Mayan ruins!
Feb. 17th, 2011 10:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
Everyone loves Mayan ruins, right? They're so fabulous. I went to two sites at different times, Muyil and Coba. Tulum is the biggest archaeological draw in the immediate area, but Tulum is a small place with a train to take the masses from the car parks to the site, and what one website described as 'Disneyworld-style crowds', so we decided to skip it.
Muyil is only 25km south of Tulum, but the excursion buses don't go there. We planned a visit one afternoon in a rental car, staying in a Tulum hotel that night before visting the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Preserve the next day.
As we drove to Tulum and checked into our hotel, it was pouring with rain, one of those heavy tropical showers that drench you inside a minute. The SO decided that rain was unpleasant, even when it's 30C, and opted to stay at the hotel in a hammock with a book. I grabbed an umbrella, took the car and went off to Muyil without him. The rain stopped before I got there, the whole world seemed to share the SO's opinion of tropical showers, and I had an entire Mayan archaeological site to myself. Just the dripping jungle, the birds, the ruins and me. It was awesome.
There are three main groups of buildings at Muyil that are fully excavated and open to the public. The group nearest the entrance contains the oldest surviving structures (built around 900-1200 CE), and they are the most damaged by time and trees. All the buildings except one small temple are collapsed.
Inside the temple, you can see remnants of the paint the Mayans used to decorate their buildings.
Part of a Mayan limestone road (sacbe) leading through the forest. The limestone would originally have been coated with stucco to leave a smooth surface.
Emerging from the forest, there's a hint of stone in the bright clearing ahead...
...and there is the back of Temple 8.
The Mayans did a lot of overbuilding, and this one has been extended or altered at least three times, around 1200-1550 CE. The temple itself is the small building on top of the platforms. There is another temple under the foundations, apparently, which the public are not allowed into.
The thatched roof protects the interior and altar stones from further deterioration due to rain. The entire Yucatan peninsula consists of limestone, so predictably the Mayans built with limestone, which slowly dissolves in water. A lot of carving detail has been lost from Mayan sites because of this unfortunate fact.
It's hard to resist taking photos of Mayan buildings surrounded by jungle, with trees growing up through them. The atmosphere, being there alone, was like the place had only just been rediscovered.
The tallest building at Muyil is the 57 foot Castillo. This is taller than any building at Tulum, where all the tourist trips go, but Tulum has a spectacular setting above the Caribbean sea. Personally, though, I think Mayan ruins look somehow more authentic, and far cooler, surrounded by the jungle that buried them for years.
Another case of serial building, the Castillo was redesigned at least four times. A wooden lintel at the top radiocarbon dates to the mid 11th century.
The Castillo has a circular turret at the top, unique in Mayan architecture of this area. In front of it are the remains of various altars. And it looks awesome as the low evening sun breaks through the clouds, when the only sound is the screaming of parrots.
It seems that rain on holiday has its uses!
Muyil is only 25km south of Tulum, but the excursion buses don't go there. We planned a visit one afternoon in a rental car, staying in a Tulum hotel that night before visting the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Preserve the next day.
As we drove to Tulum and checked into our hotel, it was pouring with rain, one of those heavy tropical showers that drench you inside a minute. The SO decided that rain was unpleasant, even when it's 30C, and opted to stay at the hotel in a hammock with a book. I grabbed an umbrella, took the car and went off to Muyil without him. The rain stopped before I got there, the whole world seemed to share the SO's opinion of tropical showers, and I had an entire Mayan archaeological site to myself. Just the dripping jungle, the birds, the ruins and me. It was awesome.
There are three main groups of buildings at Muyil that are fully excavated and open to the public. The group nearest the entrance contains the oldest surviving structures (built around 900-1200 CE), and they are the most damaged by time and trees. All the buildings except one small temple are collapsed.
Inside the temple, you can see remnants of the paint the Mayans used to decorate their buildings.
Part of a Mayan limestone road (sacbe) leading through the forest. The limestone would originally have been coated with stucco to leave a smooth surface.
Emerging from the forest, there's a hint of stone in the bright clearing ahead...
...and there is the back of Temple 8.
The Mayans did a lot of overbuilding, and this one has been extended or altered at least three times, around 1200-1550 CE. The temple itself is the small building on top of the platforms. There is another temple under the foundations, apparently, which the public are not allowed into.
The thatched roof protects the interior and altar stones from further deterioration due to rain. The entire Yucatan peninsula consists of limestone, so predictably the Mayans built with limestone, which slowly dissolves in water. A lot of carving detail has been lost from Mayan sites because of this unfortunate fact.
It's hard to resist taking photos of Mayan buildings surrounded by jungle, with trees growing up through them. The atmosphere, being there alone, was like the place had only just been rediscovered.
The tallest building at Muyil is the 57 foot Castillo. This is taller than any building at Tulum, where all the tourist trips go, but Tulum has a spectacular setting above the Caribbean sea. Personally, though, I think Mayan ruins look somehow more authentic, and far cooler, surrounded by the jungle that buried them for years.
Another case of serial building, the Castillo was redesigned at least four times. A wooden lintel at the top radiocarbon dates to the mid 11th century.
The Castillo has a circular turret at the top, unique in Mayan architecture of this area. In front of it are the remains of various altars. And it looks awesome as the low evening sun breaks through the clouds, when the only sound is the screaming of parrots.
It seems that rain on holiday has its uses!
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no subject
Date: 2011-02-17 08:04 pm (UTC)Thanks for sharing your pics and experiences with us.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 01:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 01:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 01:54 am (UTC)I'm perfectly happy with rain when rain /= cold. The trouble with Seattle is that's rarely the case :-(
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 05:44 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 03:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 02:31 pm (UTC)So, was it worth all the hassles you had with the airlines to get there? I would think it was :)
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 06:32 am (UTC)I'm still annoyed at American. They can't help the weather, but we didn't have any bad weather over here - they were selectively cancelling our flights many hours ahead of time, and using our planes for other routes. If Seattle comes low on their priority list, in future they're coming low on mine.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 03:07 am (UTC)Personally, though, I think Mayan ruins look somehow more authentic, and far cooler, surrounded by the jungle that buried them for years.
I have to disagree with this one, though! Maybe it's just 'cause I was there, but these was something so amazing about being on the beach at Tulum, realizing this was a port city, a place that had really been alive and busy.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-19 06:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-02-20 12:20 am (UTC)