Once in a dense, tropical rain forest of the Yucatan Peninsula, lay an ancient civilisation. The great forest belonged to the Maya. In these forests they built monumental tombs, it took materials, but people were the key resource.

To support such a large workforce the Maya had to provide the vital resources that people would need: food, water and shelter. The Maya had different farming methods, the two most effective techniques was planting their crops in volcanic soil that had minerals which would help their crops grow. Another method they used was slash and burn: they cut down the forest and burnt it because it would leave minerals to help their plants grow.

One of the vegetables they grew was maize; it was a staple food for people who weren’t too wealthy. They ate maize for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was so important that Mayans even had maize god. If you were not poor and had a bit of money, you would probably buy meat, most of the time turkey or deer.

When they reached the tomb they would use the limestone to build the body of the giant, then carve symbols and letters into it because they believed that doing so, would honour their gods. But that isn’t all they did, they would trade goods all over Central America to get gold or silver as grave goods. When they finished the structure, they would celebrate with a festival.

When you look at one of these giants you may think the most important resource was stone, but actually, it was the population of people who gave life to these magnificent coleuses.