 TULUM
This is a site with true vestiges of the Mayan universe and also
opportunities for swimming and diving.
Tulum is a Mayan city built three thousand years ago on a rocky
place looking over the turquoise sea, with, a few steps from the
coast, the second most important coral reef in the world and dream
beaches over 10 km (6.2 miles). It looks like the ideal place
to share your time between the sea and a thousand year old civilization.
You reach Tulum, located 60km south of Playa
del Carmen, via the fast and secure federal coastal Road 307.
It is the only Mayan city built on the shore.
Perched on the top of a cliff looking over the Caribbean Sea,
Tulum looks like it’s watching the blue immensity. Entrenched
behind the walls, Tulum appears protected from the silent threats
of the surrounding jungle. It got its actual name at the beginning
of the nineteenth century. It means wall or fort. Its old name
was Zama, meaning dawn or “where the sun rises”.
The distant past
 On
the arid limestone plateau of the Yucatán
Peninsula, without river or lake, a natural well was and still
is the only possibility of survival. It is the reason why every
ancient or modern village is located close by a "cenote".
It is also the case for Tulum.
In the tenth century, when the ancient Mayan culture collapsed,
the big cities were abandoned. The chaos that followed favored
the arrival of foreign tribes attracted by a different culture.
On the other side of the Yucatán
Peninsula, in the marsh and the deltas of the coastal plains
of Tabasco and Campeche, lived
trader-navigators called the Poutouns. These people, with Mayan
language and culture, mixed with náhuatls people and they
assimilated their culture.
They were the business intermediates between Mayas
and Náhuas. They sailed up the rivers in their pirogues,
continued through the forest, carrying obsidians and jades that
they swapped for cacao, quetzal feathers and other products searched
on the Mexican highlands.
The abandon of the classic cities and the chaos that followed
favored maritime transportation to the detriment of the road transportation,
too dangerous. So, the Poutons soon controlled the regions producer
of cacao from the Honduras Caribbean Coast to Yucatán.
Small seaports were set up and populated in order to receive flotillas
of traders and stock the goods. It was the case for Tulum.
The first constructions
Coming from the Mexican highlands, the Toltèques, maybe
with the Poutons, settled in Chichén
Itzá. They brought many innovations in local art as
well as the worship of Quetzalcóatl (Kukulkán).
Chichén
Itzá was, in fact, a city consecrated to Vénus,
a form branched of Quetzalcóatl, God of Dawn and Day but
also God of West and Night, who brought with him the light and
life, corn and agriculture, the knowledge of the calendar and
writing. The influence of the Toltèques soon reached the
Caribbean Coast. They created an Empire where the styles and interests
were common. The first constructions of Tulum show some of this
influence in their sculptures, murals and stucco casts. You can
particularly observe proofs of the worship of Quetzalcóatl,
often represented under its morning form, Venus with the feet
towards the sky.
The first sanctuaries and the palaces built by the trader-navigators
were located at the same place as the actual ones, but, like almost
every other Mayan construction, they were partially covered with
new constructions. It is the case for the temple of Frescoes where
you can see a stucco sculpture of the Descending God in the oldest
uncovered part of the temple. It is also the case for the Castillo
and the Temple of the Descending God with blue turquoise frescoes
on a black background. The "codex" style of the murals
recalls the pictorial art of the Mayan manuscripts. The corners
of the roof take the shape of Itzamná’s masks, Creator
God with an old man face.
The Castillo
The Mayan cities were mainly sanctuaries, with temples and palaces.
The most important persons lived there. They were surrounded by
guards and servants while the people lived in the surroundings,
in thatched huts. From the big ceremonial place, a road leads
to any other building.
North to the big temple called the "Castillo", there
is a small beach for the pirogues to land. We know that other
points of the coast were set as seaports, such as Tankah, Kehla,
Polé and Cozumel
Island. These seaports were linked to the inland cities with
paved roads called "sacbé=paved or “white”
road". Two of these roads were discovered in Tulum, one leading
to Nabalam, the other one to Cobá.
The Castillo, temple dedicated to Vénus, morning star,
turns its back to the sea, probably to protect itself from the
bad weather in a cyclonic area. It was modified several times.
The big stairs leading to a temple supported by serpent shaped
columns resemble the architecture in Chichén
Itzá. On the north side, the temple of the Descending
God preserves the best example of the “Descending God”
in a small niche molded in the roof. In the middle of the place,
a small covered altar, typical of the area, looks like a canopy.
Take the south exit to go closer to the coast and have a wonderful
view of the sea.
At the beginning of the thirteenth century, Chichén
Itzá lost its predominance and was replaced by Mayapán,
where the dynasty of the Cocoms (maybe a branch of the Poutons
who seized power). The reign of the Cocoms must have matched another
time of troubles. The insecurity made them put walls around their
city as did the other cities in the peninsula. The wall of Tulum
is 3 to 5 m high (10 to 16 feet); it has only 5 small doors: two
at the north, two at the south and one at the west, facing the
forest. This one is the actual entrance of the site. It has a
rectangular shape of 380 m X 165 m (1247 X 541 feet). The city
never had more than 600 inhabitants, priests and dignitaries living
inside the walls while the remaining of the population stayed
outside.
The apogee
Because of its bastioned construction on the top of a cliff, Zama-Tulum
became the most important seaport on the Coast. From there, there
were exportations of local products such as honey, wax, salt,
cotton weavings, incense, fish, dye, plants, etc…). There,
arrived obsidian objects, jade ornaments, quetzal feathers, amber,
turquoise, cacao, metals and slaves.
The decadence
In 1441, when Mayapán fell, the economy of Yucatán
collapsed and so did the power of the big trading cities. The
rich merchants from Cozumel,
Xelha and Tulum headed to the south, to the centers producing
cacao, where they already owned huge properties, or to the old
provinces of Campeche and Tabasco.
These places were still very important when the Spanish arrived
on the Coast. In fact, these seaports were the only still inhabited
Mayan cities.
When he discovered the coast in 1518, Juan Diaz, the columnist
of the expedition of Grivalja, wrote :"... the following
day, at sunset, we caught sight of a so large city or village
that Seville could not be larger or better, we saw a high tower
(pyramid)..." (Séville was then the largest city in
Spain).
 The
true decline of Tulum started with the Spanish colonization. The
Spanish boats were, by far, bigger than the Indian pirogues. So,
the European merchants soon supplanted the Mayan rivals.
The value of the objects changed : the steel replaced the obsidian.
The new religion eliminated the ritual objects. The people became
farmers in a poor soil.
Step by step, the coastal cities were abandoned. There were epidemics
and the survivors fled inland. The raids of the wild Indians from
Central America also contributed to the depopulation. On the map
of Juan de Dios Gonzalez, drawn in 1766, Tulum’s place is
only a reference. Tulum was gone....
Nowadays, we are sure that the Mayas perfectly mastered astronomy,
mathematics and a writing system whose decoding is still on.
But, it might be the knowledge of the secrets of maritime navigation
that played a predominant role in the influence of Tulum as a
trade city, sentinel, lighthouse, facing the sea.
In September 2006, a skeleton whose origin seems to date back
10,000 years ago or even predate the Mayas, was discovered in
the archaeological zone. The anthropologists found it about 100
m depth with 3 other remaining, inside a close by cenote. Recall
that specialists of INAH have been on the site since 1999 and
discovered more than 100 skeletons belonging to different times
of Mayan culture and more than 50 pots and other ruins. The last
published studies show that Tulum was unquestionably one of the
main Mayan trade cities and one of the most important maritime
resources exploitation center in the thirteenth and fifteenth
centuries. It was the place to go to any trade road and the exploitation
of maritime resources of the Coast of Quintana
Roo. On a politic point of view, Tulum was independent of
the other provinces until its depopulation due to the arrival
of the Spanish at the sixteenth century.
Open daily 7AM-5PM, MXN$51 in Tulum and daily 8AM-6PM, MXN$51
in Cobá.
Easy access by road from any city or village of Riviera Maya,
Cancun or Chetumal (bus or colectivos).
Map of the archaeological site : 
Tulum is the only place with both a thousand year old historic
site and beaches among the most beautiful in the world. The
lodging constructions are well integrated in this wonderful
decor. There are choices among resorts and comfortable eco-hotels
supplied by solar energy.
 A
huge plan of hotels development is in process. It is supposed
to be more reasonable than the hotel complexes of Cancun
and Playa del Carmen ! Beaches, village and Mayan ruins
are a pleasant combination,
not to be missed !
Foreign exchange offices, post office, laundries, rental bikes
and rental snorkel gear are available in Tulum. There is a Bus
Station in the village.
Let’s be honest, TULUM is not one of our favored sites
!
 Click
here to display the selection of photos about Tulum
COBÁ
Located in the jungle of Quintana
Roo, 40 km (25 miles) from the Caribbean Coast and 45 km (18
miles) from Tulum, the city of Cobá comprises three large
ensembles of constructions and other smaller, located around several
lakes. It was continuously occupied since the Pre-classical time
to the arrival of the Spanish but it got only two splendor époques,
the first one from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, the
second one just before the Conquest. The large ensembles of Cobá,
Nohoch, Mul and Macanxoc (the three most important groups) date
from the first époque. The architecture recalls that of Petén,
Guatemala, which lets think that part of the population, especially
the dominant class, was from there. And the style of some of the
gravures of steles looks like the one of the steles of Ceibal, in
southern Petén. On many of these steles are depicted richly
dressed people, inscriptions and dates which, as in
Palenque and in Yaxchilán, indicate the names and events
concerning the reigning dynasties.
The three main groups were connected between them and to the secondary
groups with paved roads (sacbe=paved or “white” road)
which, sometimes, lead to distant cities such as Yaxuna, south of
Chichén Itzá,
100 km (62 miles) apart. The 45 roads show the importance of this
place. Most of the local products might have been stocked there
before being transported to inland cities.
Many small platforms (an estimation of 20,000) are scattered around
these three main groups. This lets think that the population living
at this time reached 40 or 50,000 inhabitants.
Cobá, whose ensemble extends over a surface
of 70 km2 (17300 acres) is classified among the largest Mayan cities
in the Classical period. Cobá means : “white waters”
in Mayan language. It was named after the five cenotes close by.
These lakes, the largest in the peninsula, played a key role in
feeding the water to the land with an effective irrigation system.
As you enter the site, you discover the construction called the
“church" where you can admire an important collection
of archaeological objects. Look also at the Ball game, with two
giant stone rings and sculpted skulls at the bottom. If it was apparently
a banal hobby, it was in reality a ritual including human sacrifices.
Twenty minutes walking from the entrance, stands the Nohoch Mul
pyramid, emerging from the jungle; the road is posted with sculpted
steles telling the big events of a thousand year old civilization.
Several of them are dated from the different calendars used by the
Mayas. It is hard work but worth it to climb the monumental stairs
of Nohoch Mul (42 m or 138 feet and 120 steps), the highest in the
peninsula.
As with the other cities, Cobá underwent the decline that
ended the classical period, but a few centuries later, during the
late twelfth century, the city was again occupied and experienced
a temporary revival. Other temples and ensembles such as the one
of the Paintings (wonderfully adorned with glyphs) were built, some
with ancient constructions stones. The steles, sometimes broken,
were used as bases. Representations of the Descending God Quetzalcóatl,
under Vénus shape, show the influence from the Caribbean
Coast, Tulum, Tancah, Xel-ha and Polé, where there was the
coastal trade. During the sixteenth century, just after the Conquest,
Cobá was abandoned and nobody else went there until 1886,
when José Péon Contreras and M. Elizlde did the first
description. The first pictures of this site were realized by Téobert
Maler in 1891.
Map of the archaeological site :
Easy access by road from any city or village of
Riviera Maya, Cancun or Chetumal (bus or colectivos).
Click
here to display the selection of photos about Cobá
Click
here to display thousand of photos about Yucatán
 
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