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War_Hymn t1_iyrhafv wrote

Isn't the western region more mountainous and the eastern region predominantly flat lowlands? I imagine the great difference in geography had a great impact on cultural diffusion/assimilation, with groups in the highlands more isolated from each other - hence maintaining more cultural/linguistic diversity.

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dgl_2 t1_iys3hvv wrote

>Isn't the western region more mountainous and the eastern region predominantly flat lowlands?

What you're thinking of is the Yucatan, which is, indeed, a giant flat slab of limestone. But much of the eastern region is also, for example, the Guatemalan highlands, or the Peten jungle, and the terrain even in the northern Yucatan is still pretty rough to actually travel across.

This all being said, as I said in my comment here, it's mostly a myth anyway.

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