The ancient Mayan pyramids, now surrounded by forest or explored by tourists, have long been considered mysterious places of sacrifice and bleeding rituals. Although the religious significance of the Mayan pyramids has long been recognized, the casual traveler may pass by other, less imposing but no less important, locations of religious significance to the Mayans. The small community churches built during the colonial era were at the heart of the cah's religious activity. The milpa field, where corn was grown in the kol and kash cycles of slash-and-burn agriculture, was also a focal point of religious ceremonies performed by the humble Mayan farmer. The classic 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 commune with or worship higher powers, with or without the aid of an intermediary. The degree of individual involvement varied, but the basic ceremonial elements of offering food or sacrifices to and communicating with deities remained the same. For the ancient Maya, the world was alive and filled with sacred spaces such as caves and mountains, and "the architecture of the ritual space reproduced the features of the sacred geography – the forest, the mountain and the cave" ( Schele and Freidel 72). Classic Mayan kings invested a lot of resources in building pyramids and the shape of these buildings was carefully calculated. The shape of the pyramid imitated that of a mountain. The exterior design, a series of landings and plazas of increasing size, reinforced the social hierarchy by controlling the number of people 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 where the Mayans practiced their religion. Although this religion changed with the collapse of the classical kings and the arrival of the Spanish with the. Catholicism, places and methods of worship The colonial church replaced the classical pyramid as a place of communal worship. Despite the imposition of monotheism, the Maya continued to venerate saints as they had idols in precolonial times. , and the Maya continued to make offerings to the saints, even though the offerings no longer contained human blood. The milpa remained a place of individual communion where the reciprocal nature of humans' relationship with corn was celebrated. These religious places bear witness to an astonishing continuity of Mayan culture over a period of nearly two thousand years..