Created 24-Oct-10
Modified 24-Oct-10
39 photos
On the return from my 2008 trip to Antarctica, I spent a week in Mexico on the "Mayan Riviera". I visited four sites of Mayan ruins. More details on these sites, the Mayan people, and their history is readily available online.
Tulum (in Quintana Roo): Tulum attracts a large numbers of visitors due to its location along the touristy riviera and its sheltered beach below the cliffs. One of the few walled Mayan sites, its ruins are relatively low in height, and the grounds are garden-like.
Chich'en Itzá (in Yucatán): Chich'en Itzá is perhaps the most famous of the Mayan ruins, and by far the most crowded of the four I visited. Between the visitors and the nearly-as-numerous souvenir vendors, it feels more like a shopping mall than a World Heritage site. Fortunately our tour bus was among the last to depart the site, giving some relatively crowd-free photo ops just as the sun was getting low. Visitors are no longer permitted to climb the immense main pyramid.
Ek' Balam (in Yucatán): Ek Balam was the least-visited of the sites, making it the most peaceful to explore. Re-discovered relatively recently compared to the others, much of the location is still being recovered from beneath the soil and vegetation. Visitors are permitted to climb on pretty much all of the structures. The highest one features a restoration project that attempts to reproduce the mortar work that would have originally adorned the fascade (something I did not see done at the other sites). Prior to arriving at Ek' Balam we visited the nearby historic Spanish colonial town of Valladolid, a settlement that played a key role in the Mayan wars with the Spanish, and later the Mexican federalists.
Cobá (in Quintana Roo): Cobá had a fair number of visitors, though I think less than nearby Tulum. The size of the site and its setting within jungle vegetation made the crowds less apparent. Cobá features many ruins that visitors may scale, including its largest pyramid, which is supposedly the highest vantage point on the Yucatán Peninsula.
Tulum (in Quintana Roo): Tulum attracts a large numbers of visitors due to its location along the touristy riviera and its sheltered beach below the cliffs. One of the few walled Mayan sites, its ruins are relatively low in height, and the grounds are garden-like.
Chich'en Itzá (in Yucatán): Chich'en Itzá is perhaps the most famous of the Mayan ruins, and by far the most crowded of the four I visited. Between the visitors and the nearly-as-numerous souvenir vendors, it feels more like a shopping mall than a World Heritage site. Fortunately our tour bus was among the last to depart the site, giving some relatively crowd-free photo ops just as the sun was getting low. Visitors are no longer permitted to climb the immense main pyramid.
Ek' Balam (in Yucatán): Ek Balam was the least-visited of the sites, making it the most peaceful to explore. Re-discovered relatively recently compared to the others, much of the location is still being recovered from beneath the soil and vegetation. Visitors are permitted to climb on pretty much all of the structures. The highest one features a restoration project that attempts to reproduce the mortar work that would have originally adorned the fascade (something I did not see done at the other sites). Prior to arriving at Ek' Balam we visited the nearby historic Spanish colonial town of Valladolid, a settlement that played a key role in the Mayan wars with the Spanish, and later the Mexican federalists.
Cobá (in Quintana Roo): Cobá had a fair number of visitors, though I think less than nearby Tulum. The size of the site and its setting within jungle vegetation made the crowds less apparent. Cobá features many ruins that visitors may scale, including its largest pyramid, which is supposedly the highest vantage point on the Yucatán Peninsula.
© Kyle D Jackson
"Columns of Tulum"
Cathedral of San Gervasio
Cathedral of San Gervasio
