The Mayan civilization was one of the longest lasting in the New World, becoming distinguishable from other Mesoamerican cultures in the middle of the 1st millennium BCE with the creation of great Mayan cities. The Mayan hieroglyphic writing system was one of the most visually striking in the world, using hundreds of unique logograms and syllabograms to write words, phrases and sentences in up to three Mayan languages, and was likely invented by speakers of the Ch'olan language.