The devastating impact of drought on the Mayan civilisation

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We know that a long dry period contributed to the demise of the Mayan civilization in Mexico over a thousand years ago. But Cambridge University’s palaeoclimatologist Nick Evans has carried out detailed analysis of lake bed minerals to calculate the true extent of this drought, and he compares it to how we would cope with similar conditions today. (Picture: A parched landscape with a setting sun Credit: Getty Images)