El Caracol: Maya Observatory at Chichen Itza

"Maya astronomy is too important to be left to the astronomers." -- J. Eric S. Thompson, archaeologist, Maya Astronomy, 1974

"Galileo always insisted that the ancients had telescopes." -- Ivan Van Sertima, historian, The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview, 1983

"It is a short and simple step to place one lens in front of another to make a telescope, and the chances are it could have happened and many times." -- Hunter H. Adams III, archaeoastronomer, African Observers of the Universe: The Sirius Question, 1983

"Astronomical gods form the core of the Precolumbian pantheon." -- Susan Milbrath, archaeoastronomer, Star Gods of the Maya, 1999

"Only within the last century have we begun to gain a full appreciation of the magnitude and sophistication of ancient New World cultures. Calendrical documents reveal that mathematics and astronomy were among the intellectual hallmarks of the Maya, who emerge as a people thoroughly devoted to these disciplines." -- Anthony F. Aveni, archaeoastronomer, Skywatchers, 2001

"Indeed, astronomy was closely linked with their [Maya] religion. The Sun, Moon, and planets were their gods." -- Michael Guillen, physicist, The Ancient Maya: The Tools of Astronomy, The History Channel, 2010