Page 181 - A Historical Lie: The Stone Age

HARUN YAHYA

The Mayan calendar is al-
most identical to the 365-
day Gregorian calendar
used today. The Mayans cal-
culated that a year was
slightly longer than 365
days (opposite page).
An Aztec calendar stone
(right).

The Mayans' Knowledge of Astronomy
Three books which have come down to us from the Mayans,

known as the Maya Codices, contain important information con-
cerning their lives and astronomical knowledge. Of the three—the
Madrid Codex, the Paris Codex and the Dresden Codex—the latter
is the most important in terms of showing the depth of the Mayan
knowledge of astronomy. They possessed a very complex system of
writing, of which only less than 30% has been deciphered. Yet even
this is enough to show the advanced level of science they attained.
For example, page 11 of the Dresden Codex contains informa-
tion about the planet Venus. The Mayans had calculated that the
Venusian year lasted 583.92 days, and rounded it up to 584 days. In
addition, they produced drawings of the planet's cycle for thou-

sands of years. Two other pages in the codex contain information
about Mars, four are about Jupiter and its satellites, and eight pages
are devoted to the Moon, Mercury and Saturn, setting out such com-
plicated calculations as the orbits of these planets around the Sun,

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