Great Cycle

The Mayan calendar, also known as the Great Cycle, was a complex system of timekeeping used by the Maya civilization and other Mesoamerican civilizations. It was based on two main cycles: a 260-day ritual cycle called the Tzolkin and a 365-day solar year called the haab. These two cycles interlocked to form a larger 52-year cycle known as the Calendar Round.12

For recording longer periods and historical events, the Maya developed the Long Count system. This was a continuous count of days from a base date, believed by many historians to be August 11, 3114 BCE, which marked the beginning of a "Great Cycle" of 5,125 years. The Long Count used a base-20 (vigesimal) numeral system, with periods like kin (day), uinal (20 days), tun (360 days), and katun (7,200 days), culminating in the baktun (144,000 days). This system allowed for precise dating of historical events and astronomical observations.123