Sights in Yucatán Peninsula
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Catedral de San Ildefonso
On the plaza Grande’s east side, on the site of a former Maya temple, is Mérida’s hulking, severe cathedral, begun in 1561 and completed in 1598. Some of the stone from the Maya temple was used in its construction. The massive crucifix behind the altar is Cristo de la Unidad (Christ of Unity), a symbol of reconciliation between those of Spanish and Maya heritage. To the right over the south door is a painting of Tutul Xiu, cacique (indigenous chief) of the town of Maní paying his respects to his ally Francisco de Montejo at T’ho (de Montejo and Xiu jointly defeated the Cocomes; Xiu converted to Christianity, and his descendants still live in Mérida).
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El Cedral
This Mayan ruin, which functioned as a jail in the 19th century, is the oldest on the island, dating way, way back to AD 800. It's not obviously alluring, but it is the most accessible of Cozumel's ruins. The ancient structure is the size of a small house, so keep your eyes peeled. El Cedral is thought to have been an important ceremonial site. Today a small stucco church sits next to the ruin.
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Playa Delfines
Delfines is about the only beach with a public car park; unfortunately, its sand is coarser and darker than the exquisite fine sand of the more northerly beaches. On the upside, the beach has great views, there are some nearby Maya Ruins to check out and, as the last beach along the boulevard, it is rarely crowded. Heed the signs regarding swimming conditions as undertows are common here.
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Cenote Dzitnup
A bit more enticing but less accessible is Cenote Dzitnup. It’s artificially lit and very swimmable, and a massive limestone formation dripping with stalactites hangs from its ceiling.
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Zoh-Laguna Museum
Zoh-Laguna's interesting history is illustrated photographically in the small Zoh-Laguna Museum, opposite Hotel Bosque Modelo.
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Park Las Palapas
Park Las Palapas is quiet and safe, a great place for an afternoon picnic or an evening stroll.
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Grupo Nohoch Mul
In the northeast you will reach a ball court on the right side of the path. Look at the ground in the center of the court to spot a carved stone skull (the winner or the loser of the ball game?) and the carved relief of a jaguar.
More weathered stelae lie at the north end. After the ball court, the track bends between piles of stones - a ruined temple - and you reach a junction of sorts. Turn right (east) and head to the structure called Xaibé. This is a tidy, semicircular stepped building, almost fully restored. Its name means 'the Crossroads,' as it marks the juncture of four separate sacbeob.
Going north from here takes you past Templo 10 and Stela 20. The exquisitely…
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Gran Plaza
The Gran Plaza, with loads of stelae in front of its buildings (Estructura V has the best ones), makes a good first stop on a tour of the ruins, and climbing the enormous Estructura II, at the south side of the plaza, is a must. Each of this pyramid's sides is 140m long, giving it a footprint of just under 2 hectares - one of the largest known Maya structures.
After a good climb you'll reach a temple occupying what appears to be the top of the building, but you have to go around it to the left to reach the real apex. From here, more than 50m above the forest floor, you'll enjoy magnificent views over the jungle canopy to the photographable Estructura I to the southeast…
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Gran Juego de Pelota
The great ball court, the largest and most impressive in Mexico, is only one of the city's eight courts, indicative of the importance the games held here. The court, to the left of the visitors center, is flanked by temples at either end and is bounded by towering parallel walls with stone rings cemented up high.
There is evidence that the ball game may have changed over the years. Some carvings show players with padding on their elbows and knees, and it is thought that they played a soccerlike game with a hard rubber ball, with the use of hands forbidden. Other carvings show players wielding bats; it appears that if a player hit the ball through one of the stone hoops,…
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El Castillo
As you approach from the visitors center into the site, El Castillo rises before you in all its grandeur. The first temple here was pre-Toltec, built around AD 800, but the present 25m-high structure, built over the old one, has the plumed serpent sculpted along the stairways and Toltec warriors represented in the doorway carvings at the top of the temple. You won't get to see these temple-top carvings as you are not allowed to ascend the pyramid.
The structure is actually a massive Maya calendar formed in stone. Each of El Castillo's nine levels is divided in two by a staircase, making 18 separate terraces that commemorate the 18 20-day months of the Maya vague year. The…
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Cuadrángulo de las Monjas
The 74-room, sprawling Cuadrángulo de las Monjas is directly west of the Casa del Adivino. Archaeologists guess variously that it was a military academy, royal school or palace complex. The long-nosed face of Chac appears everywhere on the façades of the four separate temples that form the quadrangle. The northern temple, grandest of the four, was built first, followed by the southern, then the eastern and then the western.
Several decorative elements on the exuberant façades show signs of Mexican, perhaps Totonac, influence. The feathered-serpent (Quetzalcóatl, or in Maya, Kukulcán) motif along the top of the west temple's façade is one of these. Note also the stylized…
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Isla Mujeres Tortugranja
Although they are endangered, sea turtles are still killed throughout Latin America for their eggs and meat, which is considered a delicacy. Three species of sea turtle lay eggs in the sand along the island's calm western shore, and they are now being protected - one tortugita (little turtle) at a time.
In the 1980s, efforts by a local fisherman led to the founding of the Isla Mujeres Tortugranja, 5km south of town, which protects the turtles' breeding grounds and places wire cages around their eggs to protect against predators. Hatchlings live in three large pools for up to a year, then are tagged for monitoring and released. Because most turtles in the wild die within…
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Kohunlich archaeological site
The Kohunlich archaeological site sits on a carpeted green. The most accessible of the corridor's ruins has nearly 200 mounds still covered in vegetation. The surrounding jungle was a thick tangle of half-felled trees at last pass.
The ruins, dating from both the late pre-Classic (AD 100-200) and the early Classic (AD 300-600) periods, are famous for the great Templo de los Mascarones (Temple of the Masks), a pyramid-like structure with a central stairway flanked by huge, 3m-high stucco masks of the sun god. The thick lips and prominent features are reminiscent of Olmec sculpture. Of the eight original masks, only two are relatively intact following the ravages of…
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Ek' Balam
The turnoff for fascinating Ek' Balam is 17km north of Valladolid, from where the archaeological site is a further 6km east. Vegetation still covers much of the area, but excavations and restoration continue to add to the sights, including an interesting ziggurat-like structure near the entrance, as well as a fine arch and a ball court. Most impressive is the gargantuan Acrópolis, whose well-restored base is 160m long and holds a 'gallery,' actually a series of separate chambers. Built atop the base is Ek' Balam's massive main pyramid, reaching a height of 32m and sporting a huge jaguar mouth with 360-degree dentition. Below the mouth are stucco skulls, while above and to…
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El Castillo
The most famous and best restored of the region's Mayan sites, Chichén Itzá (Mouth of the Well of the Itzáes) is breathtaking. Other than a few minor passageways, El Castillo is now the only structure you can climb or enter. At the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the morning and afternoon sun produce the illusion of a serpent along the side of the staircase.
The site is mobbed on these dates, however, making it difficult to see, and after the spectacle, parts of the site are sometimes closed to the public. The illusion is almost as good in the week preceding and following each equinox (and draws much smaller crowds), and is re-created nightly in the light-and-sound show…
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Grupo de las Pinturas
You can reach the Grupo de las Pinturas (Paintings Group) by heading 200m toward the Grupo Macanxoc and turning left. If you're on a bike, you'll have to park it here and return to it (this is the case at a few other spots as well). The temple here bears traces of glyphs and frescoes above its door and remnants of richly colored plaster inside.
You approach the temple from the southeast. Leave by the trail at the northwest (opposite the temple steps) to see two stelae. The first of these is 20m along, beneath a palapa. Here, a regal figure stands over two others, one of them kneeling with his hands bound behind him. Sacrificial captives lie beneath the feet of a ruler at…
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Grupo de las Mil Columnas
This group to the east of El Castillo takes its name from the forest of pillars stretching south and east. The star attraction here is the Templo de los Guerreros (Temple of the Warriors), adorned with stucco and stone-carved animal deities. At the top of its steps is a classic reclining chac-mool figure - you're no longer allowed to ascend to it. Many of the columns in front of the temple are carved with figures of warriors.
Archaeologists working in 1926 discovered a Temple of Chac-Mool lying beneath the Temple of the Warriors. You can walk through the columns on its south side to reach the Columnata Noreste, notable for the 'big-nosed god' masks on its façade. Some…
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Edificio de las Monjas
Thought by archaeologists to have been a palace for Maya royalty, the so-called Edificio de las Monjas, with its myriad rooms, resembled a European convent to the conquistadors, hence their name for the building. The building's dimensions are imposing: its base is 60m long, 30m wide and 20m high. The construction is Maya rather than Toltec, although a Toltec sacrificial stone stands in front.
A smaller adjoining building to the east, known as La Iglesia (The Church), is covered almost entirely with carvings. Currently, on the far side at the back there are some passageways that are still open, leading a short way into the labyrinth inside. They are dank, slippery, smell…
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Gran Pirámide
Though it's adjacent to the Governor's Palace, a sign by the steps of the Gran Pirámide warns 'it is dangerous to go up' from the rear of the palace. Most visitors ignore the sign and take the shortcut from the palace's southwest corner. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, retrace your route to go back down the hillside stairs and then keep turning left following the base of the platform until you reach the pyramid's steps.
The 32m-high pyramid has been restored only on its northern side. Archaeologists theorize that the quadrangle at its summit was largely destroyed in order to construct another pyramid above it. That work, for reasons unknown, was never…
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Becán
Located 8km west of Xpujil and 500m north of the highway, this must-visit site contains three separate architectural complexes. You should set aside at least two hours to explore it properly. The Maya word for ‘canyon’ or ‘moat’ is becán, and indeed a 2km moat snakes its way around this major site, with seven causeways providing access to the 12-hectare complex. The elaborate defense suggests the militaristic nature of the city which, from around AD 600 to 1000, was a regional capital encompassing Xpujil and Chicanná. A strategic crossroads between the Petenes civilization to the south and Chenes to the north, Becán displays architectural elements of both, with…
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Casa del Adivino
As you climb the slope to the ruins, the Casa del Adivino comes into view. This tall temple (the name translates as 'Magician's House'), 39m high, was built in an unusual oval shape. It gives rather a bad first impression of Uxmal to the visitor, consisting of round stones held rudely together with lots of cement. What you see is a restored version of the temple's fifth incarnation.
Four earlier temples were completely covered in the final rebuilding by the Maya, except for the high doorway on the west side, which remains from the fourth temple. Decorated in elaborate Chenes style (a style that originated further south), the doorway proper forms the mouth of a gigantic…
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El Caracol
Called El Caracol by the Spaniards for its interior spiral staircase, this observatory, to the south of the Ossuary, is one of the most fascinating and important of all Chichén Itzá's buildings (but, alas, you can't enter it). Its circular design resembles some central highlands structures, although, surprisingly, not those of Toltec Tula. In a fusion of architectural styles and religious imagery, there are Maya Chac rain-god masks over four external doors facing the cardinal points.
The windows in the observatory's dome are aligned with the appearance of certain stars at specific dates. From the dome the priests decreed the times for rituals, celebrations,…
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Palacio del Gobernador
The Palacio del Gobernador, with its magnificent façade nearly 100m long, has been called 'the finest structure at Uxmal and the culmination of the Puuc style' by Mayanist Michael D Coe. The buildings have walls filled with rubble, faced with cement and then covered in a thin veneer of limestone squares; the lower part of the façade is plain, the upper part festooned with stylized Chac faces and geometric designs, often latticelike or fretted. Other elements of Puuc style are decorated cornices, rows of half-columns (as in the House of the Turtles) and round columns in doorways (as in the palace at Sayil). Stones forming the corbeled vaults in Puuc style are shaped…
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El Castillo Real
Down the same intimidating road that leads to Punta Molas, are the large Mayan ruins known as El Castillo Real (The Royal Castle). The archaeological site, as well as the Aguada Grande ruins a few kilometers' hike away, are both quite far gone, their significance having blown off into the breeze some time ago. Still, half the fun is in getting there, right?
Other ruins of interest include the temple at San Gervasio, which was erected by the Maya as a tribute to Ixchel, the moon goddess of fertility. Female pilgrims came here from all over the region to pay tribute. San Gervasio sits between San Miguel and the east coast, northeast of the Carretera Transversal.
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Museo de la Isla de Cozumel
Exhibits at the fine Museo de la Isla de Cozumel in San Miguel present a clear and detailed picture of the island’s flora, fauna, geography, geology and ancient Maya history. Thoughtful and detailed signs in English and Spanish accompany the exhibits. It’s a good place to learn about coral before hitting the water, and it’s one not to miss before you leave the island. A courtyard in the back contains a na (thatched Maya hut) with someone in attendance who will explain (in Spanish) the various elements that made up Maya domestic life: the toys, utensils, foodstuffs, a raised garden bed for kitchen herbs and more.
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