Our trip to Tulum and Coba was very adventurous, full of stops and a few little quirks, but at the end of the day we were all really happy that we'd gone. We started off in the now-familiar buses to the transfer station at Xel-Ha, then on a pretty short trip to Tulum. Here's a map - we flew into Cancun, we were staying in Playa del Carmen, and we visited Chichen Itza, Tulum, Coba, and Xel-Ha. Previously we have taken cruises into Cozumel, and one time we'd taken the ferry across to Playa del Carmen (which is not a fun ride, by the way, and normally I love ferries).
Tulum is a walled city - in fact Tulum actually means "wall" in the Yucatec language. From www.mayasites.com: "The ancient name of Tulum was Zama, meaning ¨place of the dawning sun¨. How it got this name is obvious as this ancient Mayan city is situated on a cliff which faces east toward the beautiful turquoise waters of the life-giving Caribbean. This is surely one of the most scenically beautiful of all Maya archeological sites." Here we are going in through one of the portals in the wall.
This is the beautiful view that you see when you enter in the north gate.
I will try to remember which pictures go with which structures on this map.
Here is Grandpa, already getting hot. :) (It was so humid! Uncharacteristically for December.)
It was also pretty busy. I guess Christmas Eve is no break for the tour guides at all.
We liked this big iguana that came to greet us.
What a nice view he has!
This is the Temple of the Wind, which seems like kind of a look-out for what was a Mayan port city. It was still being used for religious purposes until just a few years ago when Tulum was finally too busy for the Mayan people to keep using in that way. (Structure 45 on the map.)
This is the sea-side of the House of the Cenote. There is a supposedly original wooden beam behind Zoe.
It is built on the edge of a small sinkhole providing essential fresh water. Also within the walls are house platforms, ceremonial platforms, small shrines, and tombs (though we didn't see any of those except the fresh water pool).
"Tulúm was probably glimpsed as an active, occupied site in during Juan de Grijalva's 1518 expedition when a brief coastal exploration was made south of Cozumel. Juan Díaz, chaplain of the expedition, reported "a very large town," and "the highest tower they had seen" in the area of Tulúm, Xelhá and Tancah. Largest of these three coastal sites was Tulúm on the edge of 12 meter-high cliffs, with the Castillo overlooking the sea at the only rocky promontory on the Quintana Roo shoreline."
The side of the House of the Cenote.
There are a couple of beaches which are incredibly beautiful. One of Matt's main goals for this trip to Tulum was to get to spend some happy time on the beach.
Unfortunately, both beaches were closed because it was windy and the water was very rough. Also the tide was in and there was very little sand, and a whole lot of people. It was just as well - there wouldn't have been room on the beach to relax, but it was still kind of disappointing.
This is the only picture of our whole group that I came home with. I love that it's in Tulum in front of the beach! (I had to photoshop a couple of other people out...)
This is the Castle, or El Castillo, the largest ruin on the site. "The Castillo is known more for its scenic location than its size. Although its front facade has all the features of other Mayan temples, its back side seems more like a fortress. Small windows face out toward the sea, providing an excellent lookout post from which to watch for sea faring invaders."
"All structural and ceramic evidence at Tulúm, as well as its important corpus of murals and relief sculpture, date from the Middle and Late Postclassic (AD 1200-1520), corresponding to the Hocuba and Tases phases, as defined at Mayapán (Smith 1971). The site's chronology appears complicated by reused Classic inscriptions brought from neighboring towns. Stela 1, found at Tulúm by Stephens and Catherwood in 1843 with an Early Classic date of 9.6.10.0.0 (AD 564), probably came to Tulúm from nearby Xelhá. Another reused stela of AD 761 (9.16.10.0.0) originated only a few km to the north at Tancah, a site whose pottery shows continuous Late Preclassic through Late Postclassic occupation. At Tulúm, the earliest ceramics date from the Middle Postclassic Hocaba phase (Smith and Gifford 1965). Besides possible Puuc-derived roof combs, pecked masonry, and colonnades, there are few other signs of direct Classic period influence."
"The site's oldest buildings include an earlier version of the Castillo, and structures with multiple columns such as the House of the Columns, and the House of the Halach Uinik or "Primary Lord." After AD 1250, Tulúm became a commercial port, probably settled by a group of Putún Maya trading in alliance with the new Maya capital at Mayapán. The population within the walled town itself of Tulúm may have been only several hundred persons."
We are always interested in the depictions of the Descending God, here at his temple. "The Temple of the Diving God is so named because it has an unusual figure above the doorway that appears to be diving headfirst to earth. There are many theories about the meaning of these curious carvings which also appear at the Mayan site of Coba but few other sites. They have also been called ¨the bee god¨ or ¨the god descending¨ and have been associated with the planet Venus. It is a popular symbolic motif in the temple doorways at Tulum which contain several of these unique figures."
"Just north of the Castillo, the smaller Temple of the Diving God (fig.3) is named for a stucco relief of this deity in a niche above its western doorway. The exterior walls were painted with images of sun, rain, and maize gods framed by snakes, in a mixture of Mayan and Mixteca-Puebla styles typical of Late Postclassic Tulúm. The interior back wall is also covered with mural paintings. Among the motifs are a large feathered rattlesnake head and a richly adorned god with seashells, possibly Chalchihuitlicue ("Jade Water"), the consort of Tlaloc, the Mexican rain god, and goddess of the sea."
"The Temple of the Frescoes or Structure 16 (fig.4), located west of the Castillo, has a small colonnaded lower gallery with murals in the Mixteca-Puebla style somewhat resembling that of the Paris Codex, and dated to about AD 1450 (A. Miller 1982). The paintings show the Maya deity Itzamná or Lizard House, and the moon goddess Ix Chel holding two small Chacs or rain deities. The central theme of these murals is maize and associated ceremonies of death and rebirth. The interior shrine of the lower gallery is the oldest part of the temple. Outside, the temple frieze has three niches, with two surviving stucco reliefs including a central Diving God. On the corners are low relief Chac masks of late types (without the protruding nose) combined with Mixteca elements. In front of the temple is a small altar and stela with a short count date of Katun 2 Ahau (AD 1263)."
We walked towards the west side of the site and looked back towards the Castillo. So beautiful.
"Tulúm's main plaza, the recinto interior, is within a low masonry wall near the edge of the cliff, centering around the Castillo (fig.2). This, the largest building at the site, was built over the central portion of an earlier colonnaded structure with beam and mortar roof. The wings of this still extend N and S beyond the platform. Most of what survives today dates from the 12th or 13th century AD. The two-room, vaulted temple on the 7.5 m-high platform of the Castillo has a doorway with two round columns, later modified into feathered serpents like those at Mayapán and Chichén Itzá. Three niches above the Castillo doorway each held stucco relief decorations, with a statue in the center of the Diving or Descending God. These unusual figures, also known at Cobá and Sayil, are commonly thought, based on their apparent antennae and insect-like torsos, to represent the bee gods Ah Muzencab, known from the Madrid Codex."
Matt took a couple of cool panorama pictures here too.
This is the beach that we had been dreaming of relaxing at. As you can see there is not much sand with the tide so high.
It would have been fun to spend some time though!
When I took this picture I was dreaming of how much I'd like to spend the night at the site, without anyone else around. I would really love to learn more.
Here is the wall at the south side of the site. "The Great Wall on the three landward sides (N,W,S) of Tulúm encloses an area of 385 by 165 m. The masonry Wall, 2 to 5 m high and averaging 6 m thick, has watchtowers on its NW and SW corners. Access is gained through five narrow, corbel arch gateways, with guardhouses on either side of the NE gateway, and small rooms spaced irregularly along each of the walls. Roads (sacbeob) lead out into the countryside from each of the five gates."
Researchers believe that not many people actually lived within the walls, and probably those who did were upper class people, leaving the peasants outside the walls.
There is a walk or tram ride to the archaelogical site entrance, and where you park there is a shop with a really cool display of table clothes, runners, and scarves.
I love that Matt took these pictures, because I didn't even think of it.
Since the beach was closed, we left after we'd seen everything we wanted to see at the site, and headed to Playa Paraiso, a short drive away.
