this place apart from those aforementioned. The Inca were a large empire in South America, not Central America, who shared nearly nothing, save what are human commonalities, in common with the Aztec, Maya, or Teotihuacan civilizations in terms of architecture, language, culture, farming, religion, worship, war, or art. The Inca civilization was separated by over 1,000 miles from that of the Maya.

100% PURE BULLSHIT

Lastly, an end to this fucking bullshit, which is not only made up speculation in order to lure the gullible for ratings, it's actually incredibly insulting to the heritage of these great civilizations. I won't even waste my time bother explaining why but will simply say that whoever suggests that the Maya, Aztec, Teotihuacan, or Inca couldn't have built their great cities and temples by themselves and needed the help of aliens can indeed go fuck themselves.

*I AM Maya, and I have done a lot of research on it, exploring these places in person, talking to the workers of these sites, and reading up on it by archaeologists. I put this up because I was tired of seeing all of these misconceptions and errors everywhere. It's time these civilizations got the respect they deserved by having these clarifications pointed out I thought so I wanted this post to be the antidote for all of the fake "knowledge" out there. Feel free to literally fact check anything I have said and see if I am wrong ;)

My sources are "Cracking the Maya Code", "Conquistadors" PBS, "Forest of Kings" by Linda Schele, and my own travels in Meso America

Also check out these great docs:

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/teotihuacans-lost-kings-full-episode/3052

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/cracking-maya-code.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYgsN31l0hU