A spell of Mayan magic

By Chen Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-05 11:18

It is said the losing captain, and perhaps his teammates as well, were sacrificed to the gods; though another version has it that the winning captain had the honor of being decapitated by the losing captain. Either way, it was a game with big stakes.

El Castillo and Principle Ball Court are just two of some 600 stone buildings scattered about the area. Most visitors are on group day-trips from Merida or Cancun and trying to appreciate the huge site in just three hours is impossible, I discovered.

Invited by the Mexico Tourism Board, Best Day Travel, based in Cancun and AeroMexico, I went to Mexico in late October with 10 other journalists for a 10-day tour. Our focus was the Maya lands of the Yucatan Peninsula and we stayed there for five days.

While we did see many of the region's major cultural and historical sites, it was difficult to appreciate them fully in such a short time.

A three-hour drive from Cancun, Coba was settled earlier than Chichen and was bigger. Its heyday was AD 600 and it was mysteriously abandoned about AD 900.

Today dozens of ruins poke through the dense jungle, including Nohoch Mul (The Great Pyramid), which is the region's tallest Mayan structure at 42 m, and many stelae with human figures in low relief, protected by a kind of thatch-roof.

The most efficient way to explore the city that once covered 50 sq km is to hire a bicycle. Later, we went to Tulum, just one-hour's drive away.

Compared with Chichen and Coba, Tulum is much smaller and the pyramids are less than 10 m tall.

What makes Tulum stand out is its setting: The gray-black buildings sit on cliffs overlooking a palm-fringed beach, lapped by the turquoise waters of the Caribbean. Elegant frigatebirds and huge pelicans can be seen above the cliffs.

The best way to enjoy Tulum is to put on a swimsuit and lie on the beach overshadowed by the ruins, like the iguanas that sun themselves on the roofs of Mayan buildings.

Uxmal was my favorite Mayan site in Yucatan, partly because we got a whole afternoon to stay there while there was a light and sound show in the evening. Of course, the beautiful structures and the perfect way they blended with the environment were good reasons too.

Uxmal was another World Heritage site. While visitors are not allowed to ascend major pyramids in Chichen Itza and Coba, you can climb on top of the Great Pyramid in Uxmal.

Sitting on top of it, you can see the grand 100-m-long Governor's Palace on the right hand side, overlooking Ball Court on the left and Nunnery Quadrangle (a military academy, royal school and palace complex) in the front. Facing is the 39-m Pyramid of the Magician on the far right, set against a backdrop of rolling hills covered by green jungle. There I enjoyed the sunset playing its magic on the ruins.

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