Geographical Reasons

As I mentioned before, one possible reason for the collapse was the lack of rainfall, leaving to dehydration. I have discovered more research that proves there was an extreme decrease of rainfall between 800 and 1000 A.D.

"'It was one of the most severe climate aberrations in the past 10,000 years,' said Scott Stine, a paleoclimatologist at California State University at Hayward, who cited recent findings that the drought extended as far north as California. 'A number of cultures crashed at about the same time.'" (Robert Frerck).

But recent research on the grounds of the Mayan empire in Guatemala, 45-member team led by Vanderbilt University's Arthur Demarest calculated the exact date of the empire collapse to be the year 820 A.D., which was only the beginning of the drought. Him and his team found "burned cities, villages and fields, and mounds of decapitated heads of young men." Demarest strongly believes that the reason for the collapse was warfare, which I have yet to really get into.

Ugh, with this new information, it seems as though the solution is not going to just pop out of the page. I guess it's been a mystery for thousands of years for a reason. But I am determined to come up with my own conclusion.