Coba Mexico

Coba Mexico - Ancient Mayan ruins

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

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Enlarge this shot to read about the Cobá site.

Now we are setting off to visit more ruins. We have been extensively warned about not touching any of the trees - they are "poison". I think just like we have poison ivy, they have poison trees. Miriam said that if you contact the trees you will be miserable for 3 days.

I don't remember the name of this kind of tree, but Miriam said it was very special. The Mayan priests would collect the sap from this tree, mix it with corn and water, and then leave it in a sinkhole (limestone depression in the earth) for a few days to ferment. Then they would drink this liquid and hallucinate.

These two types of tree are always found growing together. The lighter barked trees are the poison trees. The darker barked trees are balsa wood.

These next two pictures go together. This one shows a ball court that has not been restored.

Here is the other side of the ball court that has been restored. How did they figure out how it should look? It's just a guess - that's the biggest surprise to me about the Mayan ruins. No one knows what the structures *really* looked like.

Miriam the guide said that this was most likely a hot tub that the players could make use of, probably in some sort of ritual.

Our path rises up over an ancient Mayan roadway - a "sacbe". The Mayans had an extensive system of raised paved roads. Today's engineers are amazed how roads ran in a straight line through the jungle. There are around forty converging sacbe, one of which has been traced a distance of 60 miles (100 km). Each sacbe was constructed with stones to a height of one to two meters and then covered with white mortar. Their purpose is puzzling as this civilization had no wheeled transport and had yet to see the horse, but may have been built for religious processions and pilgrimages. Local workers from nearby agricultural land would also be responsible for labor for building and maintaining the roads. This area was home to 50,000 Mayans in antiquity. Picture this place with no trees! They were all cut done during Coba's peak occupancy.

Yet another pyramid. Note the steepness of the steps.

We approach the largest Mayan pyramid here at Cobá, Nohoch Mul (large hill). Nohoch Mul is a staggering 136 ft (42 m) high and towers above the jungle.

	Enlarge this shot to read about the Cobá site.
	Now we are setting off to visit more ruins. We have been extensively warned about not touching any of the trees - they are "poison". I think just like we have poison ivy, they have poison trees. Miriam said that if you contact the trees you will be miserable for 3 days.
	I don't remember the name of this kind of tree, but Miriam said it was very special. The Mayan priests would collect the sap from this tree, mix it with corn and water, and then leave it in a sinkhole (limestone depression in the earth) for a few days to ferment. Then they would drink this liquid and hallucinate.
	These two types of tree are always found growing together. The lighter barked trees are the poison trees. The darker barked trees are balsa wood.
	These next two pictures go together. This one shows a ball court that has not been restored.
	Here is the other side of the ball court that has been restored. How did they figure out how it should look? It's just a guess - that's the biggest surprise to me about the Mayan ruins. No one knows what the structures really looked like.
	Miriam the guide said that this was most likely a hot tub that the players could make use of, probably in some sort of ritual.
	Our path rises up over an ancient Mayan roadway - a "sacbe". The Mayans had an extensive system of raised paved roads. Today's engineers are amazed how roads ran in a straight line through the jungle. There are around forty converging sacbe, one of which has been traced a distance of 60 miles (100 km). Each sacbe was constructed with stones to a height of one to two meters and then covered with white mortar. Their purpose is puzzling as this civilization had no wheeled transport and had yet to see the horse, but may have been built for religious processions and pilgrimages. Local workers from nearby agricultural land would also be responsible for labor for building and maintaining the roads. This area was home to 50,000 Mayans in antiquity. Picture this place with no trees! They were all cut done during Coba's peak occupancy.
	Yet another pyramid. Note the steepness of the steps.
	We approach the largest Mayan pyramid here at Cobá, Nohoch Mul (large hill). Nohoch Mul is a staggering 136 ft (42 m) high and towers above the jungle.