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| A view of the cove |
While my family and I were staying in Tulum we visited some of the ruins that were by a beach. We rode there on bike then and stayed for a couple of hours. We saw a ton of black spiny tailed lizards everywhere because the ruins are perfect habitat for them (my brother did a
blog post about these lizards). Towards the end of our visit we walked down to the beach that was in a little cove next to the ruins. Swimming was really fun and maybe even my favorite part of visiting the ruins. My mom and dad said that the Mayans picked a beautiful place to live and I think that I agree with them.
The Tulum ruins were built by the Mayans in the early 1200s out of rocks and wood. The bases of many of the houses were made of either wood or stone and sometimes both. They also had a giant wall surrounding the city-state on three sides, the fourth was defended by the ocean. Most of the city-states civilians lived outside of the wall while priests and more powerful people lived inside of them. The walls were really thick and tall but the entrances were really short and you had to watch your head or you might get ca-blonckered. The word Tulum in Mayan means wall but its original residents called it Zama meaning dawn.
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| A lizard sunbathing |
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| Part of the giant wall |
The Mayans performed many strange rituals. For example sometimes when a woman gave birth they would shape their infants soft skull on a piece of wood. Another practice was when the king would poke himself somewhere you don’t want to know and bleed for the ritual. The ruins had a lot of small and big temples on the edge of a cliff close to the ocean. On several of the buildings there were carvings and the walls used to be painted red, yellow and blue. The paint they used was made of pigments and minerals.
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| A god carving |
In 1518 Spaniards sailed by and were amazed by the beautifully painted walls and big towers with fire on the top. After the Spanish conquest people continued to live there for seventy years and then finally left. However some of the local Mayans continued to come to their ancestral home and burn incense and pray until the 20th century.
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| One of the big temples |
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| Another big temple |
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Lots of interesting details in your writing. Too bad we can't time travel to observe the life of ancient Mayans and see the buildings and carvings in their original state. Then, of course, return to present day for our creature comforts.
ReplyDeleteWhen I visited Tulum with Grandma Helen, we snorkeled. What a fun day that was!
Those doorways would work well for a shorty like me....finally someone designs something that I can use without a problem ;)
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