Tulum, whose Postclassic buildings date to 1200 A.D., means "City of the New Dawn", perhaps because of the fantastic sunrises that bathe the buildings. Created in honor of Kukulcan, god of the sun, the architecture reveals obvious Toltec influences with its platforms and sloping terraces and balustrades fashioned as plumed rattlesnakes. Though Tulum lacks the grand pyramids of Chichen Itza and Uxmal, it more than makes up for it with its stylized designs and unparalleled seaside setting.
Tulum is not large. The walled compound contains but 60 buildings, thought to be about ten percent of its original size. The ruins are easily seen in just two hours, preferably with a guide.
In its heyday Tulum was home to only a few hundred permanent residents, most of them seafaring Putun. But its 20-foot-thick walls often provided temporary refuge for those escaping warring tribes. Tulum was also the official starting point for funeral processions, which, accompanied by impassioned singing and praying, departed in canoes bound for Campeche.
Besides its compelling sorroundings, Tulum enjoys another distinction: it was the only Maya city still inhabited when the Spanish arrived in 1518. The expedition, led by Juan de Grijalva, encountered brilliant red and white and blue buildings stretching so far down the coast, they appeared as big as the Spanish city of Seville. Approaching by ship, the conquistadors were no doubt most overwhelmed by the sight of lovely "Castillo" looming atop the only rocky promontory in Quintana Roo. Built in two main phases, the castle is crowned by a temple whose columns are wrapped in carvings of plummed rattlesnakes, symbols for Kukulcan. In front of the temple rests an altar where, during elaborate ceremonies, victims would have their hearts torn out. Recently, the Mexican government has prohibited visitors from climbing the Castle to help preserve what`s left of this marvelous building.
Most significant of all Tulum`s temples is the Temple of the Frescoes, an observatory that reveals the Maya genius in measuring days. With perfectly placed columns and porticoes, the Maya used the size of the sun`s and moon`s rays to figure hours of day and night. Inside the temple is another brilliant find: paintings and murals whose colours and ornamented figures are still quite vivid. Use a flashlight to best see the frescoes, which portray the Maya zest for life in flowing pictures of tropical flowers and fruits and through depictions of local farming and offering of food, including maize, to the gods.
Just north of the temple of the Frescoes, the L-shaped House of Columns is also called the Great Palace because it was the city's largest dwelling. Indeed, its rooms and galleries are spacious, despite their flat roofs. A departure from typical Maya vaulted roofs, flat roofs were popular in Tuum. Unfortutately, their interior design brought them tumbling down much sooner. A short stroll north, the House of the Halach Uinik is an astronomer`s dream. Here, inside a columned solar sanctuary, myriads of drawings and sculptures proclaim the intricacies of the solstices and equinoxes. A pair of plumed serpents, for example, arch together to show the daily journey of the sun.
Tulum's trademark is the Temple of the Descending God, whose guardian, with its feet in the air, head pointed down and body encased in plumed phallic symbols, is a fitting deity for divers. Mysteriously, as the sun emerges from the horizon each morning, its first rays illuminate the feet of the figure. Then, for one moment, the entire god is lit by the sun.
ANCIENT REEF RELIEF
In the days of the Maya, the reef off Quintana Roo was famed for shredding any boat that dared approach the shore. But safe passage lay in the secret of Tulum`s Castillo. High in the castle by the sea are two small windows that, when iluminated by lanterns, send beams of light across the water. At precisely the spot where both beams can be seen is a natural opening in the reef. Naturally, the lanterns were off duty one fateful day in 1511, when a Spanish ship struck the reef and sank. Of the 17 sailors who survived, 15 died of disease or were sacrificed by the Maya. The remaining two became slaves- the first Europeans residents of Quintana Roo.
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