The ancient Mayan pyramids, now surrounded by forest or explored by tourists, have long been seen as mysterious places of sacrifice and bloodshed rituals. Although the religious significance of the Mayan pyramids has long been recognized, the casual traveler can pass directly by other, less impressive but no less important sites of religious significance to the Mayans. Small community churches built during the colonial period were central to religious activity in the Cah. The milpa field, where corn was grown with the kol and kash cycles of slash-and-burn agriculture, was also a focal point of religious ceremonies celebrated by the humble Maya farmer. The classical pyramid, community church, and milpa field were all places of religious significance to the Maya. Despite the differences in form, these were all places where the Maya could communicate with or worship higher powers, with or without the help of an intermediary. The degree of individual involvement varied, but the basic ceremonial components of food offering or sacrifice and communication with deities remained the same. For the ancient Maya, the world was alive and full of sacred spaces such as caves and mountains, and “The architecture of the ritual space replicated the characteristics of sacred geography – the forest, the mountain, and the cave” (Schele and Freidel 72). The classical Maya kings invested a great deal of resources in the construction of the pyramids and the shape of these buildings was carefully calculated, emulating that of a mountain, a series of landings and plazas of increasing size social hierarchy by controlling the number of those present and their proximity to sacred spaces (Schele and Frei...... middle of paper.... .. gods. The classical pyramid, the colonial church and the milpa field were all places in which the Maya practiced their religion. Although this religion changed with the collapse of the classical kings and the arrival of the Spanish with Catholicism, the places and methods of worship remained surprisingly similar community Despite the imposition of monotheism, the Maya continued to venerate saints as they had done with idols in precolonial times, and the Maya continued to make offerings to saints. , although the offerings no longer included human blood. The milpa remained a place of individual communion where the reciprocal nature of humans' relationship with maize was celebrated. These religious sites demonstrate a striking continuity of Mayan culture over a period of nearly two thousand years.