Coba Mexico

Coba Mexico - Ancient Mayan ruins

We took a bus from our resort to the Mayan ruins of Cobá.

InformationHighwaytoHell Home page
Previous	Back to Travelogue	Next	2 of 14
coba 1 \| coba 2 \| coba 3 \| coba 4 \| coba 5 \| coba 6
puerto aventuras 1 \| puerto aventuras 2 \| Mayan Village 1
Mayan Village 2 \| Mayan Riveria 1 \| Mayan Riveria 2
Mayan Riveria 3 \| Barcelo Maya 1 \| Barcelo Maya 2
Click on any picture to see the enlarged picture in a new window
Comments? Enter your thoughts in the guestbook

Here is a carving of a skull. Wherever you find these, it is supposed to be an entrance to the underworld. The Mayans believed in three tiers - sky, earth, and underworld.

The Cobá site has hundreds of structures in it - here is a non-spectacular one. The structures are made of limestone, which is the dominant rock in the region. Archeologists find a jumbled pile of rock with trees growing in it then try and guess what it would look like. They have the most trouble reconstructing the tops. They end up guessing - sometimes just piling them up haphazardly.

I had wandered away for a moment. This is a better view of the first ball court. Here our guide Miriam is explaining about the bloody Aztecs and Toltecs. She really knew her Mayan history. She emphasized that the Mayans were very gentle, but in order of increasing violence the Aztecs and Toltecs were not.

You have to marvel at the amount of work and the organization that must have been required to build these structures. Miriam said that the lower classes did all the work - there lives were very hard. They worked so hard because they believed in reincarnation, and believed that next time they might come back as one of the more privileged social classes, so it was just their turn to have this unpleasant life. Here is the front of La Iglesia (the church).

Here is my nine year old son on the steps of the pyramid. It was somewhat difficult for him to be on this tour, lots of walking in the heat and humidity and lots of listening. He did pretty well, but you may want to consider carefully taking smaller children along on this tour.

There was a hallway cut into the structure that led first to the back and then made a right angle turn into the interior. No large room awaited us - just the narrow hallway Here is Margaret as seen from the interior.

I don't know why these steps led downward and then abruptly stopped. It is spring in the Yucatan peninsula, but you can see leaves that have dropped off the trees last fall everywhere on the pyramid steps and on the ground.

You can see from this picture that this pyramid is part of a complex of structures. I don't think they know what the purpose was. This is all part of Groupo Cobá.

	Here is a carving of a skull. Wherever you find these, it is supposed to be an entrance to the underworld. The Mayans believed in three tiers - sky, earth, and underworld.
	The Cobá site has hundreds of structures in it - here is a non-spectacular one. The structures are made of limestone, which is the dominant rock in the region. Archeologists find a jumbled pile of rock with trees growing in it then try and guess what it would look like. They have the most trouble reconstructing the tops. They end up guessing - sometimes just piling them up haphazardly.
	I had wandered away for a moment. This is a better view of the first ball court. Here our guide Miriam is explaining about the bloody Aztecs and Toltecs. She really knew her Mayan history. She emphasized that the Mayans were very gentle, but in order of increasing violence the Aztecs and Toltecs were not.
	You have to marvel at the amount of work and the organization that must have been required to build these structures. Miriam said that the lower classes did all the work - there lives were very hard. They worked so hard because they believed in reincarnation, and believed that next time they might come back as one of the more privileged social classes, so it was just their turn to have this unpleasant life. Here is the front of La Iglesia (the church).
	Here is my nine year old son on the steps of the pyramid. It was somewhat difficult for him to be on this tour, lots of walking in the heat and humidity and lots of listening. He did pretty well, but you may want to consider carefully taking smaller children along on this tour.
	There was a hallway cut into the structure that led first to the back and then made a right angle turn into the interior. No large room awaited us - just the narrow hallway Here is Margaret as seen from the interior.
	I don't know why these steps led downward and then abruptly stopped. It is spring in the Yucatan peninsula, but you can see leaves that have dropped off the trees last fall everywhere on the pyramid steps and on the ground.
	You can see from this picture that this pyramid is part of a complex of structures. I don't think they know what the purpose was. This is all part of Groupo Cobá.