Jim & Carole's Mexico Adventure

Incense burner shaped in the image of a Maya god. Mérida's Museum of Anthropology and History (see also Part 9 of this series) contains an excellent section on Maya religion, including this burner for copal incense. The Maya worshiped a pantheon of at least two dozen major gods, and many other minor ones. Most of the gods ruled over multiple areas of life, and often these areas overlapped with other gods. In addition, a god might be known by several different names. All this tends to make Maya religion exceedingly complex. In general, Maya gods were benevolent, charitable, and accessible, unlike the severe and threatening gods of Central Mexico. The Maya gods could, however, punish those who didn't worship them with respect and the proper rituals. Unfortunately, not all of the artifacts depicting gods were labeled with their names. This handsome fellow may (or may not) be Ah Kin, god of the sun, or Ah Puch, god of death, or even Itzamna, the father of the gods.

Itzamna, the "father of the gods". This image was definitely identified as Itzamna (the Godfather, to you Mario Puso fans). He is both a hero and a god, making him a rather enigmatic figure. Itzamna ruled the heavens, controlling day and night. As such, he is related to the sun, the moon, rain, agriculture, maiz (corn), medicine, divination, and the celestial bodies of the Pleiades and Venus. He is also considered the god of knowledge and is credited with the invention of hieroglyphic writing, the calendar, and the writing of the codices (religious texts and histories). He is usually represented, as in this statue, as old, lean-faced, with sunken cheeks, and toothless. Any of us would look like this, with all those responsibilities!

Hun Nal Yeh, the god of maiz and forests. Also known as Yum Kaax, he is unlike many of the other gods in his appearance. Most of the others, like Itzamna, are represented as old, haggard, and sometimes with monstrous features. Hun Nal Yeh, by contrast, appears as youthful, smooth-faced, and vigorous. Maiz, or corn, was the staff of life for the ancient Maya. They believed that humans were created from maiz by the Hero Twins, a pair of figures who were somewhat less than gods and somewhat more than human. Hun Nal Yeh also ruled the forests surrounding the Maya that produced most of the other foods and materials necessary for daily life. Overall, he represented abundance and prosperity. Hun Nal Yen was therefore an extremely important god, even though below Itzamna in the pecking order.

Another unnamed, but no doubt important, member of the pantheon. This statue is part of another large censer. In addition to an extravagant head dress, he is shown with a long, animal-like snout with his tongue hanging out like a panting dog. With his left hand, he holds out a small cup or pot, a gesture often seen in these god figures. The vessels often hold materials related to the area of life over which the god rules. His appearance and posture somewhat resemble Ah Puch, the god of death, also known as Yum Kimil, and Kisin. The titles of Ah Puch included Prince of Darkness and Lord of Drought. Oddly, he was seen as a timid sort, even though he was also related to sacrifice and war. The Maya saw the cosmos as 13 superimposed heavens, from the sky down to the earth. Below the earth were 9 additional levels, the lowest of which was Mitnal, over which Ah Puch ruled.

Sacred decorations

A human figure emerges from the open jaws of a snake (Uxmal between 800 AD -950 AD). This sculpture was once mounted high on a wall at Uxmal, one of the greatest of Yucatan's ancient cities. Uxmal was the most important city in the Puuc area south of Mérida, and remained important even after the Mexicanized Maya invaded and conquered it in the Post Classic era. Representations of human figures emerging from snakes' mouths are also found at Tollan, the capital of the Toltec Empire, another of the curious similarities archaeologists have found between the these two geographically separated civilizations. When I first saw carvings like this, and the ones at Tollan, I thought the snake was devouring the human. Later, I learned that these are a symbols of rebirth. For the Maya death was not final, but merely one stage in a continuous cycle, represented by the disappearance and reappearance of Venus, the Morning Star.

An Atlantean, doing its bit to hold up the world. The figure probably was one of four holding up corners of a stone altar, which represented the world. Atlanteans are yet another cultural crossover found both at Tollan and at Chichen Itza. In the Maya context, the figures were called Bacab and represented the four immensely strong gods who held up the four corners of the world, with each corner being one of the cardinal directions.

Stone censer, probably from Chichen Itza. One way of showing devotion to the gods was the burning of copal, a fragrant tree resin. Copal is actually a derivative of the Nahuatl word copalli, meaning "incense". The Maya call it pom, and continue to burn it as part of rituals that have ancient roots. The sculptured head of this censer has the look of the rigid, militarized society that emerged after the takeover by the Itzas.

Maya warfare

Stone head of a helmeted warrior (Chichen Itza between 850 AD-1100 AD). Up until the 1970s, many archaeologists believed the Maya to be peaceful stargazers and mystics. Then, experts like Linda Schele began to decode the Maya hieroglyphics, and a new picture emerged. It turned out that the last two descriptions were true, but they they were definitely not peaceful. Long before the Mexicanized Maya invasion of the 10th Century AD, the Maya city states in Yucatan, Chiapas, and Central America had fiercely warred among themselves. Sometimes the cause was dynastic, sometimes it was a struggle over trade routes or precious resources like jade deposits, and sometimes it may have been a quest for captives to sacrifice to the gods.

An ancient warrior crouches, ready for combat. Clutching a spear in his right hand and a round shield in his left, he wears a helmet on his head and a ferocious, narrow-eyed expression. Armor would have been made of wood, leather, or quilted cotton. Warfare was an elite occupation in which the general population probably did not participate, except in case of the overthrow of a ruler. Armies were not large, probably in the range of 500-1000 men on a side, organized and led by a figure known as the Halach Uinic. Since there was a close relationship between religion and warfare, campaigns were often timed around celestial events such as the cycles of Venus.

A selection of Maya weapons. These include spear and arrow points, large blades for hand weapons, and smaller blades for daggers. On the upper right is the stone head of a club or hand axe. In general, our information about ancient battle tactics is unclear, but surprise attacks sometimes occurred like the one in which the ruler of the subordinate state of Quiriguá ambushed, captured, and sacrificed his overlord, the ruler of Copan. In a pitched battle, two armies would approach each other close enough to launch long-range missiles. To give extra distance and force, warriors often used the atlatl, or spear-thrower. Bows and arrows also were used, but not widely. When the distance weapons were exhausted, the armies would close for hand-to-hand combat, using their obsidian and chert bladed weapons. At this point, any discipline probably broke down and the battle would have become a melee between individuals. Since everyone knew the fate of captives was torture and sacrifice, the fighting would have been fierce.

The Ball Game

Nobles watch the ball players from the the walls of the Great Ball Court of Chichen Itza. In overall size, this was the largest court in all of Mesoamerica, exceeded in length only by the court at the Guachimontanes in Western Mexico. The ball game served both religious and political purposes, and in many ways simulated combat. On a religious level, the struggle in the ball court reenacted that of the Hero Twins against the Lords of Xilbalba (the Underworld). In addition, the game was sometimes used as an alternative to war to settle disputes between city states. In the drawing above, you can see the Temple of Kulkulkan in the upper left background. On top of the wall to its right is the Temple of the Jaguars. Set into the far wall about 7 meters (21 ft) above the players is a stone ring which casts a long diagonal shadow across the wall.

Stone ring from the Ball Court of Oxkintok, dated 713 AD. Like Maya military tactics, the precise rules of the ball game are unclear. One way of scoring was apparently to pass the ball through the ring. This would have been exceedingly difficult since it was set so high on the wall, and the players could move the heavy rubber ball only with their hips, chests, and heads. One theory is that the object of the game, other than scoring through the ring, was somewhat like badminton, i.e. to keep the ball off the ground and in play. From the carvings on the walls at Chichen Itza, it is clear that some of the players were sacrificed after the game. Whether those accorded this dubious honor were the losers or the winners is the subject of an on-going dispute. Although the Maya built the greatest of all the ball courts, and played the game nearly everywhere in their world, they did not invent it. The ball game appears to have originated with the Olmecs who built the earliest known court in approximately 1400 BC. Today, indigenous people in the northern state of Sinaloa still play a version of the ball game called ullama (without human sacrifice, however).

Cenote offerings

Offerings thrown into cenotes ranged from small jade pieces to the occasional human being. Cenotes are limestone sinkholes formed when water filtering down to underground rivers weakens the limestone above. When it collapses, a circular or oval pit filled with water is formed. Cenotes are found along the stress lines in Yucatan's limestone shelf formed by the impact of the great meteor which hit the Yucatan coast 65 million years ago, killing off the earth's dinosaurs. Cenotes, along with the springs found in caves, formed the primary source of water for many of the pre-hispanic cities of northern Yucatan. Accordingly, water and caves strongly influenced Maya religious practices. They believed Chaac, the god of rain, lived in cenotes. The caves were viewed as entrances to Xibalba.

Carved jade cenote offering.The Maya saw jade as being of divine origin and much more important than gold. It was used both for religious objects and for personal decoration. Jade is a very hard material and therefore difficult to carve, especially with little more than stone or bone tools. Regardless, Maya craftsmen created countless exquisitely detailed pieces, as can be seen on the fragment above. The kinds of jade jewelry created included ear plugs, pendants, necklaces, masks, pectorals wristbands, bracelets, and even jade chips to insert into people's teeth.

Many jade necklaces were also found in the cenote. As a divine material, jade was associated with fertility, and the green shoots of new corn. Bodies of the dead, particularly royal figures and the nobility, were often adorned with jade jewelry. Pakal, the Great King of Palenque, was buried in his pyramid tomb wearing a beautifully constructed jade death mask. Dead kings wore such masks so that the Lords of Xibalba would accord him the proper respect. Jade beads were often placed in the mouths of the dead as a kind of spiritual food. Other objects offered up to cenotes, included copper and gold bells, masks, cups, figurines, and the human being. As the 20th Century dawned, American archaeologist Edward Thompson dredged the Chichen Itza cenote and recovered many of the objects already mentioned, but also the bones of men, women, and children.

The Cult of Death

Bust of a war captive from the Owl's Temple, Chichen Itza. By the expression on his face, this fellow is extremely unhappy with his situation. However, the real tipoff may be his crossed arms. This is a posture often found on images of captives, when they aren't shown with hands bound behind them. Given the jade bracelet on his right wrist, and his necklace, he was probably a noble captured in battle. The fate of such captives was rarely good, since high-status captives were nearly always sacrificed, sometimes after extensive torture. While it is true that human sacrifice in the Maya Classic Era world was never on the assembly-line basis found among the Aztecs of the Post-Classic world, it was far from rare. This became particularly true after the Itzas and other Mexicanized Mayas arrived on the scene. These Gulf Coast Maya tribes had wholeheartedly adopted the Toltec death cult and all of its images, as well as the sophisticated Toltec military organization and tactics which enabled their rapid conquest of Yucatan.

Chac Mool found at Chichen Itza. The concept of Chac Mools like the one above may have originated with the Toltecs, and many have been found at Tollan, their capital. Both there and at Chichen Itza, they are closely associated with warrior temples and human sacrifice. A Chac Mool nearly always has certain features. The figure lies on its back, knees bent, while leaning on its elbows. The head, always wearing a distinctive hat and large square ear projections, is turned and gazes off into the distance. The hands meet at the stomach and hold a bowl or plate, possibly to receive the still warm and bleeding heart of the freshly sacrificed captive.

Stone skulls from a tzompantli, or skull rack.Tzompantli are prominent features of both Chichen Itza and Tollan. In both ancient cities, great platforms stand on which skull racks once rose high. In both cities, these platforms are immediately adjacent to large ball courts, and not far from shrines to the eagle and jaguar military cults. The stone skulls above were merely symbols of the real thing. Both the Itzas and the Toltecs mounted recently decapitated and skinned heads on long racks containing hundreds of previously placed skulls. There were row upon row of skulls, and the rows were stacked many layers high. Tzompantlis did not originate with either the Toltecs or Itzas, however. Archaeologists have found evidence of skull racks in Oaxaca State dating as far back as 1500 BC, the beginning of the Olmec era. The purpose of the skull racks seems to have been intimidation of foreign or domestic enemies. Had I lived in that era, they certainly would gotten my attention.

This completes Part 10 of my NW Yucatan series. I hope I have been able to give you a glimpse of the complex religious practice of the Maya, which interwove religious, military, and political themes. If you would like to make a comment, please do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly. I always welcome feedback.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Statue of La Negrita in the plaza adjacent to Templo de San Juan Bautista. The lovely Grecian style figure stands as part of a fountain, with water pouring out of the pitcher she holds. The statue was imported from Paris in the early 20th Century, as part of the general effort by the sisal plantation owners to beautify and modernize Mérida. In colonial times, this plaza was a small dusty square with a well that provided the water supply for the Maya settlement clustered around the church. Up until 1910, bullfights were regularly held in the square. This old Maya community was one of several clustered around the outside the perimeter of the Centro area. The Maya inhabitants provided masons and carpenters to build the colonial mansions surrounding the Centro area's Plaza Grande, as well as the maids, gardeners, cooks and other servants for the Spanish families who lived in them. The Maya settlements were self-governing (within limits) and each had their own patron saint and fiestas to celebrate their special days. Eventually, Mérida expanded and enveloped the Maya communities and they lost their independent status and character.

In this posting, we'll look at a stretch of the Camino Real (Royal Road) between the Templo de San Juan Bautista and the Ermita de San Isabel. This part of Merida begins 3 blocks south of the Plaza Grande and provides an interesting morning's walk through several centuries of Mérida's history.

Templo de San Juan Bautista

Templo de San Juan Bautista was built in a mixture of styles, including Moorish. The original 16th Century church was a humble, palm thatched affair, but over the centuries it was improved and enlarged repeatedly. Local crops were devastated by a series of locust attacks in 1552, 1616, and 1666. When, in 1769, yet another locust plague threatened, Franciscan friars led their Maya flocks in prayers to St. John he Baptist, asking for his protection. As a way to seal the deal with the saint, the Franciscans erected the current church, finishing it in 1770. The entrance and steeples are Baroque, with white, carved, stucco decorations, while an interior corridor shows Moorish influence. The church and its plaza stand at what was once the southern edge of colonial Mérida. Accordingly, there used to be a public inn behind the church to welcome travelers arriving to the city on the Camino Real.

Carole walks up the center aisle toward the retablo. The walls and pillars of this nave were made from the white limestone so prevalent in Mérida that it is still called "The White City". Notice the rustic poles used to support the arched ceiling when it was built in 1770.

The retablo is magnificent for such a small church. The term retablo literally means "behind the altar." This structure is part of the rich tradition of Mexican religious folk art from the 16th through the 19th Centuries. The statues and paintings of saints in the niches were usually made from tin, zinc, wood, or copper. The San Juan Bautista retablo is in the neo-Gothic style and is one of the few the survived the anti-clerical destruction that occurred during the Revolution. Inside the retablo are mechanical pulleys which can be operated to cover or reveal the saints.

One of several side chapels contained in niches. If you look closely at the pillars, you can get a sense of the white limestone used to build them. Often, the limestone used in Spanish construction was looted from the ancient Maya temples and palaces of the city of T'ho, upon which Mérida was built.

One way of giving thanks for favors granted. The statue above, which may be of San Juan himself (there was no sign), stands with upraised arms. Over these arms, worshipers have draped multicolored ribbons upon which they have inscribed messages of thanks to the saint.

El Camino Real

El Camino Real begins at this old colonial gate. The gate is located at the southwest corner of Plaza San Juan Bautista, and is one of many that used to guard the various entrances into the city. Throughout its colonial history, Mérida experienced Maya revolts and pirate raids, as well as the 10-year War of Independence. Then, from the mid-19th through the early 20th Centuries, the Caste War ravaged Yucatan. Maya insurgents laid seige to Mérida and came within a hair's breadth of forcing its evacuation. In the face of all these threats, Mérida authorities fortified the city, and created entrances guarded by gates like this. Of course, Mérida has long since expanded beyond its old limits and what remains of the fortifications are a collection of charming old arches.

A former colonial mansion is now a social services office. Like many colonial and 19th Century buildings in Mérida, this one has only one floor. The salmon-colored, masonry walls contain numerous windows and doors with carved stucco designs above them, a common practice among Mérida's colonial buildings. Today, the Center for Communications and Social Services is housed in the old mansion. Until the last half of the 20th Century, the Yucatan Peninsula was largely roadless. The Camino Real, or Royal Road, was built to connect Mérida with Campeche the second most important colonial city on the Peninsula. Campeche, a fortified Spanish port, is located on the west coast of the Peninsula 156.55 km (97.28 mi.) to the south. The Camino Real was constructed in 1790 under the orders of Colonial Governor D. Lucas de Galvez. Prior to that, communication between the two cities was primarily by ship.

Casa del Culcal Kin. Carole stands next to the home of Culcal Kin a once-prominent Maya. To date, I have been unable to establish exactly who Culcan Kin was or why he was notable enough for the city to have attached a identifying sign. Given the belfry arch and the crosses above the doors, he appears to have been Christianized. Many Maya nobles from the old society were able to continue their privileged positions, at least for a time, by adopting Christianity and collaborating with the Spanish Conquest. Although the identity of Culcal Kin is still a mystery to me, my friend and fellow blogger Debi Kuhn (see Debi in Merida) sent me a charming legend about the house. During the 1862-1867 French occupation of Mexico, fighting occurred in Mérida between the French and the supporters of Benito Juarez. A cannon ball hit a statue of San Antonio (St. Anthony) which was apparently attached to the original house, destroying the image of the child held in San Antonio's hand. This was a great sacrilege and, ever since, a ghost in the form of a faceless priest in flowing vestments has haunted the neighborhood. Some of the decorative elements of the house appear to be identical to those found at the Hermitage of Santa Isabel, a couple of blocks down the old Camino Real.

Hermitage of St. Isabel or Good Travel

Front of the Ermita de Santa Isabel. The Ermita is 7 blocks south of the gate at San Juan Bautista Plaza. It was built by D. Gaspar González de Ledesma in 1748. The title Ermita means "small chapel or shrine." After the completion of the Camino Real in 1790, the Ermita was viewed as the jumping-off-point for the long and sometimes perilous journey through the coastal jungle to Campeche. It was also a spot where tired travelers coming the other direction could find lodging and refreshment before entering Mérida. The gate at the right leads into a cool, shady, botanical garden. Although it is usually called by the name of Santa Isabel, the Ermita has also been known as Nuestra Señora del Buen Viaje (Our Lady of the Good Journey).

The Ermita chapel drew a single worshiper at the time we visited. Under the crucifix is a niche with a small statue of Santa Isabel (1271 AD-1336 AD), a Spanish noblewoman from Aragon. She was very pious and, after marrying the King of Portugal at 12 years old, she became known for building numerous hospitals, orphanages and other institutions to help the poor. Her gentle nature and ability to facilitate agreements led the fractious rulers of Medieval Europe to call upon her to settle disputes, thus avoiding much unnecessary bloodshed.

Choir loft at the back of the Ermita's chapel. Notice the rustic pole and plaster construction, the same that was used in the arches over the nave of Templo de San Juan Bautista. Until the mid-20th Century, it was the usual practice to place the choir area and the organ on a raised platform or a loft at the back of a Roman Catholic church. The presence of a nearby cemetery led to the Ermita being used as a convenient place for funeral processions to stop and hold a final mass for the dead.

The botanical garden gate, looking outward. The tall, leafy palms and other trees of the garden provide welcome shade on a warm, sunny day. Even in January, Mérida at mid-day can get quite warm. At first, we couldn't find a way into the locked garden, but a watchman showed up and kindly invited us inside.

The botanical garden was decorated by several primative-looking statues. Although they are Maya, they have a vaguely Olmec appearance. Nearby is grotto that is the remains of an old cenote.

An unusual tree from an unusual place. The sign below this startling tree identifies it as a Panoplia. It was originally found growing at the Templo del Tigres, (Temple of the Jaguars). The temple is located at the top of one of the walls forming Chichen Itza's Great Ball Court. At some point, the tree was transplanted to the Hermitage's garden. Growing from its lofty branches are what first appear to be vines.

The vines of the Panoplia are actually roots. They tangle together and cover the ground under the tree. A number of these trees growing close together would produce an almost impenetrable barrier to passage through the jungle. Three ancient arrowheads were found in the Panoplia, perhaps the result of some ancient ritual, or even of combat when Chichen Itza was finally overrun by its enemies.

An old coat-of-arms decorates the back wall of the Hermitage. As usual, there was no sign, but the coat-of-arms may be the family emblem of the man who commissioned the building of the Hermitage, D. Gaspar González de Ledesma. The emblem overlooks the ancient well used by travelers to stock up for their journey to Campeche or to refresh themselves after an exhausting return.

Parque del Ermita de Santa Isabel

A lovely little plaza adjoins the Ermita. In its center is a small kiosco with a red-tiled roof, typical of those put up all over Mexico during the Porfirio Diaz dictatorship during the late 19th Century. The park was formerly called Constitution Square, but was popularly known as "Rooster Square" because of the cockfights once held here. A famous Mérida tradition began near here. At one time, an inn facing the park was run by a man known as Don Hucho ("don" being a term of respect). Facing a sudden influx of visitors he scrambled to find a way to feed them all, in the process creating one of Mérida's signature dishes. He threw together torillas, beans, and whatever other ingredients were available and created an instant hit. The dish became widely known as Don Hucho's pan (bread), or--eventually--panucho.

Love seats are found in plazas and parks throughout Mérida. These little seats, known as confidenciales, are a delightful way to pass the time, assuming you have a companion. They all seem to be of the same design and originated during the Victorian era of the late 19th Century when everything European was in high demand in Mérida. Space on the seats remains in high demand, and we rarely found them empty as these are.

The completes Part 11 of my NW Yucatan series. If you get to Mérida, I encourage you to spend a morning exploring this section of the old Camino Real. If you would like to provide feedback or comments, you can do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Templo de las Siete Muñecas is part of an ancient Maya city north of Mérida. Dzbilichaltún (Zee-beelee-chal-tun) is not as well-known among foreign tourists as it ought to be. Only about 16 km (10 mi) north of Mérida, the site is just off the main highway to the port of Progreso and is easily reached. For a map of the area, click here. Carole and I and our friends Denis and Julika hired a taxi to the site, then hired a guide to show us around. The total cost per person was modest. Another reason to visit Dzibilichaltún is that its occupation lasted from approximately 500 BC to the Yucatan Conquest in 1542 AD, over 2000 years! This spans the period between the Olmecs and the Spanish arrival, and may make the city the oldest continuously occupied site in Mesoamerica. The reasons for Dzbilichaltún's longevity include its proximity to the fishing and salt resources of the Gulf Coast, and the fertile land all around the ancient city. The city's name means "Place where there is writing on flat stones."

Overview of the Temple of the Seven Dolls

Site map of the Temple and its surroundings. The top of the map is north. The arrow on the west (left) side points to Structure 12, a small altar with a stela (upright stone monument) on top, one of many in the area. In the center is a vertical row of four stuctures, north to south. The bottom three are almost identical in construction. To the east (right) is the Templo de los Siete Muñecas (Temple of the Seven Dolls), with ruined outbuildings to its east and south. The complex shown above is at the extreme east end of Dzbilichaltún ceremonial complex. To the west of Structure 12 is an ancient raised road leading to the Great Plaza and its surrounding pyramids, palaces, and temples.

Artist's conception of the Seven Dolls. Dzbilichaltún's museum was closed for renovations when we visited so I have no photos of the artifacts recovered in the area. However, the site map for the Temple provided this sketch of the dolls. Found inside the Temple when it was excavated in the 1950s, they were crudely made from clay. The dolls are almost certainly offerings left during ceremonies held at the temple in conjunction with the Vernal (Spring) Equinox.

Approach to the Temple of the Seven Dolls

The sacbe leading to the Temple was an architectural achievement in itself. The term sacbe means "white road" and refers to the ancient Maya practice of building raised roads to connect important sites. The road, known as Sacbe 1 seen above is 400 m (1312 ft) long. The width is 20 m (65.6 ft) and runs from tree line to tree line in the photo above. The sacbe is raised approximately 1 meter (3 ft) above the surrounding area. The road was constructed using limestone rubble surfaced by stucco made from crushed rock. Stone blocks were set as curbs along each side. Above, visible at the far east end, is the Temple of the Seven Dolls. In the opposite direction, the western terminus is the Great Plaza complex which I will show in my next two postings. This sacbe was mainly in use from 600 AD to 1000 AD. There are a total of eleven sacbeob (plural of sacbe) in the Dzbilichaltún area and some of them seem to connect the residential complexes of important families. The Maya were astounding road builders. Their highways were far superior to the roads of contemporary Mesoamerican civilizations. The longest known sacbe connects the ancient city of T'ho (modern Mérida) with the Caribbean Sea near modern Puerto Morelos, a distance of approximately 300 km (186.4 mi), much of it through thick jungle! This feat was accomplished by a civilization possessing no metal tools, no access to draft animals, and that did not use the wheel.

A stela and altar stand in front of a dance platform at the edge of the sacbe. The front of the platform is parallel with the sacbe curb running along the north side. The rest of the platform area extends back toward the trees. The upright stone in front of the platform is a stela, once covered by stucco designs and writing. Immediately in front of the stela is a small, cylindrical altar with a flat top, about the size and shape of a large bucket. Processions along the sacbe to the Temple of the Seven Dolls may have stopped here to make offerings and to watch feathered dancers twirl in ancient rituals.

A residential ruin lies in the trees to the north of the sacbe. While the large ceremonial structures have been largely excavated, the overwhelming majority of the 8,400 identified ruins at Dzbilichaltún have not. The size of the total site is 16 square km (9.9 sq. mi) and it once contained an ancient population of 20,000 or more. The areas surrounding the ceremonial structures are heaped with piles of overgrown rubble extending far back into the jungle.

Structure 12 straddles the sacbe approach to the Temple. The quadrangular platform has staircases leading up all four sides and is topped by yet another stela. Like the other 20 stelae found at Dzbiblchaltún this one was was once covered by stucco decorations. Structure 12 was probably another ceremonial stop on the way to the main event at the Temple, seen in the background.

One of 3 identical structures lined up in a row across the front of the Temple. Approximately 20 m (65.6 ft) to the west of the Temple is a north-south row of structures, nearly identical in construction. They are rectangular and have 3-step staircases leading up their sides to a row of doorways. The interiors of the structures are each divided lengh-wise by a wall, with several rooms along the east and west sides. Over time, some of the original doorways were sealed off, for unknown reasons. The exact purpose of these structures also unknown, except that they were closely associated with the activities at the Temple. Offerings found inside the structures include shells, fish bones, stingray tails, small objects made from green stones, obsidian, and various marine materials used in making ornaments. Maya worshippers sometimes used stingray tails to pierce their tongues or genitals, in order to obtain blood for rituals.

The Temple Exterior

The west side of the Temple of the Seven Dolls. This appears to have been the main entrance. The base is a four-sided pyramidal pedestal with stairs leading up from each side. On the pedestal sits a one-story temple with four doorways, one at the top of each set of stairs. Each door faces one of the four cardinal directions. Flanking the west doorway are two windows. The north-south-east-west orientation of the Temple indicates that the structure served as an astronomical observatory, particularly with respect to the Vernal Equinox. On that date, March 20, the rising sun shines in a blinding display directly through the east doorway and out the west doorway seen above. It must have been an impressive display to the thousands gathered to participate in the rituals surrounding the beginning of Spring. The main purpose of the rituals was to govern the all-important maize crop planting cycle, and to ensure adequate rain. Of course, the accuracy of the priest-rulers' Equinox and other astronomical predictions also reinforced their claims to rightful rulership. Politics, religion, and economics worked together seamlessly in ancient Maya society.

Altar near the top of the stairs to the main Temple entrance. This altar, located just below the west door, would no doubt have been a key focus of activity as the morning sun blazed through the doorway above it. The Temple we see today was covered over by a newer pyramid when archaeologists began their digging. The older structure they discovered was so remarkable that the scientists decided to remove most of the later pyramid covering it.

A mask of the rain-god Chaac adorns one of the top corners of the Temple. You can see the protruding nose, and below that a pair of lips and the chin below those. On either side of the nose is a niche representing Chaac's eyes. There is a similar Chaac mask on the other three corners and above each doorway. The Chaac masks at Uxmal and Chichen Itza are much more elaborate, indicating to me that this temple must be very much older than those sites. As the chief rain-god, Chaac was an extremely important figure in ancient Mesoamerica (he was called Tlaloc in many non-Maya cultures). This was especially so in northwest Yucatan where rain was the only source of fresh water, other than the scattered cenotes (limestone sinkholes). The Maya believed that Chaac lived in the cenotes and that he dispatched water from them to the heavens so that it could fall to earth as rain. That is, he would do so if the proper respect and rituals were accorded to him.

The main doorway of the Temple, topped by a Chaac mask. The placement of a Chaac mask above each of the four doorways was significant. The rain-god had four manifestations, one for each of the four directions, and each of these was represented by a different color. For example, the east was represented by Chac Xib Chaac, (Red Man Chaac). Each Spring Equinox, thousands of modern visitors arrive at Dzbilichaltún's Temple of the Seven Dolls to observe the spectacular celestial event. Most are tourists, some are New Age mystics, and others are traditional Maya, come to pay their respects to Chaac. Along with the writhing snake shadow that moves down the steps of El Castillo pyramid at Chichen Itza, the Seven Dolls temple once again demonstrates the Maya's remarkable ability to use acute astronomical observations, along with their engineering and architectural prowess, to create structures that still manage to entrance multitudes.

The Temple Interior

Support poles brace the interior walls of the Temple. The space inside the Temple was filled with stones and sealed off when the newer pyramid was built over it. Covering an older structure with a newer one was common practice among Mesoamerica's builders. I am always struck by how small and claustrophobic the interiors of these ancient structures often are. It is almost as if the creative energy was exhausted on the grand approaches and exterior features.

Archaeologist graffiti? In order to keep track of the stones they used to restore a structure, as opposed to the original stones already in place, archaeologists mark them with numbers.

Inside of the tower that sits atop the Temple. The Maya never mastered the true arch, so they used what is called the corbel, or "false arch." The interior is lit up by the bright sunlight pouring in through the one window of the tower.

Other views

Carole strolls the small plaza separating the Temple from the triple structures in front. This photo, taken from the top step of the Temple staircase, provides a sense of scale. In the background you can see two of the three identical structures that parallel the west side of the Temple. In this view, you are looking at the backs of the structures seen in a previous photo.

View through the window next to the Temple's west doorway. In the foreground is the middle of the three identical structures. Here, you can see the long stairway along its base rising to the three doorways. Stretching out into the distance to the west is Sacbe 1. At the far end, out of view, is the Great Plaza complex.

Carole, on her way to the Great Plaza. In this photo you can clearly see how the sacbe is raised above ground level. Visible inn the foreground are the limestone blocks that the ancient Maya used as curbs. Ahead of Carole, in the distance, you can see our friend Denis. A bit further on, slightly to the left of center, are the stepped platforms of the main pyramid. When we visited Dbilichaltún, we saw almost no other tourists. The serenity of an ancient site like this is best savored when the only sounds are the wind and the birds.

This completes Part 12 of my NW Yucatan series. In the next posting, I will show the magnificent palaces, pyramids, and temples that border the huge plaza of Dzbilichatún. I hope you have enjoyed this photographic visit as much as I did when I was there in person. If you would like to comment, please do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

The Main Pyramid, also known as Structure 36. This pyramid is located at the northeast corner of the Great Plaza complex, where Sacbe 1 enters. Sacbe 1 is the 400 m (1312 ft) long limestone road that connects the Great Plaza with the Temple of the Seven Dolls that you saw in the previous posting. The Great Plaza is of an heroic size and contains many fascinating and unique structures around its borders. There are so many that it will take this posting plus two more to show them all. As I always do before beginning a posting, I searched the internet for information about Dzibilchaltún. I was quite disappointed with the result of my efforts. The few websites I found focused on a mere handful of this ancient city's many amazing features. The rest of the site was usually mentioned vaguely in a brief sentence or ignored completely. As a result, most of the information about the structures you will see comes from photos I took of the signs in front of each. When I complete my four postings on Dzibilchaltún, I believe that my presentation will be unique on the internet in showing all the major features, with at least some information on each. Why go to all this trouble? My reasons are that Dzibilchaltún is not only a beautiful site, but also may be the longest continuously occupied city (500 BC-1542 AD) not only in the Maya area but also in all of Mesoamerica.

The Great Plaza

The triple stelae platforms. As you approach the Great Plaza entrance along Sacbe 1, this series of three ceremonial platforms appears on your left. They lie along a north-south axis just outside the plaza behind the row of temples and palaces that make up its east side. The platforms are roughly square and each stands about 1 m (3 ft) high, with a two-sided stela (upright stone monolith) in the center. The stelae rise to about 1.2 m (4 ft) above their platforms. The flat faces of the stelae are now blank, but they once contained carved stucco designs. These three are among 20 such stelae found at Dzibilchaltún. Had the stucco survived, we might know a great deal more about the ancient city than we do, because similar stelae in other Maya cities usually contain pictures of priest-rulers and Maya hieroglyphs outlining dynastic histories replete with victories and conquests.

Site map of the Great Plaza and its associated structures. The map is oriented so that north is at the top. The Main Pyramid (Structure 36) is located in the upper right corner, facing slightly southwest. Attached to the lower left corner of the pyramid is the long, roughly rectangular Structure 39, which contains a fascinating underground room. To the west of Structure 39 is a rectangular stepped temple. Just to the north of the temple is a residential complex called Structure 38, home of an elite family of considerable importance. On the west side of the plaza is a temple in the shape of a reversed "L". Just south of that temple is an open curve marking the eastern boundary of a large, water-filled, limestone pit called a cenote. Occupying the whole south side of the Great Plaza is Edifice 44, a very long, stepped structure with a row of pillars along the top. The east side of the plaza is made up of a residential palace with a central stairway and three long sets of rooms on top. North of the palace are two more temples which form the southern part of the Sacbe 1 entry point. In the center of the plaza (see arrow) are the remains of some colonial-era structures including a very early 16th Century open-air church and a small stone house. In this posting, we will look at the north and west sides of the plaza. In the next, the south and east sides will be shown. The final posting will cover the cenote and some structures outside the plaza such as the Ball Court, and also the colonial-era structures. For the next couple of postings, you may want to refer back to this map to get your bearings.

Structure 36 & 39: The Main Pyramid and its undergound chamber

The Main Pyramid was built during a crucial historical transition. The Main Pyramid seen above is only partly uncovered. That which can be seen is made up of four square stepped platforms. The top platform stands 9.4 m (30.8 ft) above the ground. There is one grand staircase on the south side facing the plaza. At one time there must have been a temple on top built of perishable materials since no vault stones were found. Archaeologists date this building to between 900 AD and 1000 AD, the transition point between the Terminal Classic and Post-Classic eras. During this period of great turmoil, Classical Maya society was disintegrating. People were abandoning many of the famous cities in Guatemala and the southern Yucatan and moving into the northern area. "Mexicanized" Maya from the Gulf Coast, who had been heavily influenced by the Toltec civilization of Central Mexico, began an invasion of northern Yucatan, eventually conquering many cities in the area, including the city they renamed Chichen Itza.

Schematic of the Main Pyramid and Structure 39. Above you can see a top-down view of the pyramid, as well as the long, low, rectangular building projecting out from its southwest (lower left) side. Structure 39 was built onto the Main Pyramid during the Early Post Classic era (1000 AD-1200 AD), one of the few structures added to Dzibilchaltún during this period. The long rectangular building was originally topped by a double room with a two-columned portico in front and had entrance stairs with balustrades. Because it is so closely associated with the Main Pyramid, the structure may have had a religious function. In later times, Structure 39 appears to have been modified, and it was inhabited through the Late Post Classic era. The most interesting feature of Structure 39, and one of the most intriguing of all Dzibilchaltún, is the small underground room whose entrance is identified by the arrow.

The underground room is reached by a staircase and short hall. Almost immediately, there is a sharp-angled turn to left, forming an inverted "L" shape. After you make the turn, the room in front of you (seen above) is about the size of a small, walk-in closet. At the far end, to the left, is a small alcove. The room is lit by sunlight from an opening made by archaeologists.

Head of a fallen ruler? The carving seen above is one of two broken stelae (designated #18 and #19) embedded into the wall to your right as you enter the chamber. The bas-relief carvings are of richly-dressed men (possibly the same man) of the elite class. The figure above, shown from the neck up, holds a scepter in his right hand, indicating that he may have been a ruler of Dzibilchaltún. The style is pure Classic-era, showing no influence from Mexicanized Maya. Who was this person, and why was his stela broken and used as a wall-support in an underground room?

Lower half of one of the two broken stelae. In his left hand, the figure holds what may be a shield. He wears a sarong-like garment on his lower body and on his calves are leather thongs laced up from sandals (his feet are missing). From a belt around his waist hangs a kind of pouch which extends to his knees. The timing of the construction of Structure 39, along with the breaking of the stelae and their placement, may tell a significant tale in Dzibilchaltún's history. It was common practice among the ancient Maya for a conqueror to smash or otherwise deface the stelae of the ruler he displaced, thus making a very graphic political statement. Both stelae may portray the same ruler, and both have been decapitated, a common form of human sacrifice. The placement of these stelae indicates contempt. They are in an obscure location, and were used as lowly foundation supports. Rather than being placed in its normal upright position, the figure above is prone, a position of submission. The fact that the stelae are in Classic Maya style, and that they were apparently placed here during the period of the Mexicanized Maya conquest of northern Yucatan, indicates that the carvings may have been of the ruler who was on the throne when the outsiders took over. Assuming he wasn't killed in battle, his fate was probably to be sacrificed, possibly by decapitation, in the Great Plaza before the assembled multitudes,

But the story doesn't end there. Upon further examination of the little chamber, I made another intriguing discovery. There is a small alcove at the end of the room, directly opposite the decapitated stelae. The walls of the alcove are blackened by smoke from countless fires. Why would anyone build a fire here, in this obscure and unlikely spot? Clearly it was not the sort of place one would pick for a campsite. There are hundreds of better places around Dzibilchaltún for ordinary cooking fires. This has the hallmarks of a ritual site. The fact that it is directly across from the fallen stelae--there is no other point of interest in the room--indicates a possible relationship. Could priests from the new regime have come here to celebrate the defeat of the fallen ruler? This seems unlikely to me. Such celebrations would have been political statements of triumph, and thus public in nature. They would not have been hidden as these ritual fires clearly were. Perhaps some memory of the glorious Classic past flickered on through the dark ages of the Post Classic period, whose rulers' obsession with death is so evident at Chichen Itza. Could some secret cult have sought to perpetuate these old memories by coming here to light ritual fires to mourn the fall of the leader shown in the stelae, and all he represented? Much of the above is based upon a few facts and some educated speculation on my part. Anyone with factual information that would disprove my conjectures, or with an opposing theory, is welcome to comment.

Structure 38: An Ancient Palace

A site map of Structure 38 reveals a small temple overlooking a residential area. The Structure 38 complex is located just to the north of the long rectangular stepped temple seen in the dotted lines at the bottom of the drawing above. This places it just outside the rim of the Great Plaza, indicating that this was the compound of an elite family of great importance. A small, square, stepped temple occupies the east end of the complex (see arrow), with a broad stairway leading up to its door. On the other three sides of the complex are rectangular structures each containing multiple rooms. The middle area forms a mini-plaza where family activities could be conducted.

The Structure 38 complex, as it looks today. The forest in the background contains many rubble piles from ancient homes and other structures. Dzibilchaltún contains more than 8400 such structures and only a handful, like the one above, have been excavated. The area immediately around the Great Plaza was reserved for the homes of the elite. Moving out in concentric circles, you encounter traces of the more modest dwellings of the common people.

Structure 38's temple. Parts of this temple are still unexcavated. This is one of the oldest vaulted buildings in the ancient city. At one time it was covered with painted and carved stucco. The style of this and the other buildings of Structure 38 show the influence of the Central Mexico civilizations. This was the result of trade rather than conquest, since the complex was built sometime between 600 AD and 800 AD. That period was the height of the Classic era, and centuries before the Mexicanized Maya invasion.

The temple, viewed from the south side. In the foreground are the rooms of one of the residential structures. As you can see, the temple is taller than it appears from the front, due to a greater amount of excavation on this side.

Metates found within Structure 38. These limestone troughs were among several that were found in or around the residential buildings. Metates (may-ta-tays) were used to grind maiz (corn). The roundish object in the larger trough is a mano, the rock used to do the grinding. Metates and manos can still be found in Mexican hardware stores. They are not tourist nicknacks, but functional kitchen implements. This is one of the oldest continuously used technologies on earth, dating back to 7000 BC. In addition to the metates, archaeologists also found various pieces of pottery at Structure 38. However, those pieces were in the Dzibilchaltún museum which was closed for renovation when we visited.

Room directly behind the temple. A low doorway can be glimpsed at the upper left. The rather small and cramped rooms of the ancient Maya cities puzzled me at first. Why go to all the trouble to build these massive structures just to end up with such limited space? One answer has to do with the engineering problems encountered while building with un-reinforced stone, particularly when the concept of the true arch is unknown. Walls must be thick and not too high, leading to small rooms. However, there may be another answer: the climate. Rooms walled with thick stone provide insulation from Yucatan's oppressive heat and, conversely, can hold heat within the room on the few cool days. Finally, the rooms did not need to be big because the climate allows nearly year-round outdoor living. People would use the plazas, patios, and stepped areas of the structures to conduct business, engage in crafts or food processing, or just to lounge around.

A rectangular, four-stepped temple lies a short space to the south of Structure 38. This is the temple outlined with dots seen at the bottom (south) side of the Structure 38 site map. The photo was taken looking south from the Structure 38 temple platform. Just on the other side of the temple shown above is the Great Plaza. The west end of this temple forms the northwest corner of the plaza. There are large staircases on the north and south sides. At one time there may have been a structure built on top made of perishable materials.

The west side of the Great Plaza is formed by this temple structure. My information on this temple comes from my friend Erik, who shares my interest in archaeology and sent me some details from his home in Denmark. Structure 57, seen above, is also known as the Standing Temple and was probably built somewhere between 800-850 AD, the end of the Classic era. The construction shows influence from the Puuc style and is of rough stone blocks covered by a fine limestone plaster. Overall, the work seems superior to that of earlier buildings. The view here is from the top of the temple shown in the previous photo, looking slightly southwest at the northern end of the structure. The Standing Temple is "L" shaped, with the short arm of the L (out of sight above) at the southern end of the temple, extending off to the right. The staircase above has nine steps, a symbolic number in Maya cosmology. They believed that after death a person's soul entered an underworld with nine levels, the lowest of which was Mitnal, ruled by Ah Puch, the God of Death. Visible above, on top of the long arm of the L, are two rooms, each with a doorway facing the Great Plaza. The short arm, which extends west, is topped by another two rooms. These are back to back, divided lengthwise by a wall, and with a doorway facing north and another to the south. As with Structure 38, the forest behind this temple is filled with additional temples, homes, and other structures.

This completes Part 13 of my NW Yucatan series. In the next part we will continue our examination of the Great Plaza structures, including a palace built on a platform that is the longest in all of Mesoamerica. I always welcome feedback, corrections, and--especially in this case--additional information. If you would like to do this, please use the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can reply.

Hasta luego, Jim

Looking west down the stadium-like steps of the Palace. In parts 12 and 13 of my NW Yucatan series, I showed Dzibilchaltún's Temple of the Seven Dolls, and the North and West sides of the Great Plaza containing the Main Pyramid, the temple/residential complex known as Structure 38, and the Standing Temple. In this posting, we'll complete the circuit with a look at the south and east sides of the plaza. To help orient yourself, you might want to refer briefly back to Part 13 for a schematic showing the whole Great Plaza area. Dzibilchaltún contains a number of features unique among Maya cities. To begin with, it sets the record for the longest continuous occupation: over 2000 years. In this posting we'll see a couple more of those record-setting features.

Edifice 44: The Palace

Edifice 44 (the "Palace") takes up the whole south side of the plaza. In the site map above, you see a top-down view. The arrow points to the immensely long set of fifteen stairs leading to the top of three stepped platforms. On the top platform is a long series of pillars, which are actually doorways into the now-roofless structure. According to the sign at its base, the whole building is 130 m (420 ft) long, and the steps are the longest to be found in all of Mesoamerica. The 35 doorways at the top level exceed in number any other set of doors to be found in the Maya region. The rectangular structure at the back of the long platform (upper right) contains several rooms of unknown purpose.

The east end of the Palace was built with rounded corners. Such corners are fairly unusual in Maya construction. The only others I have seen are on the Sorcerer's Pyramid at Uxmal. The Palace was built during four different periods of Dzibilchaltún's history, with some sections covered over by successive constructions.

View of the grand staircase looking east. The Palace was in use from the peak of the Classic era well into the Post-Classic (600 AD - 1000 AD). Although archaeologists nicknamed it the Palace, the building appears to have functioned more like a set of stadium seats. From them, hundreds of spectators could view the various religious and political rituals conducted in the Great Plaza. In the foreground is a stone wall from a Colonial-era corral.

The top platform of the Palace has 35 doorways. All the doorways opened into a single long room, the roof of which is missing and may have been made of perishable materials. In the photo, you are looking directly east. Ancient people sitting on the steps of the Palace (to the left, below the pillars) would have had a spectacular view of processions emerging through the northeast entrance of the Great Plaza, after having traveled along the 400 m length of Sacbe 1 from the Temple of the Seven Dolls (see Part 12).

At the center of the long staircase, near the top, is a small entrance. Had this structure been an actual palace, with residential and/or administrative functions, it would have been full of rooms and hallways. Instead, the huge building contains this single doorway into its interior. This reinforces the impression that its purpose was to provide seating for extravaganzas in the Great Plaza.

The Palace entrance door leads to this hallway. Off the hallway to the right are three doorways opening into small rooms. These may have been for storage of materials related to the rituals in the plaza. Notice the corbel or "false" arch at the end of the hall on the left of the photo. The Maya never mastered the technique of the true arch, which meant that their buildings had to have thick walls and small rooms. Also notice the small objects hanging from the doorways at the upper left of the photo.

Above the doorways at the end of the hall were several hives. The bees (or possibly wasps) were not aggressive, thank goodness, and remained calm while I photographed them. The dark wooden lintel beams on the right do not appear to be original. They were probably placed there by the people who did the restoration work.

The East Side Complex

View of the East Side Complex from the top of the Palace. Because this set of structures is unnamed in any of the literature I have examined, I have dubbed it the "East Side Complex". Partially obscured by a tree is a long low platform with rooms along the top. The platform is reached by a long staircase with five steps. In the center of the platform is a higher, but narrower, staircase. There are three sets of rooms on top of this platform, with a central cluster containing most of them. Two sets of rooms, identical to each other but smaller than the central group, are sited to the north and south of the center.

Site map of the East Side Complex. At the lower left is the eastern corner of Edifice 44 (the "Palace"). In the center is the complex seen in the previous photo, which--given the number of rooms-- was probably a true palace with residential and/or administrative functions. Above that are the two small temples which will be seen at the end of this posting. Above the small temples, out of sight, is the Main Pyramid, separated from the temples by Sacbe 1, which enters the Great Plaza at the northeast corner. Sacbe 1 is the ancient road that leads to the Temple of the Seven Dolls. These three structures make up the entire east side of the Great Plaza area. Oddly, they are ignored by all literature, either printed or on-line, that I can find relating to Dzibilchaltún's Great Plaza. Even a schematic of the plaza distributed by the Dzibilchaltún museum itself shows only a blank space in this area. The site map above is a detail from the overall Great Plaza site map (see Part 13) located near the Main Pyramid. The East Side Complex itself has no informational sign or site map devoted to its structures.

View of the southern end of the East Side Complex from atop the Palace. At the back of the platform, a set of four doorways leads into a narrow room. Between the doorways and the stairs leading up to the platform is a broad porch area. The year-round warm climate would have allowed various domestic activities to occur in this area, so large interior rooms would not have been necessary.

Closeup of the rooms at the rear of the East Side Complex. Above, you get a better view of the four doorways and the rooms into which they lead. The walls are thick and the rooms are small, indicating that they were probably used mostly for privacy, sleeping, or protection from the occasional rains. An identical set of rooms sits on the northern end of this platform. The eastern end of the Palace, from which I took the previous photo, can be seen in the upper right of the photo above.

View of the central cluster of rooms and its approach staircase. Most of the rooms in the East Side complex were grouped in this area, and it was clearly the most important part of this complex. Given that it faces directly onto the plaza, the East Side Complex was probably the residence of very important members of the elite class, perhaps the family of the ruler himself.

A line of identical doorways opens into of the central cluster of rooms. The rooms were not much bigger than a modern prison cell. The wooden lintels over the doors are part of the reconstruction. In the Yucatan climate, materials such as wood are very perishable.

Another view of two of the central cluster of rooms. These two rooms are divided down the middle by a wall. They were about 4 m (12 ft) long and 1.5-2 m wide (4-6 ft) wide.

Someone blocked a doorway in the East Side Complex. It was not clear to me whether the door had been blocked by the ancient people for some unknown reason, or whether it was filled up by the restoration crew to support the wall.

The East Side Temples

View from the Main Pyramid of the two small temples on the Great Plaza's east side. These temples form the northern section of the East Side Complex. The path you can see crossing diagonally just below the Main Pyramid is part of Sacbe 1 as it enters the northeast corner of the Great Plaza. Not much is left of the nearer temple, just a stone platform about .5 m (1.5 ft) high and probably 7 m X 10 m (20 ft X30 ft) in size. It may have been a sort of dance platform, or there may have once been a structure on top, made of perishable materials.

The larger temple is a rectangle with a nine-step front staircase.Nine was a sacred number to the ancient Maya and temples are often found with that number of stairs leading up to the top platform. For example, the famous Castillo (also known as the Pirámide de Kukulkan) at Chichen Itza is a structure made up of nine stepped platforms. The number nine is closely associated with both the Maya calendar and their nine-step underworld. The top of the temple contains the remains of an ancient altar.

Another view of the altar atop the second temple. The view is to the southwest, with the Palace stairs visible at the upper left of the photo. The people in the background can provide a sense of scale. There was no indication, when we visited, of what god or gods were worshiped on this platform. Like so much of the ancient Maya world, this remains a mystery.

This completes Part 14 of my NW Yucatan series. In the next part, we will conclude our visit to Dzibilchaltún with a look at the sacred Xlacah Cenote, the Ball Court, and the Colonial-era ruins. I hope you have enjoyed seeing the longest-occupied city in the ancient Mesoamerican world. I appreciate feedback, so if you would like to provide some, either leave your thoughts in the Comments section below or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Xlacah Cenote is located at the southwest corner of the Great Plaza. The name Xlacah means "Old Town" or "Old People." Cenote is a Spanish corruption of the Maya word dzonot, meaning "well." In ancient times, cenotes were the sole reliable sources of clean, fresh water in NW Yucatan. The initial settlement of this area more than 2000 years ago was probably due to this readily available water. The name Xlacah seems to support that view. Cenotes in NW Yucatan are associated with the Chicxulub Crater, created when a massive meteorite struck the northwest coast about 65 million years ago. The impact caused the worldwide extinction of the dinosaurs and other species, but there were some positive aspects. Along the curved edge of the crater, the limestone base underlying most of the Yucatan Peninsula was cracked, allowing water to further penetrate the already porus limestone. Eventually, trickling water undermined the limestone platform. These weakened areas collapsed into sinkholes, opening up underground pools and rivers that became cenotes. In this, the last of my four postings on Dzibilchaltún, I'll show you the Xlacah Cenote, the Ball Court, and the remains of some interesting Colonial-era buildings.

Once a sacred site, this is now a popular swimming hole. A Mexican tourist enjoys the cool water on a hot Yucatan day. There are no life guards, so swimming is at your own risk. The oval-shaped pool is about 30.5 m (100 ft.) at its widest point. Various groups of divers have attempted to find the bottom since the 1950s. They managed to reach a depth of 44 m (144 ft), but no one has yet found the bottom. The divers did find numerous objects made of wood, bone, and stone, as well as fragments of pottery. A number of human skeletons were also found, but it is unclear whether these were sacrifices or possibly drownings that occurred over the centuries. Some of the objects seem to have been offerings, so it is believed that this was a sacred site, not just a source of potable water.

Mouth of a small cave near the cenote. The photo above shows how a seemingly solid platform of limestone can be undermined by water leakage. The Maya believed that caves were openings into the mystical underworld, and they were especially important if they contained water. Chaac was the rain god and the Maya believed he lived in cenotes and water-filled caves. If the appropriate ceremonies and rituals were performed, accompanied with the correct offerings, Chaac would send water from the cenote or cave up to the skies to form rain. For an agriculture-based society, this was an extremely important process. In addition, caves were closely associated with sexuality and fertility. The entrance of a cave represented the vagina and the cave itself the womb. Still another view of caves concerned life and death. That which emerged from a cave represented life, and that which descended into one represented death.

Dzibilichaltún as archaeologists found it.

This large conical pile of rubble was once part of a temple. Just outside the southwest corner of the Great Plaza are several large rocky mounds. This one has a group of sisal plants growing at its peak. The stone heap is probably 6-9 m (20-30 ft) high. Mounds like this are what archaeologists typically find when they locate a new site. A layman walking through the jungle would probably pass right by, without a second thought. It would be even easier to overlook the thousands of smaller ruins that dot the area. There are 8400 structures within the 25.7 square kilometers (16 sq. mi) of Dzibilchaltún, and the vast majority are unexcavated.

A partially restored temple, its top still covered by rubble. This temple is located near the western end of the Palace (see Part 14). There was no evidence of on-going work, so the restoration project may have run out of money or time. In many cases, large trees have taken root on top of ruins like this. Over the centuries, the jungle has reclaimed an area once swarming with human activity.

Tourists clamber over the ruins. In many of Mexico's major sites, tourists would be barred from clambering over ruined structures like this. The authorities of INAHA, the Mexican agency concerned with archaeological sites, are concerned about touritst safety, but also about the structural integrity of the ruin. I included this shot because the people help provide a sense of scale on this once-large temple.

Wildlife abounds in Yucatan. This iguana peeped up at me from a pile of rubble as I passed by. The iguanas at Dzibilchaltún seem fairly tame, probably because they are used to tourists and protected by the site staff. There 180 species of reptiles and amphibians native to Yucatan. The one above may be a Spiny Tailed Iguana (Ctenosaura defensor) which is found only in Western Yucatan.

The Ball Court

Carole and Denis approach the ball court. The view above is of the north end of the ball court. Two features found almost universally at Mesoamerican ruins are stepped pyramids and ball courts. Both kinds of structures date back to that "Mother of Cultures", the early Olmecs. Dzibilchatún's court is located a short distance to the southwest of the Palace. Its size is modest compared to the huge ball court found at Chichen Itza, but this one is still of respectable dimensions. Some ancient cities had multiple courts, but we didn't see any others during our visit. Still, they may well have been there, given the long occupancy of Dzibilchaltún and the number of unexcavated rubble piles scattered through the surrounding jungle.

The court shows many of the features found in such Mesoamerican structures, but lacks others. Here, you are looking north, from the south end of the court. The playing field, as usual, consists of a long rectangular grassy area along with the two sloping stone walls that parallel it. Spectators would have sat along the flat tops of the stone walls. However, this ball court's playing field doesn't appear to incorporate the areas at each end. In the design of many other ball courts, these areas would correspond to the short cross pieces at the top and bottom of a capital "I", but the cross pieces are missing in this court's design. At Chichen Itza and Uxmal, there are large stone rings mounted, one on each wall, through which players would have tried to propel the hard rubber ball. There are no such rings on the Dzibilchaltún court's walls. No sign was available at the sight to explain these differences, and there was no mention of this ball court in any of the on-line or printed materials I researched.

A stairway mounts the rear of each of the Ball Court's sloping walls. This would have allowed spectators to ascend to the level area where they could stand or sit along the top of the sloping walls. The ball games functioned as much more than simple entertainment. They held deep religious significance and were directly related to the Maya origin myth. The games were also used as a way to settle conflicts, sort of a combination of a Super Bowl and a Supreme Court hearing, with a High Mass thrown in for good measure.

Just beyond the ball court were more ruins. These were scattered through the forest off into the distance and may have been residential.

Remains of stucco surfacing. The ancient Maya often paved the surfaces of their plazas and sacbes (roads) with stucco made of limestone paste. The surface seen above can be found near the north entrance of the ball court. Leaves have drifted into shallow depressions in the stucco. Oddly, this prosaic pavement gave me more of a feeling of connection with these ancient people than their great temples and pyramids. I felt I was literally walking in the footsteps of those who passed this way thousands of years ago.

The Colonial-era ruins at Dzibilichaltún

In the center of the Great Plaza stand the ruins of a Colonial-era chapel.Dzibilchatún was a still-functioning Maya city when the Spanish arrived. As late as the period between 1590 and 1600, there were enough people living in and around the ancient city for church authorities to build a chapel here. The usual Spanish practice was to build such a church directly on top of an existing temple or pyramid, in order to firmly establish the dominance of the New Order. In this case, they built their chapel in the center of the Great Plaza, surrounded by all those ancient structures. However, they did cannibalize materials from the old buildings to construct their new church. The ruins seen above are the barrel vault of the presbytery with an altar in the back. Attached on the left (north) side is a small room that served as the sacristy. Extending out into the grassy area is a line of stone which was part of the foundation of the open-air nave.

The chapel, as it may have looked in early colonial times. The nave was open-aired, with a thatched roof supported by poles. This kind of simple structure was known as an "Indians' chapel". Under its thatched canopy, the Maya were taught the elements of their conquerors' religion. The nave is, of course, long gone due to the perishable materials with which it was constructed.

The presbytery containing the altar beneath the barrel vault. Above the altar, you can see two niches, no doubt containing religious statues when the chapel was functioning.

The "Priest's House" lies just north of the chapel. I wasn't certain whether this was colonial or pre-hispanic until I saw the arched window (left). Since the Maya never achieved the true arch in their architecture, this was definitely the house where Franciscan friars stayed during their circuits through the area. Found inside the house was a piece of stone carved with the date 1539. The significance of the stone's date is unknown, but the military part of the Conquest of Yucatan was in full swing at that time. Mérida wasn't founded as the colonial capital until 1542.

Gate to a Colonial-era corral. At one time, Dzibilchaltún was part of a hacienda that apparently raised cattle and horses. In the background, the massive stairway of the Palace rises to its top platform, lined with 35 doorways. I wondered what a colonial vaquero (cowboy) might have thought of the great temples and palaces standing silently around him as he tended his herds.

This completes Part 15 of my NW Yucatan series, and is the last of four segments on Dzibilchaltún. I am proud of this four-part subseries, since it may represent the most comprehensive record of this ancient city available on the internet. I hope you have enjoyed this posting. If you would like to provide feedback, please do so in the Comments section below or email me directly.

If you would like to leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so that I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

A colorful alebrije hisses at passersby in the Museo del Arte Popular. Alebrijes were invented by Mexico City artist Pedro Linares López in 1936. When he was 30 years old, he got very sick to the point of delirium, and in his wild hallucinations, he saw these creatures crying out "alebrije, alebrije!" When he returned to consciousness, he gave that name to the fanciful little beings he began to create from cardboard and paper. This one was displayed at the Museum of Popular Art. The museum is one of the main attractions of Barrio del la Mejorada, which is located a few blocks to the east of the Plaza Grande in Mérida. After our visit to the ruins at Dzibilchaltún, we continued to explore the neighborhoods of the Centro Historico. The history of the Mejoradabarrio (neighborhood) goes back to the earliest colonial times. The area has undergone numerous transformations over the centuries, from a posh residential section for the colonial elite, to an industrial neighborhood, and back to a residential area with a strong foreign presence.

La Plaza Mejorada

This fine old mansion occupies most of the south side of the Plaza Mejorada. The Plaza is the heart of Barrio de la Mejorada. It is bordered on the south by this freshly refurbished mansion. On the southeast corner is a Franciscan church, and the Museo del Arte Popular sits on the northwest corner. Like the one above, many of the formerly crumbling but still beautiful old buildings are undergoing restoration. In 1562, barely 20 years after the Conquest of Yucatan, the first hospital in Mérida was constructed in Barrio de la Mejorada, and about 120 years later a Franciscan Convent was built adjacent to the church. Both the hospital and the convent were used for multiple purposes over the following centuries. Several other significant historical structures stand along nearby streets. The Arco de los Dragones, is an arch similar to the one already seen in Part 11 of this series. The arches were built by General Juan José de la Bárcenas in 1690 as a way of creating a separation between the neighborhoods around the Plaza Grande, occupied by the colonial elite, and the surrounding Maya and mestizo barrios. The word dragones doesn't refer to creatures like the alebrije shown in the first photo of this posting. It is instead the Spanish term for heavy cavalry ("dragoons" in English) used by armies from the 16th through the early 20th Centuries. The term originated with the the French firearm called a "dragon" that was carried by mounted troops. The arch stands next to the old cuartel, or barracks used by those dragones.

Monument to Los Niños Heroes in the center of Plaza Mejorada. The "boy heroes" were six young military cadets who died in 1847 defending the Mexican Military Academy atop Chapultepec hill in Mexico City. The school's cadets, aged 10 to 16, fiercely resisted the invading U.S. troops under General Winfield Scott. The cadets were ordered by their commander to retreat, but they refused and fought to the death. One of them, rather than allow his nation's flag to be captured, wrapped himself in it and leaped to his death from the precipice upon which the military school perched. Unlike that of the cadets, the behavior of leaders on both the Mexican and U.S. sides was something less than honorable. The Mexican American War was deliberately provoked by U.S. President James K. Polk. In order to allow for the expansion of slavery, he was eager to seize the Mexican territories which now comprise the Southwest U.S. states and California. Many U.S. citizens at the time were outraged at Polk's blatant war of aggression. These included a young member of Congress named Abraham Lincoln, who gave a speech on the floor of Congress strongly contesting the lies upon which the war was based. On the Mexican side, General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana totally mismanaged the war and, as a consequence, Mexico lost almost half of its territory to the U.S.

Iglesia de la Mejorada

Iglesia de la Mejorada is also called Iglesia de la Orden. This was because the church, finished in 1640, added a convento (monastery) of the Franciscan Order in 1688. The church is built in the Romanesque style, which originated in the beginning of the European Dark Ages. Typical of this style are high, thick walls without buttresses. As seen above, small, comparatively irregular pieces of stone are used in construction, and they are heavily embedded with mortar. Romanesque windows are narrow and comparatively few in number.

The church has two campanarios, or bell towers. Each of the campanarios has three bells of varying sizes, with room for a fourth at the top. The bells are still rung by means of long ropes draped down the side of the building. The Franciscan convento adjacent to the church underwent various changes over the centuries, becoming a hospital, a prison for women, and a soldier's barracks. It became the University of Yucatan's School of Architecture in 1983.

The single nave of the church has several chapels extending out on either side. The rounded arches of the nave and side chapels are another distinct feature of the Romanesque style. The term nave ("ship" in Spanish) may be the origin of the word "navy." When you look up at the ceiling of a church like this, you have the illusion of looking at the interior ribs of the hull of a ship. Notice the spare furnishings, another aspect of Romanesque style.

A small but elaborate retablo stands behind the altar. Enshrined in the retablo are the figures of Nuestra Señora del Carmen and the baby Jesus. Del Carmen is yet another name by which the church is known. There are many versions of the Virgin Mary within Catholicism and the formal name of this one is Nuestra Señora del Monte Carmelo, referring to Mt. Carmel in the Holy Land. In Spain, she is closely associated with the Spanish Armada (navy) and is the patron of the military in Argentina, Perú, and Chile. It is possible that the choice of this particular version of the Virgin for the Iglesia de la Mejorada is related to the nearby Cuartel de los Dragones.

One side chapel contained a shrine to a martyr of the Cristero War. Jesuit priest José Ramón Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez was executed in 1927 without trial or evidence by the government of President Plutarco Elias Calles. From the earliest days of the Conquest through the Revolution of 1910, the Mexican Catholic Church hierarchy, with a few exceptions, gave the society's elite groups strong support as they dominated and repressed the general population. Many church institutions themselves owned haciendas where the peones were treated little better than slaves. As a result, the Church earned the bitter resentment of those who waged and won the Revolution. The Constitution of 1917 severely cut back the rights and privileges of the Church in society. President Calles attempted to enforce the Constitution, but did it with an extremely heavy hand, setting off the Cristero War of 1926-1929. This was an uprising of Cathoics whose battle cry was "Viva Cristo Rey!" The picture above was painted from a photograph taken of Father Miguel Pro at the time of his execution. Calles widely publicized the photo as a way to intimidate the Cristeros, but it had the opposite effect. Sixty years later, in 1988, Miguel Pro was beatified by Pope John Paul II.

Museo del Artes Populares

An exquisite example of a terno de gala, Yucatan's traditional dress. The Museo del Arte Popularis located on the northwest corner of the Plaza de la Mejorada in an old colonial house called Casa Molina. It is open Tuesday through Sunday. Popular arts are supported and encouraged all over Mexico. They are the product of local artists and crafts people who use techniques that often go back to colonial or even pre-hispanic times. The dress above is called a "terno" because there are three parts to it: the jubon, the hipil, and the fustan. The jubon is a wide, flat, square founce attached to the neckline of the second piece. The hipil extends from the neck to the knees. The fustan is a long, straight skirt. All three parts are heavily embroidered using the cross-stiching technique and hemmed with lace. Many women in Mérida wear a version of the terno for day-to-day activities, including cooking tortillas and selling vegetables on the street.

Mustachioed revolutionary rides a painted pottery horse into battle. The piece, called Revolucionario, is by Alejandro Lorenzo Pantaleón and was created in 2010 to commemorate the Bicentennial of the War of Independence and the Centennial of the Revolution. Many of the pieces displayed when we visited had a similar theme. The sculpture was moulded from clay and painted with natural earth colors before being hand-burnished. The sculptor comes from San Agustín Oapan, Guerrero State.

Enough to drive you buggy. This remarkable pot comes adorned with an incredible array of butterflies and other crawly critters. Unfortunately, I found no identifying information about the potter.

Detail of the butterfly pot. The pot itself is beautifully made and painted, but the number, variety, and detail of the various insects swarming over its surface is mind-boggling. Each of these little critters was individually made and hand-painted before being attached to the pot's surface.

Columbus' ship "Pinto", made from silver thread. From hull to mast tip, this piece of silver jewelry stands about 7.62 cm (3 in.) tall. Silver thread is artfully woven to make the hull and sails, while the masts and bowsprit are made with small silver tubes. This was one of the more unusual pieces in the collection.

Inlaid wooden chest carries a patriotic theme. In Spanish, a chest like this is called a baúl. The artist was Silvano Aguirre Tejeda of Jalostotitlán in Jalisco State. The baúl is made from beautifully polished and varnished wood. In the center, below the knob, is the Mexican national emblem: an eagle sitting on nopal cactus while eating a snake. This is a symbol adopted from the Méxica (Aztec) origin myth.

Drat! The cats are drinking from the toilets again! As I strolled by this room, which I initially took for a baño (restroom), I was startled to find two nearly full-size jaguars, caught in mid-drink. This perfectly captures the odd-ball sense of humor so often found in Mexican art. The jaguars weren't real, of course, and neither was the baño, but they were enough to stop me in mid-stride. Jaguars have been powerful symbols in Mexico for more than 3000 years, since the time of the early Olmecs.

Riding the mermaid ship. The more I examined this little sculpture, the more interesting elements I discovered. There is, of course, the mermaid who forms the body of the boat. Then there are the figures inside, one of whom is pulling mightily on the oars. At the stern is a small female figure who appears to be part of the rudder. Finally, there are two male figures wearing crowns, one on either side small rowboats. I have no idea what any of this means, but it was fascinating.

The King of Canines. As a dog-lover, I especially liked this little fellow standing with proud alertness wearing his orange crown. Again, I was bemused by the question: "what in the world is this about?"

Charro catrino and his bony catrina girlfriend. Catrina dolls are very popular in Mexico, especially around the time of the Days of the Dead (November 1-2). They were popularized by José Guadalupe Posada, a late 19th Century cartoonist. He liked to lampoon the social pretensions of the Mexican upper classes of his day by showing them as stylishly-dressed skeletons. Posada's conception got a further boost from work of muralist Diego Rivera in the 1930s. Today, you can find catrinas in every sort of situation, from housewives washing the dishes, to golf quartets, to rock bands. The one above is a bit more traditional, showing a handsome (but a bit thin) charro, with a pretty lady on the back of his skeletal horse.

This completes Part 16 of my NW Yucatan series. Next week, we'll go to a neighborhood west of the Plaza Grande to look at Las Monjas, a 16th Century convento, along with some quirky photos from various part of the city. In the weeks after that, we will set off into the vast jungles of central Yucatan to follow the Puuc Route and visit some remote but very beautiful Maya ruins. If you'd like to make a comment on this or any other posting on my blog, please do so in the Comments section below or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

"Can I take your order, please?" We encountered this cheerful little guy at a restaurant along the north side of the Plaza Grande in Mérida. In the first part of this posting, we'll take a stroll through Las Monjas, a 16th Century nunnery a few blocks to the west of the Plaza. I will follow that with a random group of photos that don't seem to fit anywhere but with each other. I have commented often in the past about the typically off-beat Mexican sense of humor that I enjoy so much. The monkey-waiter above is a good example.

Las Monjas

Las Monjas as it looked in 1867. The name monjas means "nuns." The convent originally occupied an entire city block and was a self-contained complex. Within the convent walls were a church, residential areas for 40 nuns, courtyards, gardens, and food production areas. What remains today is the church and a couple of courtyards on the southeast corner of the quadrangle at the intersection of Calles 63 and 64, about 1 1/2 blocks west of the Plaza Grande. For a map showing the location of Las Monjas and its relation to the Plaza Grande, click here.

This gate guards the central courtyard inside the entrance on Calle 64. Such iron gates are unfortunately necessary, but Mexican ironworkers can often make them seem like works of art in their own right. At first, as we peeked through the grill, we thought Las Monjas was closed. Then, a very nice woman appeared and offered us a tour of the premises. Fortunately our Spanish abilities are improving, because our guide spoke only a few words of English.

The long, rectangular, central courtyard ends with this cross. To the right, an arched doorway leads to another courtyard. However, the area we visited was the main church on the left side. The Gothic-style complex was built in during the 16th and 17th Centuries. The tower above the church was completed in 1633. Las Monjas functioned as a convent for nuns of the Order of the Conception until it was closed in 1863. The nuns were cloistered, meaning that they took vows that forbade contact with the outside world

This old bell was part of a small garden tableau in the central courtyard. The bell was cast in 1591. It had been removed from Las Monjas after the closure in 1863. However, the bell was eventually acquired by Tomas Alfonso and Carlos Martin Vázquez who donated back to Las Monjas, according to an adjacent sign.

The main nave of the church. In the years after 1863, the convent was evacuated and the property used for a variety of purposes. These changes occurred in the context of the Reform Laws of Benito Juarez, aimed at limiting the power of the Church in society. At that time, the convent at Las Monjas owned 24 properties in Merida with a combined worth of 8,725 pesos, a very substantial sum. Most of the city block once occupied by the nunnery was sold off after the closure. Finally, in 1920, the Templo de Nuestra Señora de la Consolación (originally founded within Las Monjas in 1633) was reopened as a parish church. Another part of the former convent is now occupied by the Casa de la Cultura del Mayab, which sponsors Maya art and artists. In addition, the Cultural Institute of Yucatan offers artistic workshops for children and there is a school offering theater and dance classes. Visible on a pew at the lower right of the photo is my new Yucatan straw hat.

An iron grille separates the cloistered from the public areas of the church. The nuns did not share the pews with the general public during mass, but sat behind this iron grille at the back of the nave. The penalty of violating the cloister restrictions was excommunication, either for a person entering the area without permission, or a nun leaving it. In the early days, there were only three legitimate reasons to leave a cloister: fire, leprosy, and contagious disease. Cloister restrictions tended to be significantly more severe for nuns than for monks.

Behind the cloister grille. During Mass, the nuns would sit in this area while listening through the iron grille.The pillars appear to be original 16th Century stonework. Notice the two rectangular panels at the lower right of the photo.

Wall burials for prominent relatives of the nuns were sometimes allowed. Above is one of several panels that were set in the walls at the back of the cloistered area of the church. The inscription, in somewhat archaic Spanish, reads "Burial of Juan de Aguilar and his heirs. He was from the city of (undecipherable) and neighbor of the first conquistadors of these provinces." There is no date, but given the reference to conquistador neighbors, Juan de Aguilar probably lived and died in the 16th Century. Many thanks to Gladys in Chile who emailed me this translation.

Random Street Scenes

"Step right up and give it a try!" We encountered these young clowns on Calle 60, north of the Plaza Grande, chatting with a hostess at a local eatery. Mexicans love clowns, and we have run into them along the streets of just about every city we have visited. It seems to be a good way for a young student to have fun while making a little money.

This plaque is embedded in the wall at a corner along the old Camino Real. The location is the corner of Calles 64 and 75, south of the Plaza Grande. While almost all of the streets in the Centro Historico are numbered now, they used to possess names and many of the names can be found on plaques like this. I haven't been able determine the origin of the name (which means "the Harem"). However, it clearly depicts a canopy under which a cross-legged male figure sits on a pillow, fanned by two girls wearing veils. Perhaps this was once the "red-light district?"

Young students relaxing in Parque Maternidad. This quintet of young lovelies obligingly posed for me. From their matching t-shirts, they all appear to go to the same school. Their postures and smiles exemplify the easy-going friendliness we encountered in Mérida.

Street music in front of Casa de Montejo. A young musician strums a tune while waiting to see who will drop some dinero into his cap. Since I appreciate a live sound track to my life, I always contribute to street musicians.

The old re-emerges as the new. This is an example of the restoration work underway all over the Centro Historico. The difference between the restored structure and the dingy buildings that bracket it is startling. Mérida still has far more of the dingy than the new, but work is proceeding and someday the city may achieve the beauty of its glory days at the beginning of the 20th Century.

A quiet afternoon under the shade of the portales. A small coffee house set up tables on the walkway next a book store on Calle 61, along the northern edge of the Plaza Grande. Corridors like this, separated from plazas by a line of arches, were mandated by King Phillip II of Spain in the 17th Century. He wanted to promote commerce in the colony, and rightly thought the covered areas would protect itinerate merchants and their customers from both rain and hot sun. As a consequence, virtually every plaza in Mexico possesses an area like this.

Get your pigs' heads here (and every other part but the squeal). The carneceria (butcher's area) in the Mercado contained every kind of meat you might desire, and a few you might not. The Mercado is offers a wide variety of food and other products. It is located on Calle 65, between Calles 54 and 56, to the southeast of the Plaza Grande.

Another example of odd-ball Mexican humor. I encountered this display while walking along Calle 63 between Hotel Dolores Alba and the Plaza Grande. Vigorously peddling a bicycle is a man-sized robotic jaguar dressed in a Santa suit. The sight of this cheerfully peddling critter stopped me in my tracks which, I suppose, was the idea.

Another kind of wheeled vehicle. This fellow nearly ran me down when I stepped into the street. In fairness, he was watching for the kamikaze buses that hurtle down Mérida's streets. I snapped a quick shot, but didn't realize until I looked at it much later that the vehicle is actually a wheelchair tricycle, operated by hand rather than foot. For a guy confined to a wheelchair, he got around pretty well.

"Willkommen" the sign beckons, while a German monk offers a tankard of beer. The sign perplexed me at first, until I remembered that the Mexican beer industry was started by expatriate Germans who arrived in the mid-19th Century. Until then, pulque, a mildly alcohoic drink made from the maguey plant, was the drink of choice for the Mexican working classes. By 1918, there were 36 different brewing companies. However, there are now only two companies, Modelo and FEMSA, that control 90% of the market.

Young love, one of life's universals. This pair was oblivious to the world, including me with my telephoto camera. Mérida is a city for lovers.

This completes Part 17 of my NW Yucatan series. Next week, we'll probe the mysterious depths of the Loltún cave, inhabited from paleolithic times down to the Caste War of the 1840s. That will begin a journey following the Puuc Route to visit several stunning Maya ruins and a cacao finca. I hope you have enjoyed this posting. If you'd like to provide feedback, please use the Comments section below or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Loltún Cave was our first stop as we followed the Ruta Puuc. Above, Carole and our Belgian and Spanish tour companions stand in awe before a great gallery lit by beams of light pouring through the fallen limestone ceiling. We were eager to go on the Ruta Puuc tour because the 2-lane blacktop road winds through some of Yucatan's wildest jungle, making stops at a series of ancient Maya sites. Puuc is the Maya word for "hill" and the Puuc culture got its name from a range of hills that cut diagonally across the northwest Yucatan Peninsula. Although the Ruta Puuc tour visits some of the Maya world's most beautiful ruins, it apparently attracts few people. The tour company would not schedule the trip unless at least four people signed up and we weren't certain anyone else would join us until the last minute. Chichen Itzá and Uxmal are much more famous and tend to draw the lion's share of attention. The result is that, especially in the case of Chichen Itzá, the better-known sites are overrun by mobs of tourists, with other mobs of local vendors nipping at their heels. By contrast, during most of our Ruta Puuc stops, there were not more than ten people present, including the caretakers. At Sayil, our group of five comprised the only visitors at the time. This provided a sense of serenity, solitude, and mystery totally lacking in our previous visits to the larger, more famous sites. For a map showing the Ruta Puuc, click here. If you click on the map itself when it comes up, you can enlarge it.

The Cave Entrance

The entrance to the cave is approached by descending a long series of steps. The steps drop down into a large pit full of trees and jungle vegetation. This particular stop is definitely not for anyone with mobility issues. Even those in good condition should be sure to wear good hiking shoes or boots because some areas of the cave are slippery with mud and algae. The 1000 m (.62 mi.) path through the cave is mostly unpaved and involves climbing through some narrow passageways and up some steep sets of stairs. However, it is definitely worth doing, if you are up to it. Caves had a special meaning to the ancient Maya, who viewed them as openings into Xibalbá ("the place of fear"), the multi-level underworld of the dead. According to the Popul Vuh, the Maya holy book, Xibalbá was ruled by the Lords of Death, who made a point of tricking and humiliating people who entered their realm by requiring them pass through a series of unpleasant and dangerous tests.

The earliest visitors were not human. Scientists have dug pits in the cave as deep as 9.2 m (30 ft), discovering remains of creatures from as far back as the Pleistocene Era, more than 28,400 years ago. The bones above, found outside the cave entrance, are from an Ice Age mastodon, an ancestor of the modern elephant. Other bones from ancient bison, camels, and horses have also been found. All of these were extinct in the Americas at least 14,000 years ago. The first Paleo-Indians didn't arrive at the cave until about 10,000 years ago. (Photo taken at Mérida's Museum of Anthropology and History).

To the right of the cave entrance is a large bas relief carving. Archaeologists named the carving El Guerrero ("The Warrior"). At least one source claims that it shows Olmec characteristics. A study by Anthony Andrews compared this carving with others found in Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala and concluded that this one dates to between 2,200 to 2,500 BC. The artist who carved it lived very early in the so-called Formative, or Pre-classic era. By contrast, Chichen Itzá was not built until almost 3,500 years later.

Carole enters Loltún Cave and begins her descent into Xilbalbá. The cave floor at the entrance immediately begins to descend, although the ceiling remains fairly high. Only a few places in the tourist areas of the cave would require anyone but the very tallest person to duck his head, and some of the galleries are cathedral-like. This was comforting to me, as I am a bit claustrophobic.

Loltún's human occupants

The Manos Negras ("Black Hands"). There are a number of rock paintings in the cave, but I found these to be the most arresting and eery. There are a total of 85 such hand prints within Loltún. A variety of interpretations have placed the Black Hands anywhere from the Paleo-Indians to the Maya of the Classic Era, many thousands of years later. However, both the concept and technique are extremely old. Something in ancient man led him to leave similar hand prints on rock surfaces elsewhere, including Europe and Africa. Some of those paintings have been given extraordinarily ancient dates. The technique is called Negative Painting, a bit like a photo negative. The artist places his hand on the wall and then blows pigment, probably through a hollow tube made of wood or bone, to create an outline. I was transfixed by the idea that these were the handprints of an actual person who may have lived as much as 10,000 years ago. More than encountering a fragment of a spear point or even a human bone, these prints connected me with a particular person across an almost incomprehensible span of time.

Early stone tools found in and around the cave.Tools like these were found in layers of earth which marked the transition from the Pleistocene to the "modern" era, which began about 8,000 years ago. Scientists were able to determine this by flora and fauna found at the same earth stratum. This is one reason why archaeologists despair about looted sites. The context in which the object is found is as important as the looted artifact itself. Man-made objects found at Loltún are the oldest in the Yucatan Peninsula. The stone objects above are associated with butchering animals and cleaning the skins. They are primarily made of silex found in the vicinity of the cave, but others of obsidian and basalt have also been found. Very few objects made of organic material have been found because of the climate. (Photo taken at Mérida's Museum of Anthropology and History).

An ancient metate and mano. There were a variety of these not far inside the cave in an area called Sala de los Metates ("The Grindstone Room"). Some metates were moveable stone trays like the one above, while others were simply grooved areas in the bedrock. The mano is the rock held in the hand to grind material against the metate's surface. Manos and metates were used to grind food, particularly grains and seeds like maiz (corn). Another function was to powder various materials, perhaps including the pigment used to create the Manos Negras. Finally, they could act as water containers. Manos and metates are among the oldest known food preparation implements, dating back even earlier than the development of agriculture. Even so, they can still be purchased for kitchen use in many Mexican hardware stores.

Ancient water collector in the Sala de los Holtunes. A holtun is a man-made cup in the bedrock at the base of the cave. Its purpose was to collect the water dripping from stalactites hanging from the ceiling. The entire base of the Yucatan Peninsula, except for a thin layer of soil, is a shelf of porous limestone. Rain water percolates down through the stone, eventually creating caves like Loltún and continuing on until it collects in underground rivers. Since there are no above-ground rivers or lakes in NW Yucatan, cenotes and caves became the primary source for human consumption. I found it a bit ironic that an important source of life-giving water was found in Xibalbá, the domain of the dead.

Stone head with possible Olmec features. In one sala, we encountered this carved stone head, mounted on a rock shelf. The accompanying sign gave very little information and my research hasn't come up with much more. In examining the features of the head, I was struck by how un-Maya-like they are. To me, the thick lips and flattened nose seem much more Olmec than Maya. Were the Olmecs here, or did some Maya acquire an Olmec head and place it here? Or, perhaps, a Maya artist simply copied the style from some object that arrived through the extensive trade routes. If anyone has further information on this head, I would be glad to receive it.

Defensive wall from the 19th Century Caste War. From the mid-19th Century through the early 20th, the ferocious Caste War raged between the indigenous Maya and the Yucatecas (Mexican's of Spanish descent and mestizos or mixed-blood people). The Yucatecas were so beleaguered at one point that the Governor of Yucatan almost ordered an evacuation of the Peninsula. After decades of no-quarter struggle, the Mexican Army finally pushed the last remaining Maya insurgents into the remote jungles of southern Yucatan, where they exist today as the Lacandon people. During the war, the Maya used caves like Loltún as refuges, fortifying them with defensive walls like the one seen above. With the end of the Caste War, the last period of extensive Maya use of Loltún ended, closing out 10,000 years of human occupation (except for tourist visits, of course).

The Galleries

Carole and friends pause to admire one of the many galleries. Carole is in the center wearing the red vest. On the right right is our local guide. To the left are two young women from Belgium who joined our group for the cave tour. The "galleries" were large open rooms connected by narrow passageways. Some of the galleries were as big as the inside of a cathedral, with very high ceilings that disappeared into the darkness far above. Others were a smaller, like the one above. There is no set fee for a local guide. They live on the tips they receive from tourists, so we gave generously.

Ceiling formations changed from one gallery to the next. This one looked like some sort of whipped caramel. It all comes from the slow action of water on rock, and the deposit of minerals over the millennia.

Carole asks a question about holtunes at our feet. We found some additional holtunes on the floor of this small side gallery. You can see the small pits in the floor between Carole and the Belgian girls.

Passageways

Opening to one of many passageways. To move between galleries, we had to pass through much smaller areas, some of them a bit tricky. This one had a broad opening, but narrowed down a bit further on.

Watch your step! The Belgians, followed by Carole, carefully pick their way through this bottleneck. Not only was the footing wet, but it was very uneven. In addition, there was very little light, so we all had to feel our way along. In fact, nearly all the light in this scene came courtesy of my flash. Everybody made it without mishap, fortunately.

Another kind of passageway. In this case, a set of stairs was cut into the wall leading up to another level of the cave. Fortunately there was a railing to grip. Carole stands in the foreground, looking a bit dubious as she watches our companions carefully make their way up.

The Hall of Columns

The "Lot-tún" columns. One of the galleries is called the Hall of Columns because a large number of stalactites and stalagmites that have joined to form columns like these. There are two claims about the origin of the cave's name. The most probable is that Loltún means "Flower Stone" in Maya, and some of the formations definitely resemble flowers. Our guide, however, claimed that the name comes from the two columns shown above. To make his point, he thumped each one, distinctly producing a deep "Lol" sound from the left column and and then a "Tun" from the right. We each took a try and managed credible duplications of the same sounds. The first explanation of the name is probably true, but I like the second better.

Hanging emeralds. Mineral deposits caused the striking green color of these two stalactites. I took dozens of photos of the various interesting formation, but could only include a few in this posting. If you want to see more, you'll just have to visit Loltún.

Columns in formation. Here, you see a complete column where the stalactite (forming from the ceiling) met and joined its stalagmite (forming from the ground up). The stalactite on the right has not yet formed a stalagmite. This is all the product of the deposit of infinitesimal amounts of minerals contained in each drop of water coming down from above.

More columns, stalactites, and stalagmites. Some of these have a distinct phallic appearance. This may account for the phallic cult that played a prominent part in the Puuc culture. Several of the Puuc area sites, including Loltún, contain Maya sculptures of anatomically correct phallae.

A way out? The open-air gallery shown above was one of several we visited where the limestone roof had collapsed, leaving a dramatically lit room. These openings provided the Maya with multiple ways to enter and leave the cave, no doubt frustrating their pursuers during the Caste War.

This completes Part 18 of my NW Yucatan series. In the next two postings on the Ruta Puuc, I'll show you the exquisite Maya city of Labná with its ornate palaces and famous Arch. I hope you have enjoyed this visit to Loltún, one of the more unusual sites I have photographed. I welcome feedback, and, if you'd like, you can leave it in the Comments section below, or send them by return email.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

At Labná's El Palacio, a human face peers from the wide-open jaws of a serpent. The sculpture above is on a prominent corner of El Palacio, a large multi-story structure on the north end of Labná. This ancient Maya city may be small, but those who built it crafted a true jewel of architecture. Labná whose name means "Old House," is located in the heart of the Puuc region of NW Yucatan, about 122 km (75.8 mi) south of Merida. The area is full of Maya ruins and thePuuc style of architecture is among the most elegant and sophisticated of ancient Mesoamerica. Our visit to Labná was one of the four stops on our Ruta Puuc tour, which also included the caves at Loltún (see in Part 18 of this series), a cacao plantation at Tikul, and the ruins at Sayil. In this posting, we'll look at the many beautiful architectural details of El Palacio, and at the ancient sacbé (raised roadway) that connects it to the rest of the ruins to the south. In the next posting, we will walk down that long sacbé to visit the famous Labná Arch, see a temple pyramid called El Mirador, and examine a residential area with exquisitely detailed stone carvings. View a map that shows El Palacio in the context of the whole Labná site, click here.

Approaching El Palacio

Jungle canopy provided welcome shade on a hot Yucatan afternoon. Puuc means "hill" in Maya, and the rolling country is covered with a thick green jungle. The forest contains many bird species, as well as more dangerous creatures like jaguars and poisonous snakes. Our guide urged us to stay on the marked trails and to step carefully, remarking that even the Maya people who live nearby seldom move around much at night. Other than the Belgian girls, whom we had met earlier at Loltún, and the site caretaker, our small party of 5 had Labná all to ourselves. This is definitely the way to visit ancient ruins, where the only sounds are wind in the trees, bird songs, and the occasional buzz of an insect. The solitude of the centuries settled over us and I felt an urge to speak in whispers.

Nearing El Palacio, we passed stone sculptures, including a large fálico. The two small chubby-cheeked heads on pedestals were once part of a wall decoration. The fálico (phallus) in the middle is similar to one we saw near the entrance to Loltún cave. The phallic cult appears to have started in the Vera Cruz area, and moved down into the Puuc region around the end of the Classic period (800 AD -1000 AD). Fálicos have been found not only at Loltún and Labná, but also at Sayil, Uxmal, and several other sites in the area. The phallic cult was associated with the creator-god Itzamna, maiz (corn), and fertility in general.

El Palacio stands on three levels at the end of the sacbé. A sacbé is a raised road made out of crushed limestone, with blocks of limestone set as curbs on either side. This one is about 200 m (600 ft) long and about 3 m (9 ft) wide. The Maya were amazing road engineers and one of their sacbeob extended 300 km (186.4 mi) to connect ancient T'ho (today's Mérida) with the Caribbean Sea. These roads were built by people who had no draft animals or metal tools and did not use the wheel. Early settlement in the area occurred around 300 AD, but the real heyday of Labná was between 750 AD and 1000 AD, also known as the Terminal Classic and Early Post-Classic period. The population was never very large, about 1,500 to 2,500 people. The total area of Labná during this period was a bit less than 2 sq. km (1.24 sq. mi). In the Puuc area there are few cenotes, and rainfall is uncertain. To compensate, ancient communities invented the chultun for water collection and storage. These were underground cisterns, carved out of the limestone in the shape of a squat, fat vase with a narrow neck reaching to the surface. Seventy chultunob have been found at Labná, capable of storing thousands of liters of water, yet another example of Maya engineering prowesss.

El Palacio is an unusually large and complex site. The structure underwent at least 12 construction periods before reaching the appearance it has today. There are three levels, including the huge platform on which the 2-story structure stands. The complex contains about 70 rooms and 8 patios. These are connected by several stairways and passages for easy circulation throughout the building. The length of the structure is 120 m (393 ft), making it one of the largest in the Puuc region. By contrast, the famous Governor's Palace at the great city of Uxmal is 97 m (320 ft) long, and has only a single story.

The Palace's left wing and center

View of the left wing of the palace. El Palacio was used for both residential and administrative purposes. The area in front of the left wing is known as the West Patio where ceramic objects and metates (grinding stones) have been found, indicating that it was a food preparation area.

The South Wingis a long rectangular block of 5 rooms. It extends perpendicularly out toward the south from the front of the complex. This block effectively divides the West Patio from the Central Area. The rooms of the South Wing all face onto the broad, raised patio in front of the Central Area. Since the Central Area appears to have been used for administrative purposes, it seems likely that these rooms were also administrative, rather than residential.

The Central Area is reached by this broad stairway. The 5 steps lead up from the open patio in front. A room extends out from the building into the small terrace at the top of the steps, its front walls still showing white plaster or paint. A natural question is: "why so big a complex for so small a city?" The answer may be that Labná was a satellite administrative center for either Uxmal or Sayil. Perhaps the rulers of the dominant city felt they needed an auxiliary center to handle this outlying territory? The satellite city theory is still unproven, however.

How the Central Area may have originally appeared. This drawing is from approximately the same view as the previous photo. The tall structure in the back is now only piled rubble. In this artist's conception, you can clearly see El Palacio's elegant lines. The decorative feature at the upper right is a profile view of the serpent's mouth seen in the first photo of this posting.

View of the corner of the Central Area's projecting room. Here you can see a typical Puuc feature: groups of columns separated by sections of limestone blocks. The columns themselves are not the long, single pillar found in a Greek or Roman structure. Instead, they are sectioned, with the upper and lower pieces separated by joints. However, the three columns grouped together to form the front corner are a very unusual feature for Puuc construction.

A Chaac face with a dark drooping nose peers out of the upper facade.Chaac was the god of rain and cenotes. In an area of scarce water, this made him an extremely important deity. Consequently, Puuc architecture is richly decorated with Chaac masks on its stone facades. The drooping nose of this one is a bit unusual, since Chaac masks usually have noses that writhe upwards, like a snake preparing to strike. Above the nose you can see the two square eyeholes, and below them, a protruding mouth.

Abstract design on a Central Area wall. Puuc architects also tended to use either plain facades or abstract designs on the lower part of a wall, reserving the upper facade for Chaac faces or designs from the natural world. This wall reminded me of the designs we saw at the ruins of Mitla in Oaxaca. Mitla, a city of palaces built by the Mixtec people, was built later and was a considerable distance away. However, there were trade links between Oaxaca and the Maya areas, so there could have been some cultural exchange, including architectural influences.

A graceful arch separates the Central Area from the East Wing. The stairway under the arch leads up to the second story of the complex. Unforunately, I didn't have time to visit the three buildings on the upper story. Notice the Chaac mask on the upper side of the building to the right. The Chaac's nose curls snakily upward in the way it is most usually represented.

The East Wing

A classic Puuc Chaac mask. This is the same mask seen in profile in the last photo. The nose curls upward, and above it on either side are openings representing eye sockets. Often sockets like these are filled with large, round stones representing Chaac's eyes. Directly below the nose is a magnificent mouth with fearsome-looking fangs. There is a glyph carved into the nose with a date that is the Maya equivalent of 862 AD. Chaac was believed to create thunder and lightning by beating the clouds with stone clubs or snakes. The Maya sacrificed young men and women in order to persuade him to provide rain. Chaac was believed to live in cenotes (collapsed limestone sinkholes filled with water), and human bones have been found in a number of them. However, there is some dispute about whether these were the result of sacrifices or simply accidental drownings over the centuries.

A florette with a pendant, backed by a feather. The stone carvings above, located near the Chaac mask just seen, are fine examples of Puuc architectural decorations. Keep in mind that the Maya were doing all this fine stone carving without metal tools.

Lower torso of a human figure. The upper body is missing above the belted waist. Hanging from the belt, the torso wears a finely decorated loincloth and some sort of leggings up to the knee.

Upper left corner of the East wing. For me, this was one of the most interesting parts of the whole palace complex. On the corner itself, the human face peers out of the snake jaws. On either side are a cornucopia of shapes and abstract designs.

Profile of the snake jaws. Looking out from the toothy upper jaw is the clear profile of the human face. Notice how the individual stone blocks on the left of the photo each have designs carved into them. An immense amount of work went into this corner of the structure.

Abstract or natural designs adjacent to the snake jaws. The rosette feature is repeated, this time without the pendant, but still with the feather extending above. A tall curled carving may represent an opening bud. One of the most interesting objects is the one at the lower left. This appears, for all the world, like a cog wheel from a modern machine, complete with gear teeth. The Maya clearly understood the concept of the wheel, they just never found a use for it.

The East Wing is actually much larger than it appears here. This south-facing side has six doors entering a like number of rooms. However, if you refer back to the site map of El Palacio, you will see that the far right (east) end is actually a corner, with a long block containing 10 more rooms stretching out to the north. The stairway on the left of the photo leads to a long narrow terrace above the rooms whose 4 doors you can see. The wall on the second level is mostly rubble, but contains some abstract designs.

View of the sacbé looking south from El Palacio's Central Area patio. Just visible at the end of the roadway is the residential complex containing the Labná Arch. We will view this area next week, along with a pyramid temple called El Mirador, and a sunken plaza.

This completes Part 19 of my NW Yucatan series. Next week we will complete Labná, and the following week we'll visit the cacao plantation of Tikul. I hope you have enjoyed this posting and that I haven't bored you with my obsession with piles of old rocks. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share, including corrections or additions to the information I have provided, please do so either in the Comments section below or by return email.

If you'd like to leave a question in the Comments section PLEASE leave your email address so that I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Labná Arch, viewed from the inside. After touring El Palacio (see Part 19) at the ancient Maya city of Labná, we strolled southward along the raised limestone sacbé toward a complex of ruins surrounding a sunken plaza. The Labná Arch is one of the most beautiful examples of the Puuc style of Maya architecture, so-named for the range of hills that cuts across the Yucatan south of Mérida. For an overview map of the whole Labná site, click here.

The Pyramid Temple called El Mirador

El Mirador means "The Watchtower". Although it may have been the highest structure in the ancient city, its purpose was religious, not defensive. El Mirador is the first large structure that comes into view on your left as you move down the ceremonial sacbé (seen in the immediate foreground). Although the lower part of the structure looks conical, originally it was a four-sided pyramid, with a large staircase ascending one side. The view here is toward the southeast.

El Mirador, looking northeast from the sunken plaza. Golden afternoon sunlight bathes the pyramid temple, which was built in early Puuc style. The total height, from the base to the top of the roof comb, is 20 m (65 ft). In the foreground, you can see some of the remains of the structures which once surrounded the sunken plaza. Except for the birds hidden in the jungle trees, all was quiet at Labná. I felt like tiptoeing.

A small temple with a roof comb tops El Mirador. The temple contains four rooms, and would have been entered by ascending a broad staircase ending at the doorway you can see above. Rising above the door is a tall "roof comb", a typical feature of Puuc architecture. It reminded me of the Old West false-front buildings in the 19th Century US. Typically, roof combs were thin walls, perforated with holes, and studded with stone spikes on which stucco decorations were mounted. On this roof comb, statues of various sizes were mounted, with some in high or low relief while others were in 3 dimensions. Nineteenth Century visitors to the site reported that many of the decorative elements were intact. Unfortunately, they have since been looted or destroyed. These included "two ballplayers and a large figure with a topknot, seated directly above the entrance," according to a sign at the site.

The Sunken Plaza

Carole inspects the Sunken Plaza. The plaza is fairly small and is surrounded by the stubs of stone pillars, old palace foundations, and heaps of unidentified rubble. It seemed cozier, in a way, than the grand and triumphant Mesoamerican plazas I have visited elsewhere. Here, Labná's nobility and their families would have congregated, conducted business, and socialized.

A ruin overlooking the plaza shows the remains of a corbel, or "false" arch. The Maya, for all their architectural prowess, never discovered the secret of the true arch. This meant that their structures had to be built with thick walls and generally small rooms.

A stone ramp leads down into the Sunken Plaza. This is a very unusual feature in Maya ruins, or anywhere else in Mesoamerica, for that matter. The usual use of a ramp is to allow wheeled vehicles to move between two surfaces set at different levels. The Maya, however, never developed wheeled vehicles for practical use, although they did make some wheeled toys and used wheels as architectural decorations (see Part 19). The exact purpose of this ramp remains a mystery.

Exterior face of the Labná Arch

The Labná Arch has been famous since the mid-19th Century. Between 1839 and 1842, two young adventurers teamed up to lead expeditions into the jungles of Yucatan and Central America. John Loyd Stephens, an American, and Fredrick Catherwood, an Englishman, brought back extraordinary tales of their adventures, along with Catherwood's exquisite drawings of ancient Maya ruins. Through their book, "Incidents of Travel in Central America and the Yucatan", the world suddenly became aware of the treasures hidden under the green canopy of these remote forests. One of the sites they visited and documented was Labná, where Catherwood's beautifully detailed sketches revealed a nearly forgotten civilization of amazing sophistication.

The Arch is a classic corbeled vault. Generally, such arches in the Puuc area are found either as ceilings of rooms or free standing, as at Uxmal and Kabah. This one functions as a passageway between the Sunken Plaza and the interior patio of a residential complex that was once occupied by a family of great wealth and importance. The decorations on this side of the arch are all geometric and abstract, although there is are suggestions of curled snakes, or a highly stylized mask.

Getting in touch. Our guide (left) told us that, according to local legend, if we stood quietly and pressed our foreheads against the wall of the Arch, we might be able to connect with the spirits of the ancient Maya. Carole, ever game, decided to give it a try.

The Arch's interior face

The inside face of the Arch is much more elaborate than the outside. The two Belgian girls seen above had just arrived from Loltún Cave, where we had last seen them. The Labná Arch was constructed in a style called Puuc Mosaic, popular in the Late Classic era. There are two small rooms that flank the Arch. Other structures, less well preserved, surround the interior patio and once functioned as living units. To see Labná Arch as Catherwood sketched it more than 170 years ago, click here.

The Arch, as it may have looked 1000 years before Catherwood arrived. The sketch above is by a modern archaeological artist. Notable features include the triple roof combs which apparently supported anthropomorphic stucco sculptures. Only the bottom sections of the roof combs survive. Above each of the two doors that flank the Arch are stylized Maya huts called nah. The stone has been artfully carved to represent thatched roofs. Small human figures once sat in the little niches that represent nah doorways, but these have disappeared since Catherwood's time, victims of the archaeological looting that has long plagued Mexico. All that remains of the figures are the feathers of their topknots and the stone spikes that once supported them.

A large Chaac mask decorates the north corner of the Arch's interior face. Set in the square eye socket is a round stone representing the eyeball. A snarling mouth with twisted fangs sits below the truncated remains of the once-curved nose. The stone latticework on the right of the photo is also typical of Puuc architecture. Elements of this style were sometimes copied by other Mesoamerican cultures. I saw a stone lattice almost identical to this at the Olmeca-Xicalanca site of Cacaxtla, north of Puebla.

Courtyard of the Arch complex

View from the steps of the Arch, looking into the courtyard. The mound of rubble under the trees in the background was part of the residential structure that surrounded the courtyard. An interesting feature is the faint circle with a nub of stone in its center, seen in the lower left quadrant of the photo. At first I thought this might be some sort of shrine. Later, I read about chultunes, which were underground chambers carved out of the limestone bedrock and used for the collection and storage of water. The descriptions I have read seem to fit what you see above. The round area would have been slightly sunken to collect the rainfall and direct it to the center hole. The plug of rock may be the cap of the chultun's hole. It certainly would have made sense to place a chultun in the interior courtyard of the residence. I have been unable to find any other explanation for this feature, at Labná itself or on the internet. If anyone has another explanation, I would welcome it.

Surviving interior wall of the Arch complex. This beautiful example of Puuc Mosaic is found on the wall extending north from the left side of the Arch. As you can see from the right side of the photo, the interior of the wall is composed of limestone rubble, while the face is covered with mosaics.

Puuc Mosaic. Almost every stone is carved with abstract designs, glyphs, or anthropomorphic representations. It is mind-boggling to think about the amount of detail work that went into this one wall. Very likely, the other walls around the complex were once similarly decorated. Keep in mind that every stone had to be individually carved by hand using only stone tools. Since this was a private residence, rather than a more public building like El Palacio (see Part 19), the individual who commissioned the work must have been extraordinarily wealthy and powerful.

View, looking east, of the mosaic wall with El Mirador in the distance. The Belgians were once again on our heels as we left the interior patio of the Arch's residential complex. I often find that I am more impressed by smaller remains, like the ornate Arch complex, than by massive pyramids. I suppose the artfulness and humanity of the ancient people shines through in a way I can better appreciate.

Other remains

Carved stone blocks littered the ground around us. Our guide pointed out some of the intricate engravings on the stones. This one shows a noble figure dressed in feathers and robes. It appeared to be part of some long-lost repetitive design, because numerous similar figures were scattered under our feet. This part of the ruin has never been restored and is probably in a condition not unlike what Stephenson and Catherwood found in the early 1840s.

A broken stone ring under a nearby tree may be from a ball court. Although I have seen similar rings in several Mesoamerican ball courts, we did not see a court at Labná. In addition, the site map linked under the first photo of this posting does not show one. Accordingly, I am not entirely sure of my judgement, but the similarity is striking, and site maps do not always show all the features. In addition, there is the 19th Century report of ball player statues attached to the roof comb of El Mirador. The ring, from one side of the outside rim to the other, is approximately 1 m (3 ft) wide. The center opening is about .3 m (1 ft). One of the ways of scoring in the ancient game was to pass a hard rubber ball through a ring set high on a wall.

A chubby-faced bust gazes out across the millenia. The pouty cheeks and mouth reminded me of some of the Olmec statues I have seen. The Olmec have often been called the "Mother of Cultures" because of their early and powerful influence throughout Mesoamerica, including among the Maya. The statue was one of a large number lying about in the area.

This completes Part 20 of my NW Yucatan series. Next we will visit the Eco-Museum of Tikul and sample the delights of chocolate made the ancient Maya way. I aways appreciate comments, feedback, and corrections. If you would like to do so, you can use the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Sliced cacao pod reveals fresh beans, the first step to a tasty chocolate treat. Our next stop on the Ruta Puuc tour was the Cacao Eco-Museum at Tikul (sometimes spelled Ticul). This was not actually part of our original schedule, but our guide persuaded us to skip a lesser Maya ruin and substitute a stop at this fascinating combination of cacao plantation, chocolate museum, and Maya archaeological site. Given the high-quality experience we had at Tikul, and what I later read about the stop we skipped, we felt we made the right decision. However, we were amused to find that our guide may have been partly motivated by the presence of a girlfriend at the Eco-Museum. Ah, well, that's Mexico!

The Eco-Museum

A pretty Maya woman in a traditional huipil met us at the reception booth. All the staff wore traditional clothing and the women's huipils were beautifully hand-embroidered. The Cacao Eco-Museum is located near Tikul (sometimes spelled Ticul), 80 km (49.7 mi) south of Mérida. The site is open 365 days a year from 8 AM to 5 PM. Adult admission is 90 pesos ($6.80 USD). Admission for children and those 65+ is 60 pesos ($4.56 USD).

Heliconia, a distant relative of the Bird of Paradise, grows in Tikul's gardens. Much more than cacao grows on the grounds of the Eco-Museum. The extensive flower gardens include this heliconia, as well as a large number of native plants grown as living displays of the Maya world's flora. The Cacao Eco-Museum is the brainchild of three Belgians: Eddy Van Belle, Dominque Personne and Mathieu Brees. Belgian chocolate has become world-famous and it seems appropriate that these chocolatiers should complete the circle by bringing their craft back to its place of origin. The museum was inaugurated on July 5, 2011.

A lovely Ginger plant bloomed in another garden. Sometimes called the Torch Ginger, the plant does, in fact, resemble a flaming torch. This museum has an unusual design, in that it is not contained in one building. Instead, the displays are housed in a series of small Maya-style thatched huts, reached by an asphalt path that wanders through groves of trees, small fields of cacao plants, and gardens displaying the wide variety of plants used by ancient and modern Maya for food, clothing, medicine, and other purposes.

Cordyline, sometimes known as Ti Plant*. The brilliant red leaves of this Cordyline stood out against the mostly green and brown background. The gardens are beautifully designed and ecologically balanced. The displays in the thatched huts dispersed along the path tell the cultural, religious, and economic story of cacao, and demonstrate the role it played in day-to-day Maya life. In the last hut, museum staff showed us the ancient, multi-step process through which dried cacao beans are transformed into a delicious cup of hot chocolate. All the displays are accompanied by signs in both Spanish and English.

*My thanks to Ron Parsons for these plant identifications. Ron is an expert on the plants of Mexico, and has a website called Wildflowers and Plants of Central Mexico.

How it all started

Maya hieroglyph for kakaw, or cacao. Paleo-botanists believe that the cacao plant originated in Brazil and that the beans gradually migrated up into Mesoamerica through ancient trade networks. The Olmecs (1500 BC - 400 BC) operated a great trading empire and had large settlements in Chiapas, Yucatan, and Guatemala, all areas where cacao could be grown. In fact, the Maya word "kakaw" is of Olmec origin and the first recorded use of the term was in 400 BC, at the end of the Olmec period. Maya writing was the best developed of any in Mesoamerica. It used a combination of symbols to express both concepts and phonetic syllables, allowing the expression of abstract ideas. The modern word "chocolate" comes from the Maya words "chokoh", meaning hot, and "ha", meaning water. Prior to the Spanish arrival, the Maya consumed chocolate exclusively in the hot liquid form. After many attempts spanning several centuries, the Maya hieroglyphic code was finally broken in the 1970s by a team of archaeologists, linguists, and artists. What the deciphered script revealed was an ancient world far richer and more complex, as well as far more violent, than what scientists had previously believed. It also revealed that cacao, and the drink made from it, played a central role in Maya life.

Chocolate was considered a sacred drink, intimately involved with religious practices. Cacao had its own god, Ek Chuah, who carried a fan and wore black paint on his skin. Cacao beans and cups of chocolate were sometimes left as offerings in ancient graves. To the Maya, the cacao pod and the dark, liquid chokoh ha resembled the human heart and its dark blood. As a result, cacao and chocolate appear to have been part of the rituals surrounding human sacrifice. In the illustration above, the cacao tree bears a distinct resemblance to the Maya "Tree of Life", with its roots in the underworld, its trunk in day-to day-reality, and its canopy forming the heavens.

Ancient tools used for grinding cacao beans. Interestingly, Ek Chuah was also the god of merchants. Extensive and complex trade networks existed both within the Maya world and between it and the rest of Mesoamerica. Travel was dangerous and the merchants went armed. At night, they burned copal incense as an offering to Ek Chuah in hopes of securing his protection. Since Mesoamerica had no pack animals, everything had to be carried on the merchant's back, or that of his servants or slaves. Weight and bulk were important factors and traveling merchants therefore favored low-weight, high-value goods. Cacao beans fit the bill, and even came to be used as currency in an economy that lacked metal money. The Aztecs took this a step further and set specific prices based on the beans: a tomato was worth one bean, an avocado cost three, and "a good turkey hen" could be bought for 100 "full" or 120 "shrunken" beans.

Cover of an incense burner found on the south coast of Guatemala. This fine sculpture shows a young woman emerging from a conical mound of cacao beans. In her hands she cradles a pot containing several cacao pods.

Funeral vase showing the glyph for Kakaw. The symbol is the left of the two shown just below the curved handle. The vase once contained chocolate and was placed as an offering in the tomb of a person of elite status. In another tomb, scientists found DNA from human skin in vessels containing chocolate. Apparently, after the body was ritually washed the water was used to make the chocolate. Whether the ritual involved actually drinking the chocolate is unknown.

Wealthy aristocrats of the 17th Century enjoy cups of chocolate. In 1502, Christopher Columbus became the first European to encounter cacao beans. He stopped a Maya trading canoe on his fourth voyage and noted that they possessed a supply of "almonds" which they used as money. Chocolate may have first been brought back to Spain by Hernán Cortéz, who sampled the drink in the court of Mexica (Aztec) Emperor Moctezuma. The emperor certainly did enjoy his chocolate, reportedly drinking 50 cups a day. Chocolate's popularity gradually spread throughout Europe in the 16th and 17th Centuries. However, it was a considerable time before any but the wealthy could afford the drink. Mexico produced nearly all the world's chocolate until the beginning of the 20th Century. Then, cultivation began in many other countries in a bid to increase supply and lower costs. Today West Africa produces 70% of the world's cacao, with nearly half of that coming from only one country, Ivory Coast. Currently Mexico only produces 1% of the world's total, and most of this is an unfermented variety used for hot chocolate. The Eco-Museum founders hope to encourage "boutique" manufacturers in Mexico who will produce high quality chocolate products.

Growing and harvesting cacao

Our path led down through a grove of cacao trees, set in a jungle clearing. Today, cacao production is relatively uncommon in Yucatan because of the harsh climate and poor soil. Although the Yucatan Peninsula is covered with thick jungle, the soil covering the underlying limestone platform is thin. Large scale production is thus impractical. However, the ancient Maya did not attempt mass production. This was, after all, a drink for the elites, and even then only for special occasions. The early Maya discovered that the Yucatan area is dotted with rejolladas, (dry cenotes). Because these are depressed areas, they collect a thicker soil base through erosion. In addition, rejolladas tend to be tree-shaded and humid, creating micro-climates that are ideal for cacao growing. Even when not used for cacao cultivation, the rejolladas remain mystic places to the Maya, and are treated with reverence.

Theobroma Cacao is the formal name for the cacao tree. It is native to tropical climates and grows between the latitudes of 20 degrees North to 20 degrees South of the Equator at an altitude of between sea level to 900 m (2953 ft). Cacao trees need humidity and heat, but also must be shaded from direct sunlight. Accordingly, they are often raised near banana trees as well as under wood trees like mahogany and cedar. The cacao is remarkably long-lived, with a lifespan of as much as 50 years. Generally the tree begins to produce at around 4-5 years. Ninety percent of cacao is raised by small farmers, and they often use techniques that hark back to the most ancient times. However, in the last 10 years grafting has gained some favor. In this way, farmers can ensure quality by selecting grafts from the trees that are the most resistant to disease and insects. When they fall to the ground, the cacao leaves provide mulch, and also shelter the small flies that will pollinate the plant later.

The cacao fruit is called a mazorca. The usual size of a mazorca is around 30 cm (11.8 in) long and 10 cm (3.9 in) wide. The average weight is 450 g (1 lb). The color usually ranges from reddish to green, but this will change to yellow or orange as the fruit matures. Each mazorca contains 20 to 40 beans enveloped in a sticky, white pulp. The mazorca shown in the first photo of this posting is an example of a mature fruit. The cocoa tree is described by botanists as "cauliforus", meaning that the flowers and fruits grow directly from the trunk, as you can see above. Although an individual tree can produce 10,000 blossoms each year, only about 40 mazorcas will result. Those 40 fruits will ultimately produce 2 kg (4.4 lbs) of chocolate.

Mazorcas are harvested twice a year, in May and December. While other fruits are picked by hand, the cacao mazorca is harvested by machete or by a blade fixed on a long handle (see above). Before cutting, workers tap each fruit lightly, determining ripeness by sound. The size of the cacao bean is determined by the variety of the mazorca. Different bean sizes require adjustments in fermentation and drying times. Immediately after harvesting, the mazorca is cut lengthwise, and the beans and pulp are removed and taken to the fermentation area.

Mazorcas rest on dried cacao beans. The fermentation of the pulp is very important because it determines the flavor and aroma of the resulting chocolate. The process begins as the sugar in the pulp is transformed into alcohol and CO2 through the action of yeasts. The beans are left in wooden boxes covered by banana leaves. The fermentation process can take a number of days, with the fermenting mass regularly turned to allow oxidation. After fermentation, the moisture in the cacao must be reduced from 60% to 6%. The traditional method used by small producers for drying the beans is heat from the sun. In harvest season, it is common to see farmers' patios covered by wooden racks filled with drying cacao beans. The process can take 6-7 days, and the beans are turned regularly to ensure uniform drying.

A zarabanda is used to clean the dried beans. After drying, the beans must be cleaned of stones, mould, or broken pods. This can be done manually or by using a machine called a zarabanda (Spanish for "whirl"). The device above was not identified, but I believe it is an early version of the zarabanda. After they are cleaned, the dried beans are randomly sampled for quality by cutting a few lengthwise in half. Once graded, the beans are packaged in bags and sent off to be manufactured into that Hershey Bar you have come to love. However, before we left the Eco-Museum, our last stop was a hut where we sampled some scrumptious hot chocolate made "the old fashioned way."

Making chocolate the old-fashioned way

A comely señorita awaited us, dressed in her embroidered terno de gala. We weren't quite sure, but we suspected that this was our guide's girlfriend, who may have been his real object in proposing our unscheduled stop at Tikul. The process that she and her male assistant demonstrate here is one that probably goes back to the Olmecs, 3,500 years ago, with a couple of modifications introduced by the colonial Spanish. First, however, chocoholics will be delighted to hear a few facts about health and chocolate. I found this information on the displays at the Eco-Museum, but I was skeptical until I could find some independent researchers, including the Mayo Clinic, who confirmed the claims. I should note that the beneficial aspects are confined to dark chocolate, with a cocoa content of 65% or higher, and limited to less than 85 gr (3 oz) a day. Eaten in this way, chocolate is not fattening, actually reduces cholesterol, helps prevent cavities, does not cause fatty liver disease, does not cause or worsen acne, reduces risk factors for heart disease, and may indeed be an aphrodisiac. Now, have I brightened your day?

The process begins with cooking the beans until they are softened. The ancients would have used a wood fire, rather than propane, and a clay griddle instead of a metal pan, but otherwise the cooking is just the same. The young man is checking the softness of the beans by mixing them in his hand.

Next, the cooked beans are ground on a metate. This part of the process is the "real deal." Metates and the hand-held stone rollers called manos are among the most ancient of kitchen implements, very possibly pre-dating the development of agriculture. This ancient technology can still be found among the day-to-day cooking tools in many Mexican households.

Foaming the chocolate: enter the Spanish. When the correct texture of chocolate paste is achieved, it is added to hot water and the foaming process begins. Before the Spanish arrived, the indigenous people of Mesoamerica achieved a foamy result by repeatedly pouring the mixture back and forth between long-spouted clay pots. Foaming pots have been found in Maya graves of the Pre-Classic period (900 BC to 250 AD). The 16th Century Spanish found the old foaming process cumbersome, so they introduced a device called a molinillo, which still sold in stores throughout Mexico. In the photo above, the man is creating a thick foam by twirling a molinillo between his palms.The ancient people considered this foam to be the "spirit" of the cacao. When we each received a small cup with a delicious sample, it certainly put us in good spirits!

The ancients added a variety of spices, including a "special" ingredient. Our hosts invited us to liven up our chocolate foam with some of the spices seen above. They did note that achote (far left) was not originally used, but is a modern substitute for the human blood from slain warriors that was sometimes added in the old days. I suppose it gave the old-style chocolate that extra little "zing".

This completes Part 21 of my NW Yucatan series. There was a great deal more to the Eco-Museum than I had space to show here, so I will include some of those photos in a later posting on Maya households. Next week, we will visit the ancient ruined city of Sayil, site of a magnificent palace. I always welcome comments and corrections and if you would like to make any, please either use the Comments section below or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

The Great Palace of Sayil, bathed in the golden winter sunlight of a late afternoon.Sayil was our last stop on the Puuc Route(see Parts 18-21). You may notice a curious absence of people in many of the following photos. As I have mentioned in previous postings, the Puuc Route is much less popular than sites like Chichen Itza, or Tulum, both of which offer easy access to floods of tourists from the nearby resort of Cancun. As a consequence, both of those sites--although still worth seeing--lose much of the mystery and serenity I value when visiting ancient ruins. When we finally reached Sayil on this late January afternoon, our small tour party was the only one within the whole site. The other couple in our party were tired and stayed near the entrance to the site, so Carole and I, accompanied by our guide, had the whole place to ourselves.

Approaching the Great Palace

The Puuc are unique in the Yucatan Peninsula. The Maya word Puuc means "hills." The rolling country seen above on the eastern horizon is part of a range of low hills that cut diagonally across the Peninsula from southwest to northeast. They form the only area of significant elevation gain in all of the otherwise dead-flat limestone shelf that makes up Yucatan. The forest that begins at the edge of the clearing above stretches virtually unbroken across much of the central and southern areas of the Peninsula. Sayil is set in a shallow valley surrounded by steep hills. It is one of a number of ancient cities in this area of Yucatan known for the distinctive Puuc style of architecture. Other sites include Uxmal, Labná, Kabah, and Xlapak. UNESCO designated Sayil, together with Uxmal, as a World Heritage Site in 1996.

Carole walks along an unpaved trail through the thick jungle that closely surrounds Sayil. Yucatan's forests contain an extraordinary quantity of birds and other animals, including jaguars and poisonous snakes. The ancient Maya cleared much of the jungle around their cities for agriculture. This deforestation caused droughts and other environmental consequences that, along with incessant warfare, brought about the end of their Classic-era civilization. Over the centuries the forest returned, leaving once-proud cities lost in the green canopy that now covers much of the Yucatan. It is important, when visiting a site like this, to remain on the trails. After a few steps into the thick jungle, all sense of direction can easily be lost. As I walked along behind Carole, I recalled the visitor to Tikal who stepped into to similar jungle to take some photos. Nine days later he finally stumbled out. He was emaciated and dehydrated, but lucky to be alive.

Our guide points out an unrestored ruin along the trail. As at most ancient ruins, the vast majority of the original buildings still remain as simple mounds of stones. This was how explorers John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood would have first seen the place they called Zayi when they explored it in 1841. Covered thickly by vegetation, the mounds could easily be mistaken for natural features. Fortunately, by the time Stephens and Catherwood found the ruins, they had learned to interpret the landscape of ancient sites. In the Maya language Sayil means "Place of the Leafcutter Insects".

A cut stone provides a vital clue. Nature rarely produces straight lines or corners. This rectangular limestone block was clearly produced by the hand of man, a tip-off that the rubble pile on which it rests was once the home of a noble or priest.

Site map of the Great Palace. This magnificent, three-story structure is 85 meters (279 ft.) long, and contains more than 90 bedrooms. The earliest occupation at Sayil was around 500 AD, but Puuc-style buildings didn't begin to appear until about 800 AD. The construction of the Great Palace occurred in several stages between 800 AD (late Classic) and 1000 AD (early Post-Classic). Sayil is spread over an area of 3.5 square kilometers (2.175 sq. mi.). In this posting, we will focus on the Great Palace, beginning with the West Wing. We'll then make our way up the grand staircase in the center and take a look at the somewhat less preserved East Wing. The site map above is courtesy of Wikipedia.

The West Wing of the Great Palace

Our first view of the Great Palace. As we emerged from the green, leafy tunnel that was our trail from the parking area, we came upon a large clearing in the forest dominated by the Palace. The effect, heightened by the golden afternoon light, was stunning. The view above is of the West Wing, the most intact part of the Palace. In the right center of the photo, you can see the main staircase. Monuments found at Sayil indicate that the city was ruled by a royal dynasty which, along with an elite of nobles and priests, based its power on the control of the best agricultural lands in the area. About 900 AD, the population peaked at 10,000 people in the city itself and another 5000-7000 in surrounding areas. By about 950 AD, the city began to decline and it was abandoned by 1000 AD. Such a rapid rise and decline was typical of Puuc area cities, which flourished just before the general collapse of Classic-era Maya civilization.

A closer view of the first and second stories of the West Wing. On the ground floor, the roof has collapsed into the center room. You can see half of the corbel arch that formed the ceiling of the room, as well as a doorway in the back of this room, leading into another shallow room. The rooms on either side have doorways bisected by single pillars that support the lintels. This area is the oldest part of the Great Palace. The first story opens out onto a large plaza to its south. Eight chultunes (underground cisterns) have been discovered immediately around the Great Palace. These provided the water supply for the large elite population living in the Palace. Above the ground floor is the much more highly decorated 2nd story, reached by the central staircase.

The West Wing's 2nd story, viewed from the central staircase. Several features shown here are similar to those at Labná, shown in Parts 19 and 20 of this series. The groups of segmented columns, separated by doorways, along with some of the decorations found above the doorways, are almost identical to those at Labná's Palace. Many archaeologists think that Labná was a political subsidiary to either Sayil or Uxmal, although this is not yet proven. I have visited all three sites, and it seems to me that the architectural features of Labná much more closely resemble Sayil than Uxmal.

Decorative designs above the 2nd story doors. The circular, cog-like object in the center is very similar to some I saw at Labná. In addition, the writhing, snake-like designs on either side of the cog resemble those at Labná. Unfortunately, much of the lower-left part of the design has fallen away. There are several small, circular humps in the design that resemble turtle shells with cross-hatched designs. Turtles were prevalent in the Maya's natural world and are associated in their mythology with the earth, as well as water and thunder. The thunder connection probably has something to do with the use of turtle shells as drums. The Maya god Pauahtun was believed to support the earth somewhat like Atlas. He is often shown wearing a turtle shell as a hat. Turtles were also related to Hu Nal Yeh, the god of maiz (corn), who is sometimes shown emerging from a turtle shell.

One of the 90 bedrooms of the Great Palace. Although the rooms are supported by massive walls, they are quite shallow. The Maya failure to achieve the "true" arch in their architecture restricted their ability to enclose large spaces. It is likely that the rooms were used for storage, shelter during the rainy season, or privacy. The climate of Yucatan would have allowed most activities to occur outdoors on one of the many terraces. Archaeologists estimate that as many as 350 people lived in the Great Palace. Most of its many rooms would have been family apartments, but it is also likely that some were used for administrative purposes.

A large Chaac mask adorns the center of the 2nd story. The protruding nose has lost its typical upward curl, but the rest of the mask appears intact. A set of 6 teeth curl downward from the mouth, while the eyes are represented by round stone balls set in sockets on either side of the nose. The Chaac appears to be wearing a decorative headband, as well as earrings. Although this Chaac possesses a rather ferocious appearance, as a god he is associated with life-giving water, important to all agricultural societies, and especially so in Yucatan where there are no above-ground rivers.

Another Chaac, on the corner of the West Wing. This one still has the curled nose found on most Chaacs throughout the Puuc area. The corner Chaac wears earrings similar to those on the center mask. Notice the large, curved earlobe to the right of the square earring. Similar earrings worn by the Maya elite were often made from carved jade. Ceramic, jade, and obsidian artifacts found at Sayil indicate trade connections with the Petén region of northern Guatemala, and even with areas as far away as Guatemala's Pacific Coast.

The West Wing's 3rd story is much plainer than the one below. This part of the West Wing is decorated much more simply than the 2nd story. The walls are of smooth limestone blocks. The area above the doorways is undecorated, although there may have once been carved stone decorations that have since fallen away. At the base of the wall are the only remaining decorative features, composed of a line of very short pillars that extends the length of the building.

The Grand Staircase and the East Wing

The Grand Staircase is one of the Great Palace's most prominent features. Extending out from the south side of the Palace into the plaza, it rises up to the 3rd story in two stages. The lower stage has been completely restored, while the upper stage is still in fairly rough shape. On the north (rear) side of the Palace is a smaller staircase that extends up to the 2nd story.

A faint echo of Teotihuacan? As I reached the landing between the first and second level staircases, I spotted the inclined slabs, called taludes, seen in the upper left quadrant of the photo. Such features were a signature architectural element of Teotihuacan the seat of the great empire located north of Mexico City. Architectural aspects of Teotihuacan were widely copied throughout in Mesoamerica. As the old saying goes "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Teotihuacan fell 200 years before Sayil's Great Palace was built, but the inclusion of taludes in the Grand Staircase could well have been a tip of the hat to a civilization which, by that time, had receded into the misty past and had achieved an almost mythical status.

The East Wing is less intact than its mate to the left of the staircase. This is probably closer to what Stephens and Catherwood saw on that day in 1841 when they emerged from the jungle to first view the Great Palace. However, the East Wing's first story is in much better shape than its counterpart on the West Wing.

A closeup look at the 2nd story of the East Wing. It appears that this wing copied the style of the same story of the West Wing, using rows of columns to decorate the area above the doorways. The door lintels are supported by double pillars, just like the other wing.

Across a narrow valley, a noble's house peeps through the foliage. When I reached the top of the Great Palace, I looked across the valley to the north and spotted a structure near the top of the steep ridge on the other side. Going for maximum telephoto zoom, I picked out this stone house with its double doors and rows of pillars decorating the space above. Apparently the Maya nobility appreciated a good view from the front of their homes as much as modern people do. Next week, we'll look at some temples with unusual features in the southern area of the Sayil site.

I hope you have enjoyed this posting. Sayil is a gorgeous site. I am not surprised it won its
World Heritage designation. I always appreciate comments and feedback. If you would like to leave a comment, please do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

The pyramid temple called El Mirador loomed up out of the jungle as we approached. This rather dramatic view of El Mirador turned out to be the back side of the ruin. In the previous posting, we visited the Great Palace of Sayil. The overall site of this ancient city is fairly large and, since we visited in the late afternoon, we had little time to extensively explore it. The South Palace was one area that we did not visit. It lies about a mile south of El Mirador at the end of an ancient raised limestone road called a sacbe. The South Palace complex includes a ball court and other outlying structures. For a site map of Sayil that will help you relate the various ruined structures to one another, click here.

El Mirador is composed of a temple which sits on top of a pyramid with three stepped platforms. This cutaway design shows a side view of the ruin, looking east. A large roof comb rises high above the temple on which it rests. The comb is perforated by rows of vertical slots. The three rectangular pyramid platforms below the temple form a base with a height of 4 meters (13 ft.). However, most of the pyramid is still buried under sloping piles of rubble. The architectural style is Early Puuc and the structure shows some similarities to Labnás El Mirador. However, at Labná, the roof comb rises flush with the front wall of the temple, whereas at Sayil, the comb bisects the building.

The front of El Mirador faces south. Projecting from the roof comb on this side you can see a number of stone studs. Upon these once hung stucco decorations, including human figures at each corner and another at the center of the comb. Still remaining on the comb face are carved stone feather and rosette designs, similar to those found at Labná, as well as traces of red, green, and blue paint. The temple contains five vaulted rooms, with doorways at the center of the north and south sides of the temple to provide access.

House of the Hieroglyphic Doorway

The House of the Hieroglyphic Doorway is still mostly buried. This building may have been an elite home or possibly an administrative office connected to a nearby marketplace. It once contained six vaulted rooms. It was constructed in Classic Puuc style sometime between 800 and 1000 AD. The doorway on the right, partly screened by a small tree, provides the ruin with its name.

How the Hieroglyphic Door may have once appeared. Hieroglyphs extend across the top of the door and down to its base on both sides. It must have been quite impressive when the limestone was freshly carved and vividly painted.

The Hieroglyphic Door as it looks today. Only the top .5 meter (18 in.) of the doorway is now above ground. The limestone has been stained black by water-borne minerals deposited over the centuries. The other doorway to the left has no hieroglyphs or other decorations. I would normally expect such writing to appear around the main entrance of a building, but perhaps the room into which this opens had some special purpose.

Detail of the hieroglyphs. Archaeologists have managed only a partial translation of the glyphs, due to the multiple meanings some of them can have. For example, a key glyph over the doorway can be translated as "sky," "captor," "four," or "snake". You can see the problem. In fairness, English words can also have multiple unrelated meanings. For example, the English word "see" can refer to vision or to a holy office in the Catholic Church.

Inside the room with the decorated doorway. Caretakers have propped up the crumbling corbel arch with a couple of poles. Even when not full of rubble, the doorway would have been relatively low, reflecting the short statue of the people who built the house. The ceilings would have been generous, however. Rooms like this, lacking windows, would have been dark. They may also have been smoky from fires, but perhaps that accounts for the high ceilings.

A small ruined temple with an altar lies adjacent to the house with the hieroglyphs. The hump of rocky soil in the background, now grown over with trees, is what remains of the old temple. Directly in front is a heap of stones that once formed an altar. Although now little more than piles of stones, they were part of a group of structures surrounding a marketplace. Scientists have tested the soil in the area and found high concentrations of phosphorous, indicating the decomposition of organic matter, probably foodstuffs displayed for sale. In addition, they found evidence of ceramic manufacturing.

The Phallic Stela

A large stela is protected by a tattered palapa shelter. This stela is part of the Phallic Cult prevalent in northern Yucatan during the Terminal Classic era (800-900 AD). We saw large stone phalli at Loltún Cave and Labná. The cult may have originated in the Gulf Coast area around present-day Vera Cruz and later spread to the Maya country. It became prominent during a time of great turmoil and change. The Classic-era Maya world was collapsing. Great cities in southern Yucatan and northern Guatemala were being abandoned, and populations were migrating into northern Yucatan. "Mexicanized Maya" from the Gulf area, who had adopted the military tactics and warrior cults of the Toltec, were beginning to invade Yucatan.

Relief sculpture on the Phallic Stela. This fellow is rather generously endowed, to say the least. Archaeologists who have studied the phallic cult believe that, as disorder and chaos threatened, "phallic imagery served to sanctify sacred ritual space, order the community, and legitimize the authority of the ruling elite." The phallic cult has also been linked to Itzamna, the most powerful of the Maya gods. He ruled over lesser gods much like Zeus in Greek mythology.

Residential ruins

An elite home. Notice the columnettes lining the upper part of the right side of the house. The pile of stone in the immediate foreground appears to have been part of this decoration at one time. In size, the home is not impressive. However, every one of the stones had to be individually cut and shaped by hand using stone tools. It is clear that only a person of wealth and authority could build such a house. Ordinary Maya lived in homes with thatched roofs and walls made of upright sticks plastered with mud. The foundations of more than 300 such ordinary homes have been excavated at Sayil. The perishable materials that originally sat on the foundations have long since disappeared, of course.

An echo of Labná. The use of side-by-side columnettes is common in the Puuc style. However, they are seldom used to form the corners of buildings. The three columnettes you see above are almost exactly like those we saw in the central part of the Great Palace at Labná (see Part ). This provided me with one more bit evidence that Labná was an administrative outpost for Sayil, from which it copied many architectural details. However, there is continuing debate among archaeologists about this connection.

Our guide hustled by the opening of this small cave, possibly fearing aluxob. As we walked along the deserted jungle paths, he told us about these mischievous little forest beings, in whom some Maya still believe. They are something like the leprechauns or trolls of European legends. An alux (pronounced "aloosh") will entice an unwary visitor deep into the forest and the person is never seen again. Our guide laughed as he told us this story, but I thought I noticed a certain nervousness in his tone. As the dusk began to gather, he hurried us along, and seemed to skirt this little cave with a wary eye for a lurking alux.

This completes Part 23 of my NW Yucatan series. Next week we will complete this series by taking a look at how ordinary Maya lived in ancient times, and many still do today. I hope you liked this posting. I always enjoy and encourage feedback. If you would like to leave a comment, please do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

A Maya house is called a nah. These are usually one-room structures, but sometimes include an open-sided palapa extending from the back. Family meals are cooked in the palapa in order to keep the heat and smoke of the fire out of the living space. I decided to use my last post in this NW Yucatan series to focus on the life of the ordinary Maya. In my posts on the ruined cities of Dzibilchaltún, Labná, and Sayil, I have displayed and remarked upon the temples, palaces, and residences of the elite class. These are certainly dramatic and photogenic, but they don't represent how the great mass of Maya lived in ancient times. In fact, large numbers of Maya still live in houses like the one above and in ways that their ancient ancestors would immediately recognize. Stone carvings showing houses identical to this one can be seen at the Nun's Quadrangle at Uxmal and on the interior side of the Labná Arch. (Photo from Labná, Yucatan)

The structure of a Maya Nah

Foundation of an ancient nah at Tikul. The rocks are limestone, easily carved and plentiful throughout the Yucatan. In the lower left is a stone trough, probably used for water storage. The great majority of ruins around any of the ancient cities are humble homesites like this. In Maya society, a relatively small number of elites rested on an immense base of Maya farmers and workers. The common people produced the agricultural surpluses that allowed the elites to exist, built their palaces and temples, and crafted the jewelry, pottery and other luxury items. The nobles and priests maintained their positions of wealth and power through religion, custom, and force, if necessary. (Photo from Tikul, Yucatan)

Construction of a Maya home. The nah is set on an oval foundation made of limestone blocks. The floor might be limestone, as in the design above, or possibly just packed earth. The walls are supported by upright poles set around the base and extending into the earth. Between these are set smaller vertical poles. The walls may be plastered with adobe, or left unplastered with spaces between the poles through which air can circulate and mothers can keep an eye on children playing outside. The roof is made of still more poles, bound together with twine made of sisal, a local plant. It is then covered by intricately interwoven palm fronds, layered so that the roof may be a foot thick or more. There are no windows and the single door is set in the middle of the front wall. Occasionally, there will be a second door directly opposite in the back wall, especially when there is an attached cooking palapa. The entire structure is made from natural, locally-gathered materials.

View from the back side. Cooking containers and utensils hang from the rafters of the palapa. The cooking area is in the U-shaped wall at the left end of the palapa. This is made in a similar fashion to the walls of the nah itself. The U-shape protects the fire from gusts of wind and acts to concentrate and reflect heat. The only concessions to modernism here are the two long, narrow pieces of corrugated metal along the rooflines. These help direct rain away from the seams at the roof peaks. (Photo from Labná, Yucatan)

The adobe constructon can be seen on the outside wall. Here you can see the upright poles with adobe packed around them. Adobe is one of mankind's oldest and most universal building materials. It is made with packed mud, using plant material as a binder. When dry, the adobe can last a very long time if properly repaired. If this small section is not dealt with before the next rainy season, the wall may eventually be weakened. The people of Mesoamerica used the adobe method shown above for thousands of years before the Spanish arrived. Many Maya have continued to build their homes in the traditional way even 500 years after the introduction by the Spanish of the concept of adobe bricks. And why not? It worked pretty well for a very long time. (Photo from Labná, Yucatan)

Ceiling of the nah. Here you can see how the ceiling supports and rafters are cunningly bound together using sisal twine. The thick layer of palm fronds was woven so closely that I could not detect a single glint of sunlight through the ceiling. Overall, the structure seemed cozy, warm, and dry. Most Maya homes were part of small, dispersed villages made up of a number of related families. The homes were built in randomly distributed clusters within the village, rather than the strict grid pattern later introduced by the Spanish. The families had household gods, often with an altar inside the nah. However, they also paid homage to the multitude of major and minor gods in the Maya pantheon. Each village was protected by its own "balam" a mystical jaguar being. Special homage was given to the gods called Chaacs who lived in and around caves and cenotes. If properly respected, the Chaacs would continue to provide the water so important to life. Today, traditional Maya of Yucatan, Guatemala and Chiapas may practice Catholicism, but they are still careful to observe ancient rituals. In modern terms, we might call this "hedging your bets".

Village and market life

Model of an ancient village scene. The nah design varies in some details from the Yucatan house shown previously because the diorama houses reflect the Guatemala style. However, the overall design is still quite similar. The weather in most Maya-occupied areas allowed much of ancient family life to be conducted outdoors, as it still is today. Above, the adults and older children chat while working on various daily tasks. Small children play under their watchful eyes. One man repairs a leaky roof, while another arrives with a recently slain deer over his shoulder. In the background, men work on small, slash-and-burn fields, called milpas, where corn, beans, and squash are grown together. The cornstalk provides an upright framework for the climbing bean vines. The bean plants gather nitrogen from the air and transfer it to the soil, which in turn nourishes the corn plant's roots. The squash plants spread their leaves on the ground under the corn stalks and bean plants, keeping the soil moist and free from weeds. These three plants formed the base of the ancient Mesoamerican diet, as they still do for millions of rural Latin Americans. The ancient method of growing corn, beans, and squash in close proximity is still practiced, as we saw on a recent visit to the Maya village of Chamula in Chiapas, Mexico. (Photo of diorama from Guatemala National Museum of History and Anthropology)

A day at the market. On market days, the Maya families brought their surplus products and hand-made crafts to the local town or city. When we visited Sayil and Chichen Itza, we saw areas that archaeologists have identified as the sites of markets such as the one above. Chemical analysis of the soil even indicates where the lines of stalls ran, and pottery fragments indicate where ceramics were made and sold. I have also visited the "modern" market--called a "tianguis"--in the village of Ajijic where I live, as well as others in Yucatan and many other places around Mexico and Guatemala. Except for the mode of dress (topless women are rare) today's street markets are virtually identical to the ancient scene portrayed above. (Photo of diorama from Guatemala National Museum of History and Anthropology)

Food storage and preparation

The Maya used materials from the natural world to create household implements. Above, dried gourds are used for storing and serving food and liquids. They rest in a shallow basket made from sisal cords woven across a circular frame of tree branches. The basket is hung by the cords from the ceiling near the cooking area. The typical nah was not large, and suspending such baskets reduced the need for other furniture. Another important, space-saving household item was the hammock. Woven-sisal hammocks were suspended from rafters and upright posts in the nah during sleeping hours. When the sleeper arose he or she rolled the hammock up and tied it to the overhead rafters. Another benefit of sleeping above the floor in a hammock was that the occupants didn't need to worry about poisonous snakes or insects crawling into bed with them.

An ancient mortar and pestle. The ancient people used a variety of methods to grind food and other materials. The limestone device above may be 2000 years old but it closely resembles the mortars and pestles that can be found in many modern kitchens. It was used to grind up various kinds of food, but also to prepare pigments for painting, as well as herbs and other natural medicines gathered from the forests in which the Maya lived.

A clay griddle balanced on surrounding rocks formed the stove. The most important ancient food cooked on this comal (griddle) would have been the flat, circular, corn tortillas so familiar to modern Mexicans and even to people in the United States and Canada.

Important plants

The Yucca plant was very important to the ancient people of Yucatan. Over thousands of years, the Maya learned to use the wide variety of plants and animals in their environment. I have already mentioned beans, corn, and squash. The plants I show in this section can be found in the wild, and are just a small sample of the hundreds of different plants available to the Maya. The Yucca shown above is also known as Cassava, and its formal name is Euphorbiacaea. The plant's roots are starchy and contain high concentrations of protein and energy. The ancient people sometimes used it as a dessert, preparing it by boiling the Yucca with honey over firewood for a whole day. Yucca is still widely used in Latin American cooking, and is often boiled or fried as a substitute for potatoes. (Photo from Tikul, Yucatan)

The Chaya plant is also known as the Spinach Tree. It is very robust and its edible leaves are perennial. Chaya is native to the Yucatan Peninsula and is very popular there, as well as in Central America. The leaves are used like cabbage, or can be cooked and prepared like Spinach. At the Chaya Maya restaurant in Mérida, they served us a drink made of Chaya run through a blender. The plant is rich in nutrients such as vitamins, mineral salts, dietary minerals, and enzymes that are very beneficial to the human body. (Photo from Tikul, Yucatan)

Aloe is a spiny succulent. The formal scientific name is Aloe Vera, but the Maya call it Petk'inki. The plant is rich in vitamins, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, and copper. Although modern people often use the Aloe as an ornamental plant, the Maya discovered and used its important medicinal properties. It is a good emollient for skin, has antiseptic properties, and helps healing because it enhances cell growth. (Photo from Tikul, Yucatan)

The sisal plant had multiple uses for the ancient Maya. It is also known as Henequén, but it picked up the sisal name from the port on the northwest coast of Yucatan through which it was exported in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The ancients cultivated the sisal, starting from the original wild Chelem plant. The fibers were harvested by peeling back the tips of the long spines. They were used to make hammocks, ropes, twine, baskets, nets, sandals and other items important for day-to-day life. In the 19th Century, the International Harvester company developed a mechanical harvester that revolutionized wheat production in the United States. They found that twine made from sisal was ideal for mechanically bundling the wheat as it passed through the machine. Demand for Yucatan's sisal exploded, and soon 400 haciendas were producing it in Yucatan. The sisal made millionaires of the hacienda owners, but many Maya were kept as virtual slaves to ensure cheap labor and regular production. When the local Maya labor force was insufficient, the hacendados illegally imported actual slaves from Cuba. Liberating the sisal workers was one of the goals of the 1910 Revolution in Yucatan. (Photo from Dzibilchaltún, Yucatan)

Animals of the Maya World

To the Maya, the powerful jaguar possessed god-like qualities.Jaguars were abundant in the ancient Maya world, as well as elsewhere in Mesoamerica. They were feared, respected, and revered by the ancient people. The jaguar is the largest cat in the Western Hemisphere, and the third largest in the world. Only the African lion and the Indian tiger exceed the jaguar in size, and it is capable of bringing down the largest prey in its jungle habitat. The huge cat is an intelligent and efficient predator, and thus gained the admiration of the ancient people. One of the two main warrior cults at Chichen Itza used the jaguar for its emblem, and many rulers of the Maya city-states used "balam" (jaguar) as part of their official name. Because the jaguar hunts at night, a dangerous and mysterious time to the ancients, the cat was thought to be linked to the underworld. In fact, the chief god of the underworld is often portrayed with jaguar ears and wearing a jaguar pelt. As mentioned previously, each Maya village was thought to be protected by its own balam. (Photo from La Venta Park Zoo, Villa Hermosa)

A large crocodile rests at water's edge. Crocs sometimes lie with their mouths open to cool their bodies, and to allow small birds to peck away food debris that collects around their fearsome teeth. This croc is probably around 4 meters (12 feet) long. The reptiles are stealthy hunters, lying submerged except for their eyes while they wait for unwary prey, which sometimes includes people. When the prey comes within range, the croc lunges out of the water, grabs the unwary creature, and drags it back underwater. Once in the water, the croc goes into its "death roll", turning over and over while firmly gripping the prey until it dies of shock or drowns. The ancient Maya ate the meat of the crocodile tail and archaeologists have found the remains of crocs at Maya ceremonial centers where the skulls were used ritually. The Maya "believed that the world rested on the thorax of a huge caiman or alligator and that this, in turn, floated on a vast lagoon." When seen floating on the water's surface, the spines and ridges and rolling curves of the crocodile's body do resemble the surface of the earth, with the sky above and water all around. (Photo from Canyon Sumidero, Chiapas)

The deer is among the 10 most commonly depicted animals in ancient Maya art.Deer provided a major source of protein, the skin was used for leather, and the bones and horns for various tools. Deer heads were sometimes worn in rituals and ceremonial dances. The Classic era Maya sometimes depicted the Ball Game as a deer hunt, with the players dressed like hunters. Deer are also mentioned in the Maya's Popol Vuh creation story. (Photo from Tikul, Yucatan)

Two boa constrictors snuggle together in their cage. It was not until I examined this photo closely that I realized it shows not one boa constrictor but two, coiled about one another and both apparently asleep. The white spots on the lower left quadrant are light reflections on the glass used to prevent their escape. Snakes were attributed many mystical qualities in the Maya world. In fact, one of the most widely depicted mythical beings, not only in the Maya world but throughout Mesoamerica, is the feathered serpent known as Kulkulkan or Quetzalcoatl. One of the iconic images of Mexico is the Castillo at Chichen Itza, also known as the Temple of Kulkulkan. (Photo from Tikul, Yucatan)

An iguana shows its capacity for camouflage. I almost missed this fellow while walking through a ruin. He almost perfectly blended with the rocks around him. This iguana is about 1 meter (3 ft.) long, and some can reach 2 meters (6 ft.). They are harmless, and the Maya used them as a good source of protein. The supreme god of the Maya pantheon is Itzamná, sometimes depicted as an iguana. Additionally, an iguana sometimes replaces a crocodile as the beast on whose back the world rests. (Photo from Dzibilchaltún, Yucatan)

A family of turtles huddles together in their pen. Turtles were still another important source of protein. They ranged from smaller varieties like the ones above to giant sea turtles found along the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The sea turtles were also a source of eggs that the coastal Maya learned to collect when the giant amphibians came ashore to lay them. Turtle shells were sometimes used as drums in Maya ceremonial dances. Like crocodiles and the iguanas, the turtle's back is sometimes depicted as the surface on which the earth rests. At the Turtle House at Uxmal, the facade of the building contains a number of carved stone turtles, attesting to their importance in the mythology. (Photo from Tikul, Yucatan)

This completes Part 24 of my NW Yucatan series, and ends the series itself. I hope you have enjoyed traveling with us to this fascinating part of Mexico. We intend to visit again and again, since there is so much left to see. I always encourage feedback, and if you would like to leave a comment, please do so in the Comments section below or email me directly,

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave me your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Masked dancers called Tastoanes gather in front of Tonalá's Palacio Municipal. On July 25 of this year, Carole and I visited the Guadalajara suburb called Tonalá to participate in the the annual Fiesta de los Tastoanes. During our five years in Mexico, we have seen a number of indigenous dance troupes, many of them wearing hand-crafted masks. However, the Tastoanes are in a league of their own. The fantastic masks portray grotesque monsters and the dancers are vigorous and acrobatic. The whole affair is conducted in a spirit of great fun. For anyone who is intrigued with Mexico's indigenous culture, and who plans a July visit to the Guadalajara area, this fiesta is a must. As a bonus, Tonalá is the source of many of the wonderful crafts showcased in Tlaquepaque and other parts of Gualalajara. Every Thursday and Sunday, the local craftspeople display their wares at massive street fairs in Tonalá where prices are generally much lower than at the boutiques of Tlaquepaque or elsewhere.

The Prelude

A statue of a Tonalateca warrior kneels in a dramatic pose in the center of Tonalá's plaza. Tonalá (Nahuatl for "The Place Where the Sun Rises") is located on the eastern side of the Guadalajara metropolitan area. The city was originally founded by Zapotecs, an ethnic group concentrated mainly in faraway Oaxaca, but with widely scattered outliers. The Zapotecs intermarried with other groups and were eventually conquered by the Toltecs, who imposed their own religious and military practices. Tonalá figured in the famous Salt War of 1480-1510 AD, when the Purépecha (also known as Tarascans) invaded on their way to seize the valuable salt beds near Colima. Tonalá's king raised an army and fiercely resisted the invaders, eventually defeating them. The warrior shown above exemplifies this fighting spirit. For a map of Tonalá showing its relationship to Guadalajara, click here.

The dance area was laid out in front of the Palacio Municipal. When we arrived, the area was packed 6 or 8 people deep and photography seemed problematic. I have learned over time that an elevated position is often best for an event like this, and I noticed the 2nd floor balconies of the Palacio, seen above. Other expats we met were sure the local authorities wouldn't let is up there, but I've long since learned to ask for what I want. The worst that can happen is that they say "no". Sure enough, an official gave me a welcoming smile and graciously conducted us up to a balcony with a great view of the action. Tonalá gave a rather different welcome to the Spanish, when they arrived on the scene in 1530. Queen Cihualpilli then ruled the area and, no doubt, had already heard about the ferocious temperament of Conquistador Nuño de Guzmán. She bowed to the inevitable and provided him with supplies. However, when de Guzmán demanded that the native people show obeisance to the Spanish King, they were outraged and showered the Spanish with arrows. This was the same warrior spirit that had overcome the Purépecha only 20 years before.

Tastoan masks decorate the staircase leading to our 2nd floor balcony. The 6 masks in the middle are connected to a fountain. The subjects of Queen Cihualpilli formed their battle lines on a hill near the present-day Centro Historico and fought the Spanish with everything they had. De Guzmán's soldiers, covered with steel armor and possessing firearms and horses, eventually won the battle. However, the Tonaltecans were no pushovers and the Spanish suffered severe casualties. De Guzmán subsequently chose Tonalá as one of several successive sites for Guadalajara and it held that distinction during the 18 months between August 8 1533 and February 1535. By 1621, Tonalá had become one of several key sites used by the Augustinian friars for propagating the faith. In 1873, Tonalá was recognized as the chief city of its own municipalidad (equivalent to a US county). In the 20th Century, Metropolitan Guadalajara expanded to swallow up surrounding towns like Tonalá. Presently the overall municipal population of is 408,000, with the population of Tonalá itself (374,000) making up most of that total..

Members of the large crowd chat as they await the beginning of the dance. The city government had set up bleachers that ran the whole length of the Palacio and they were packed. Everywhere we've visited, Mexicans love fiestas and spectacles.

La Danza de los Tastoanes

The dance finally began, led off by 3 young men dressed as clownish kings. Mexican events rarely begin at the time advertised, so we found the best vantage points on the balcony and made ourselves comfortable. Finally, things seemed to be under way at one end of the long rectangle making up the dance area. The dancers began to file in, and I could see the long blonde manes of the mask wearers approach through the press of the crowd. I was very glad that I had pushed for a better angle. The ring of people surrounding the dance area was at this point so thick that photography would have been impossible at ground level.

A Tastoan strides about in his full barbaric regalia. In addition to a mask with a huge blonde mane, he wore an animal skin, as did many of the other dancers. So what is this all about? The explanation is a bit complicated because it involves the melding of two different traditions. The point of connection between the traditions is St. James, one of the original 12 Apostles. He is known in Spain as Santiago Matamoros and his Feast Day is July 25.

Dancers gather around a fallen Tastoan. The Tastoanes began to fill the dance area below my balcony perch. Above, a group of them dance around one who lies face down, having been "killed" in a ritual sword fight. St. James the Apostle had evangelized in Spain during Roman times and his body was returned there and buried in the town of Compostela after he was martyred in Palestine in the middle of the 1st Century AD. In the following centuries, his tomb became a pilgrimage site and Compostela was designated a Holy City. At the beginning of the 8th Century AD, the Muslim Moors from North Africa invaded Spain and established their first Caliphate. For the next 700 years, in a struggle known as La Reconquista, Spanish Christians fought to defeat and expel them. The final campaign of this long holy war was waged by King Ferdinand of Aragon and his wife Queen Isabella of Castille, the same two who funded Columbus' explorations. The Spanish Christians adopted James, or Santiago, as their patron saint for the crusade against the Moors. This is how one of the chief apostles of the so-called Prince of Peace was dubbed Matamoros (The Moor Slayer), and why he is often portrayed brandishing a sword. About this time, Spanish Christians began to celebrate Santiago's Feast Day using costumed dancers who reenacted the defeat of the Moors by the Christians.

A prematurely graying Tastoan pauses to catch his breath. On his extravagantly curving yellow nose perches a dragonfly. His lips and teeth form a magnificent snarl. The creators of the masks go to great lengths to make them uniquely--and hilariously--hideous. The long struggle against the Moors had two effects on Spain. First, it produced the most experienced and best organized, equipped, and trained soldiers in Europe. Second, the ideological nature of the war produced a fanatical brand of Catholicism that viewed dark-skinned heathens as souls to be saved, by force if necessary. With Columbus' discovery of the New World, both of these powerful forces were unleashed on the inhabitants of the Americas and Santiago Matamoros became the patron saint of the Conquest.

A statue of Santiago Matamoros, brandishing his usual sword, is carried on a palanquin.Santiago wears a somewhat anachronistic cowboy hat, as do other dancers who represent the Spanish, like the man in the foreground. The saint is carried by Tastoanes, symbolizing his dominance after the defeat of the indigenous warriors of Tonalá in 1530. According to legend, the slain warriors were transformed into hideous monsters, perhaps as punishment for opposing Conquistador Nuño de Guzman. The Danza de los Tastoanes thus originated as a morality play where "good" triumphed over "evil" similar to the dances held in Spain on the Feast Day of Santiago. This, of course, overlooked de Guzman's brutal role as the Heinrich Himmler of the Conquest. In the end, his depredations were so atrocious that even the colonial Spanish couldn't stomach them and de Guzman was sent back to Spain in chains and died in prison.

This fellow looks a bit like the alien warrior of the sci-fi movie "Predator". Many of the dancers, in addition to their masks, wore traditional clothes such as this serape over a tunic and pants made of rough cotton. On his feet he wore leather sandals. As with many Catholic rituals imported by the Spanish conquerors, local people have gradually transformed the dance into something quite different from the original. While Santiago is still respected, many people now feel that the Tastoanes represent indigenous pride in the heroic, if unsuccessful, defense of Tonalá against the Spanish. Mexico is filled with rituals. street names, and monuments dedicated to such heroic but failed efforts against various invaders.

The Tastoanes in action. It was hard to know just where to focus, because there was so much happening all at once. Individual dancers whirled and leaped, and groups of various sizes spun about one another. Rather than being centrally directed, the dance seemed to be a collection of spontaneous outbursts, exciting but a bit confusing. Notice the dancer on the left. He holds a "sword" in his right hand made from a stick with a leather hilt. Many dancers carried similar swords and used them to stage mock battles among themselves.

I thought this was quite a handsome fellow. He wears a cowhide tunic, and his mask is topped by what appear to be two cow ears. What I at first thought were his eyebrows appear to be the legs of a large spider perched on the top of his long, red nose. The magnificent locks of hair worn by the dancers are usually made either from hemp or horse tails. The dancers' masks are sometimes made from ceramics, but more usually from a combination of leather and paper maché, to reduce weight. They are painted with acrylics which give them their vivid colors. Snakes and insects are often incorporated into the designs, as are the horns, hide, and other parts of actual animals.

A dancer whirls and lashes out with his wooden sword. One of the most dramatic aspects of the costumes was the mane. The dancers took full advantage of this by ducking and turning their heads so that the long hair would swirl and fly about.

Two Tastoanes face off in a mock battle. Sometimes these battles would result in the "death" of one of the dancers. It seemed symbolic to me that the Tastoanes so often fought each other rather than a Spaniard. The Spanish Conquest would never have succeeded without its deliberate "divide and conquer" strategy, implemented by Conquistador Hernán Cortéz from the moment of his landing on the mainland of Mexico in 1519.

When not dancing themselves, Tastoanes stood about and watched the show. When we visited Tonalá, the day was warm and a bit sticky. I can only imagine how hot it must have been for dancers such as these two. The masks are heavy and the costumes had to be stifling, even when standing still. Jumping and twirling about while conducting mock battles must have left them panting and sweating torrents. This might explain why the action of individual dancers seemed to go in bursts rather than continuously, although collectively the action was fairly continuous.

The Aftermath

Centerpiece on the grille at a Birreria. Immediately next to the dance area were numerous small booths selling a wide variety of traditional Mexican food. A birrieria is a place that sells birria, or goat stew. The proprietors of small sidewalk restaurants like this seem to use every part of the goat but the bleat. The meat is cut up and placed in a pot with a spicy, tomato-based sauce and other ingredients. Despite the rather disturbing appearance of the head, the dish is really quite good. Even though the Tastoanes were still performing, by this time it was mid-day and Carole and I went looking for lunch. We had recently dined on birria, so we kept looking .

Great aromas and a the owner's friendly smile drew us to this place. The proprietress stands next to several pots filled with interesting choices. Her young son munches while shyly peeping at us from the back of the booth.We settled on sopes, which can be roughly described as tiny Mexican pizzas. You have several meat or vegetable choices, which are then placed on top of doughy disks about the size of a tea saucer. Three or four of these will fill almost anyone right up to the eyebrows.

Carole and friend at Tonalá's Museum of Tastoan Masks. This was one of a variety of beautifully crafted masks on display, including some from other countries. Try as I might, I couldn't persuade Carole to wear it for a photo. I would strongly recommend a visit to the mask museum for anyone who can't attend the actual dance. Although there were many wonderful masks in the museum, I chose to show only this one because I had so many good shots of masks worn by live dancers. To show museum masks seemed like "gilding the lily". The museum is located on Ramon Corona between Constitución and Cuauhtémoc streets, only a couple of blocks north of the main plaza.

This completes my posting on the Tastonanes of Tonalá. I hope you have enjoyed it. If you have any feedback, I would be delighted to hear it. You can leave any messages in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

A handsome young Charro rides in Ajijic's Independencia parade. Despite legs far too short to reach the stirrups, this tyke confidently and skillfully guided his mount among cavorting horses and a noisy crowd. The village of Ajijic where we live may be small, but it always puts on entertaining fiestas. This one celebrated the anniversary of Mexico's War of Independence from Spain, which began in 1810. A fiesta like Independencia provides great "people watching" opportunities, and I took full advantage of them at the Sunday, September 16 climax of this year's celebration. The activities I showcase here were actually part of a 9 day fiesta which also typically includes the Globos (a hot air balloon launch), a Charreada (Mexican rodeo) and other events. Mexicans are very patriotic but are also great lovers of parties. Put these two together and you get one hell of a blow-out.

Marcos Castellanos was a local hero of the Independence War. The portrait above is part of a long wall mural painted in 2010 by Ajijic artist Bruno Mariscal to celebrate the Bicentennial of Independencia. Like many leaders during the early stages of the war, Marcos Castellanos was a parish priest, disaffected by Spanish rule. Unlike many of those other leaders, he managed to survive the war. Castellanos had sided with the insurgents as early as 1810, but his moment of glory didn't come until two years later. In 1812, local fishermen and farmers rose up against trained Royal troops and repeatedly defeated them with little more than sticks, hoes, and rocks. The Spanish, thoroughly alarmed, mounted a major campaign against them. With Castellanos in command, the insurgents retreated to the tiny Lake Chapala island called Mezcala, located about 32 km (20 mi) east of Ajijic. The island is about 2 km (1.24 mi) off shore from the village of the same name. Mezcala Island is small, only 548 m (600 yds) long and 91 m (100 yds) wide. Here, for an incredible 4 years, 1000 Mezcala insurgents withstood a siege by 8000 Royal troops.

A small spectator perches on her dad's shoulders under a huge wall mural. The mural above her, showing some of Ajijic's early inhabitants, was painted on the side of Ajijic's city hall by local artist Javier Zaragoza. The faces of the figures in the mural are those of the artist's friends and prominent local people. Meanwhile, back at Mezcala, the Spanish made numerous efforts to dislodge the insurgents, but everything the Royalists attempted ended in ignominious defeat. The defenders even captured one of the Spanish officers who had laid waste to the lakeside town of Tizapan and massacred its inhabitants. He was taken to the scene of his crime and promptly executed. The insurgents left a note pinned to his chest declaring "Here he murdered. Here he died."

A security man keeps a sharp eye on things. Although he was one of the few security people I saw at the event, everything remained peaceful. There have been some incidents of narcotrafficante violence in the Lake Chapala area over the last several years, but they have had surprisingly little impact on day-to-day life. Marcos Castellanos held out until 1814 but finally surrendered due to sickness and malnutrition among the island's defenders. He negotiated the surrender with the Spanish commander, Brig. General Jose de la Cruz, who agreed to allow the insurgents to return to their homes unmolested, provided them with help in rebuilding their villages, and gave them seed and farm animals. Fed up with the long struggle, the Spanish clearly wanted no repetition of the Siege of Mezcala. For a look at Mezcala Island and its Independence War ruins, click here.

An honor guard of young girls marched near the front of the parade. Groups of children from many local schools participated in the parade, as they do every year. In fact, the air of early September echos with the sound of rolling drums and marching feet as the children diligently practice for the big day. You can see by their expressions that most of the kids take this responsibility very seriously, although the young girl on the left couldn't help a smile after she saw me with my camera.

Their turn in the parade finished, these young boys relaxed in the plaza. As I wandered around the plaza, looking for good shots, these guys waved me over, eager to get their pictures taken. Their red sweaters are emblazoned with their school emblems. Kids will be kids, but foreigners here often remark upon how well-behaved Mexican children are. I think the answer may lie in the close family networks. Even if parents are not around, there are always the grandparents and numerous uncles and aunts to keep an eye on the young ones. The older children are expected to help out with their younger siblings and it is not unusual to see a teenage boy walking along the street carrying his baby sister in his arms. How often are you likely to see that north of the border?

The drum corps prepares for action. For all the marching and drums and flags, Mexico is not a very militaristic country. Although its long history contains plenty of internal strife, there are few if any instances of Mexico invading its neighbors. To the contrary, since it became an independent nation in 1821, Mexico has been invaded three times by the United States (1846-48, 1914, 1917), and once by the French (1862-67). The US invasion of 1846 resulted in the loss of half of Mexico's territory, and was denounced as shameful by a young congressman named Abraham Linclon. In addition to invasions, there is a long history of US tampering in Mexican internal affairs, including complicity in the murder of President Francisco Madero. All of this explains a lot about Mexico's prickly reaction to any perceived transgressions against her sovereignty. In the immortal words of Pofirio Diaz, the dictator overthrown by Madero, "Poor Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States."

Hi Mom! In the midst of a solomn group of marchers, a girl waves gaily to her family. Virtually every school kid must wear the approved clothing of his/her school, such as the white shirt, blue sweater, and plaid pants/skirts seen above. The effect of this is to reduce invidious differences between students whose parents may be able to afford expensive "designer" outfits, and those who can't. The flip side is that all the parents must purchase the approved clothing and this can be a real struggle for many low-income Mexican families who can sometimes barely afford to put food on their tables. Affluent foreigners in the Lake Chapala community sometimes help out families they know by paying for school clothes and books for the kids. Other help comes from charities established by the foreign community.

After the kids came the Charros. This pair led the mounted part of the parade, carrying the rawhide banners of their Charro association. The presence of the foreign community has helped develop a fairly sophisticated infrastructure in the small lakeside pueblos. There is widespread use of cell phones, computers and internet cafes. However, rural Mexico is still all around us. Most Charros are not well-to-do owners of expensively-bred horses. I doubt that any had a dressage horse performing in the Olympics, for example. Some Charros own small ranchos, while others simply work as cowboys. They are the "real deal", and exhibit excellent horsemanship.

A Charro parade is never complete without a marching band. A number of bands like this one participated. They are essentially neighborhood folks who get together to practice when they can. At events like this there may be two or three such bands, all playing different songs at once, and all slightly off key. Once your ears get used to it, the effect is hilarious and quite entertaining.

Other entertaining features of a Charro parade include dancing horses. This high-stepper was dancing to the music provided by the band you can see behind in the distance. A still photo cannot begin to do justice to this spectacle. Under the direction of their riders, the horses dance forward and back and sometimes sideways, their metal shoes clashing dramatically on the cobblestones. Charro horses are highly trained and pampered by their owners. Often they will sport intricately braided manes and tails, as well as elaborate saddles.

Gettin' 'em started early. Local children with access to horses learn to ride at a very early age. Their fathers love to bring them along to Charro events. As you can see, the horse is not the only one dressed up for the parade. The little boy's dad wears a classic Charro outfit, with gold embroidery decorating his jacket and extending down the sides of his tight-fitting pants. He also wears the famous wide-brimmed sombrero, with embroidery around the rim. The Charro has become one of Mexico's best known symbols, based on a tradition reaching back to the 17th Century. Along with mariachi bands and tequila, Charros originated here in the State of Jalisco, arguably the "heart" of Old Mexico.

Silver spurs are a prized piece of the Charro outfit. They are more than decorative, since they are used to guide the horse. The star-shaped spikes are called the rowel, and jingle pleasingly when the Charro is on foot. Spurs go back at least to the Roman Legions of Julius Caesar. Some have been found in ancient Roman military campsites in Great Britain. Spurs were a sign of rank in the Middle Ages, and when a squire was raised to the position of knight, he was said to have "earned his spurs". The large rowels of Mexican spurs are a tradition brought over from Medieval Spain.

This silver mounted saddle horn caught my eye. The Charro obligingly quieted his mount so I could get a nice shot. Some Americans may be surprised to learn that the first true cowboys were Mexican vaqueros (literally "cow worker"). The earliest versions of saddles were developed around 4000 BC by the Chinese. Saddles really gained importance when the stirrup was invented by a Central Asian people called the Sarmations. The stirrup gave a rider the stability needed to use the horse as a fighting platform. The saddle, as we know it today, originated in Mexico and was developed by combining the features of two different models imported from colonial-era Spain called La Estradiota and La Jineta. A saddle horn is not just decorative, but also has an important practical function. When a Mexican vaquero or American cowboy ropes a steer, he quickly loops the lasso around the horn so that the horse can help bring the steer under control.

La Princesa poses during a break in the festivities. I encountered this lovely young woman in the Centro Cultural adjacent to the plaza. Every year, Ajijic elects a queen and two princesses who add some grace and style to the various fiesta parades. She appeared a bit pooped from all the waving and smiling, but she gamely jumped up and posed when I asked for a photo.

The Ajijic Plaza was packed by the end of the parade. On the second floor balcony of the Centro Cultural, I was joined by Norm Tihor, a Canadian who lives in Ajijic full time and creates beautiful photographic art. The two of us ordered coffee from the second floor restaurant and enjoyed the swirling show below as we sat at our table, leisurely snapping shots as opportunities arose.

Panchita Villa rides again! Wandering around the plaza again, I spotted a Mexican family on a bench. Several generations were present, including this abuela (grandmother). She held the colorful sombrero in her lap. I approached and asked for a photo and she started to put the hat on her little nieto (grandson), thinking I wanted a photo of him. I had all the kid shots I needed by then, so I stopped her and indicated that my deep desire was a photo of her, topped by the sombrero. She laugh heartily, and then, when she was ready for the photo, gave me this demure, Mona Lisa smile.

Another little princesa and her proud dad. I was trying to get a shot of the little girl's be-ribboned hair, done up in the red, white, and green national colors. Her dad noticed me and immediately turned around so I could get a better shot. I thought this photo captured the warm family feeling of the event.

A patriotic banner dangles in a blossoming tabachine tree. The triangular banner displays Mexico's coat of arms: an eagle sitting on a nopal cactus while eating a snake. This comes from the Aztec origin myth. During their long wanderings, the Mexica (Aztec) tribe received a prophesy that they would encounter an eagle in this posture when they had arrived at their final destination. According to legend, they stopped at an island in a large lake and saw just such an eagle and on that spot founded their capital city, Tenochitlán (today's Mexico City). Below the emblem is a portrait of Miguel Hidalgo. In US terms, Hidalgo combines the attributes of George Washington (Father of his Nation) and Abraham Lincoln (Emancipator of the Slaves).

This completes my posting on Ajijic's 2012 Independencia Fiesta. I hope you have enjoyed seeing the fiesta as much as I did attending it. I encourage feedback and if you'd like to comment, please do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

A quiet winter day at the Plaza. The plaza of Concepción de Buenas Aires and the streets around it are rustic, but immaculate. Over several years, I have on numerous occasions passed through this small town, usually while on the way to somewhere else. On a couple of occasions, however, I took some time and looked around. The little mountain community turned out to be yet another of Mexico's seemingly endless supply of hidden jewels. Concepción de Buenas Aires is located in the Sierra del Tigre, a range of rugged mountains to the south of Lake Chapala, about 90 minutes by car from our home in Ajijic on Lake Chapala's North Shore. The town can be reached by turning southwest off the highway connecting the South Shore town of Tuxcueca with Mazamitla, a popular mountain resort. The turnoff is about half way to Mazamitla, shortly before reaching Manzanilla de la Paz. The two-lane blacktop road passes small ranches and farms set in the lush green fields of a high-country plateau called El Llano de San Sebastian. Fat cattle graze while the occasional Mexican cowboy trots past with a string of beautiful horses. I recently decided to create a three-part series about the town and the area around it, including Las Cascadas Paraíso (Paradise Waterfalls) and the ruins of Hacienda Toluqulla. This first part will focus on the town itself. To locate Concepción de Buenas Aires on a Google map, click here.

El Templo de la Inmaculada Concepción

The banner-bedecked steeple of the Templo shows evidence of a recent fiesta.Construction began in 1864, so the Templo is relatively new, like the town itself. The steeple was built in the Neo-Classical style popular in the 19th Century. The dark, cloudy weather in this shot indicates that it was taken in a different season than the bright and brilliant winter scene of my plaza photo. You may notice these seasonal disparities throughout this series since the photos were taken during several different visits.

The main nave of the Templo is beautifully hung with blue and white draperies. The windows near the ceiling on either side give this room an unusually light and airy feeling. During my research for this posting, I discovered that on June 7, 2012, TV Azteca News reported the discovery by parishioners of an image of La Virgen de la Concepción Inmaculada which had suddenly appeared on the wall behind the altar (center of the photo). The Virgin is the patron saint of both the Templo and the town itself. Since the image was apparently not visible at the time I visited, I unfortunately did not get an opportunity to see if I could photograph it. Jalisco is one of the most traditional of all Mexican states. The Catholic faith is particularly intense in backcountry towns like Concepción de Buenas Aires.

My photographer's eye was attracted by this exuberant scene. An absolute bee-swarm of cherubs framed this statue of the Virgin. Cherubs were popular decorative elements in 19th Century art and architecture.

San Isidro Labrador seemed especially appropriate for this working-class town.San Isidro the Laborer (or the Farmer) is the patron saint of farm workers. He is particularly revered for his goodness toward the poor and animals. Isidro, born 1070 AD, was a laborer on the estate of wealthy Spanish landowner Juan de Vargas. His fellow workers claimed that he was absent a lot and not doing his share. When the landowner investigated, he found Isidro at prayer while an angel took care of his plowing. On another occasion, Isidro brought Juan de Vargas' dead daughter back to life. All this seems to have gotten the wealthy man's attention, because he ultimately made Isidro the manager of his properties. Oddly, the farmer-saint married a woman, Maria Torribia, who also became a saint and is known as Santa Maria de la Cabeza. After a miracle saved their child, the couple decided on chastity and from then on lived in separate houses. Isidro died in 1130 AD. Four hundred years later, Spanish King Phillip II (the one who launched the Armada against England) was cured of a deadly disease when he touched some relics of the deceased saint.

La Plaza

A small but lovely kiosco fills the center of the Plaza. Several walkways radiate from the kiosco, passing through lush gardens. Concepción de Buenas Aires is also known as Pueblo Nuevo (New Town) because it was not built until the mid-19th Century. The area on which it was constructed, called El Llano de los Conejos (The Plain of Rabbits), consisted of rolling farmland and woods until the 1860s. The area was originally part of the vast lands awarded in the 1540s to Captain Alonso de Avalos, one of the Hernán Cortéz' conquistador officers. He was also awarded the lands along the South Shore of Lake Chapala about which I have already written in my posting on Hacienda San Francisco de Assisi. In the early 1600s the land passed into the hands of a Spaniard known as Don Joaquin Fermin Echuari, and remained in his family for the next 200 years.

Rafael Urzúa Arias is memorialized by this statue in the Plaza.Urzúa, born in 1905 in Concepción de Buenas Aires, was a famous Mexican architect whose life spanned the 20th Century. His work is noted for its freshness, naturalness, and playfulness, and he is ranked with Luis Barrigan as one of Mexico's great 20th Century architects. The statue was erected in 1988, three years before Urzúa's death in 1991.

Back in the early 1860s, Benito Echuari, a descendant of Don Joaquin Fermin Echuari, was approached by Father Ignacio Romo, a parish priest based in the town of Teocuitatlán. In those days, parish priests had to cover far-flung areas, requiring them to travel for many days over primitive roads. Father Ignacio's parish extended from the Hacienda Huejotitán, near Jocotopec on the west end of Lake Chapala, to the Hacienda Toluquilla in the Llano de San Sebastian. The priest proposed to Benito Echuari, who owned Hacienda Toluquilla, that he should set aside some of his land for a town which would have its own church, as well as a market and school. So, Concepción de Buenas Aires came about--at least in part--because of a priest's saddle-sores!

Independence War leader Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla has his own statue. While Hidalgo is revered as the first great leader of the War of Independence from Spain, and as emancipator of the slaves and indigenous people, his actual role lasted only about a year until he was defeated, captured, and executed by the Spanish who displayed his head as a trophy in Guanajuato. Father Hidalgo is an excellent example of the old saying that you can kill the man, but not the idea.

One hundred fifty years later, Benito Echuari and his son Pablo thought Father Ignacio had an excellent idea. I suspect that their enthusiasm had less to do with saving souls than with the prospect of a great increase in economic activity which would benefit Hacienda Toluquilla. They set aside El Llano de los Conejos, along with an area called Lomas de San Sebastian (Hills of San Sebastian), and recruited about two dozen settlers of Spanish descent called criollos. They even allowed the use of stone from their hacienda's aqueduct to be used in the construction of the new church. With the blessing of Guadalajara's Bishop Pedro Loza y Pardavé, the town was formally founded in 1869. The community grew quickly and only 19 years later, in 1888, it became the chief town of the new municipalidad (equivalent to a US county) called Concepción de Buenas Aires.

The portales along one side of the plaza stand empty on a winter morning. Mexican businesses in small towns don't generally get going until mid-morning, but often stay open until late in the evening. We arrived on this visit about 9 AM and the Plaza and streets around it were eerily empty, almost like a movie set. Although Concepción de Buenas Aires is not old by Mexican standards, it feels old, kind of like a 19th Century town frozen in amber.

Farmacia Maria Isabel is one of numerous small businesses facing the Plaza. The shop sign just beyond, with the head of a cow, announces a carneceria, or butcher shop. This shot was taken in mid-afternoon when activity had picked up some. Even so, things are slow and fairly quiet most days in this off-the-beaten-track mountain town. There always seems to be time for locals to chat on a bench or lounge against one of the columns supporting the portales.

Just beyond the carneceria is the Restaurant Las Espuelas. The name means "The Spurs". This is definitely a cowboy joint with old photos of Pancho Villa covering the walls. Many small town plazas lack any kind of sit-down restaurant, perhaps because there is often little extra money for dining out and local people tend to eat at home. However, Las Espuelas was a genuine, full-service restaurant and the traditional Mexican fare was tasty and inexpensive.

Two of our party found dessert down the block from Las Espuelas. While many Mexican plazas may lack a restaurant, there will nearly always be an ice cream parlor. Above, Phil (a Canadian) and Mike (an American) salute me with their newly-aquired ice cream cones. They were part of a hiking expedition to explore a nearby canyon reported to possess a large waterfall. The local folks observed us with friendly curiosity.

Street scenes

Big cowboy, small horse. Judging from the type of shovel he has strapped under his leg, this fellow has just returned from digging some fence post holes. I have become used to scenes like this, even in the more urbanized areas near where I live. When I emerged from my house in Ajijic this morning, there were three loose horses grazing along the sidewalk across the street. Even as I sit writing this, I can hear cattle lowing in the distance. It is one of the many charms of life in Mexico.

The new and the old. As we strolled the streets of Concepción de Buenas Aires, we came upon this scene. I thought the burro tethered next to modern farm machinery was a good metaphor for Mexico today: the old ways existing side-by-side with the new. Mexico has 3 million burros, one of the largest populations in the world. They arrived in the Americas on Columbus' second voyage in 1495, and in Mexico in 1528. However, they have been used in Europe and the Middle East since biblical times.

Tianguis Day falls on Tuesdays. On one visit, we encountered a crowded local tianguis, or street market, near the Plaza. Tianguis is a Nahuatl word, from the language of the Aztecs. In his book "The Discovery and Conquest of Mexico", Conquistador Bernal Diaz del Castillo described the great tianguis of Tenochtitlán, the Aztec capital (now Mexico City). Except for details like clothing, and some of the goods on sale, the scene wouldn't have been much different from this.

Weighing it the old fashioned way. A scale like this would have been completely familiar to anyone attending a similar tianguis in the newly founded Concepción de Buenas Aires of 1869. Even though digital scales can often be found in Mexican stores, many people see no reason to change from the old ways. If a scale like this still works, why spend money on a fancy new one?

Speaking of ancient technology. Mike and Anna, a young Dutch hiker, examine a classic specimen of automobilius wrectus, possibly with an eye toward a purchase...or not. This car was so battered and disreputable, it was almost a cliche. When I first moved down to Mexico, I expected the roads to be filled with this kind of clunker. I was surprised to find many shiny, up-to-date models, even in small towns. It was not clear what the asking price for this one might be. Any takers?

A friendly townsman invited us to tour his house. We were preparing to get in our car when Mike, a friendly sort of guy, began to joke with a young boy standing in a nearby doorway. A moment later, the boy's father strolled up the street, introduced himself, and invited us in to see his place. Since the vast forests of the Sierra del Tigre are very near by, wood is heavily used in construction of homes and other buildings. This gentleman beautifully decorated the interior of his home with pine panels and wood furniture, some of which you can see here.

A private collection of ancient artifacts. The homeowner constructed a coffee table out of a huge gnarly stump, and used it to display a variety of small objects he had collected in the area over the years. It is not at all an unusual experience to be invited into the homes of Mexicans we meet, even when we are complete strangers to them.

Concepcion de Buenas Aires made it to the Oscars! As we strolled about the streets, we passed the "Bar Melis", a small, rustic cantina. It was closed, but I noticed this plaque next to the door. The sign says "In this place was filmed part of the movie'De Tripas Corazon', nominated for an Oscar in '97, by director and writer Antonio Urutia". I later Googled this information and, sure enough, Urutia's short film got a nomination that year, but alas did not win the famed gold statue. Concepción de Buenas Aires is certainly a scenic and evocative town and I could well understand its choice as a film set.

I hope you have enjoyed Part 1 of my Sierra del Tigre series. Next week, in Part 2, we will visit Las Cascadas Paraíso, a huge waterfall pouring down into a deep canyon. I always appreciate and encourage feedback. If you would like to leave a comment, please do so either in the Comments section below, or by emailing me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

Water plummets down into a deep canyon near Concepción de Buenos Aires.Las Cascadas Paraíso (Paradise Falls) is also known as Las Cascadas Cruz de Tierra (Cross of Earth Falls). Mexican landmarks often have more than one name, often confusing those trying to find them. I chose to use Las Cascadas Paraíso because that is the name given them by the restaurant at the top of the falls.The waterfall shown above is the last, and biggest, of a series of cascades that move down the canyon like stair steps. The Paradise Falls are located several miles southeast of the town of Concepción de Buenos Aires at the end of a dirt road that is generally passable for street automobiles. For a Google map showing the area, click here.

El Llano de San Sebastian

The countryside leading to Las Cascadas Paraíso consists of a high, rolling plateau. The plateau, called Llano de San Sebastian, has an altitude of 2100m (6890 ft). When we first visited Paradise Falls, wild flowers filled the lush fields we passed along the way. In the distance, we could see large orchards full of ripening peaches. In addition to orchards, we passed broad pastures where cattle and horses grazed. Cutting into the edges of the plateau are numerous deep canyons, including the one that forms Paradise Falls.

Mexican farmers are resourceful about using whatever materials are at hand. In this case, the fence posts are rough tree branches supporting strands of barbed wire. The grass was so deep and thick it almost made me wish I was an herbivore.

And speaking of herbivores... A sleek palomino horse munches contentedly near a field of maiz (corn). Palominos are typically a light gold color with a white mane. They are very popular as parade horses because they stand out. For the same reason, they became popular in movie Westerns and TV shows. Movie star Roy Rogers had a famous palomino named Trigger that Rogers had stuffed and mounted after the animal died. Another palomino named Mr. Ed (who played a talking horse) had his own TV series.

Restaurant Las Cascadas Paraíso

At the end of the dirt road is a rustic, open air restaurant named after the Falls. The owner is a pleasant middle-aged woman who speaks only Spanish. We took note that the local cerveza (beer) is inexpensive, priced at only $15 pesos/bottle. That works out to $1.18 USD, welcome news to thirsty hikers.

The restaurant sits on the crest of a hill overlooking the stream that leads to Las Cascadas.The cloth drapes you see above were pulled down because of the rainy, blustery weather during our visit. The steps leading down in the foreground give access to the stream and the trail to the Falls

At the base of the steps is a large pond with an overflowing dam. The first of the cascades is actually man-made. The brown color of the water is due to agricultural run-off. We have found the same cafe au lait color in several other creeks running off the Llano de San Sebastian.

The Upper Falls

Below the dam, the first natural cascades begin. In the foreground you can see the path that parallels the stream down to the big falls at the end. The path is an easy walk, although I would strongly recommend good hiking boots or shoes because the way can be wet and slippery. As a matter of fact, I ended up on my butt at one tricky point. My companions enjoyed a good laugh at my expense, after they were assured that the only damage was to my dignity.

A wide variety of vegetation lines the stream banks. Three large maguey plants are grouped together on the far bank. When the water is not foaming white in the increasingly steep stream bed, it returns to its usual cafe au lait color. Maguey has been called "Mexico's Wonder Plant". The ancient indigenous people used it for building their houses, as wells as for twine, clothing, and food. In addition they used maguey to create an alcoholic beverage called pulque, which is still consumed in rural Mexico. After the Spanish arrived, they introduced the distilling process and turned maguey into the drink called mescal. Blue agave, a cousin of mescal, is used to make tequila.

As you move down the canyon, the "stair steps" get steeper. The vertical drop in this waterfall is about 4m (12 ft). Off in the distance, I thought a could hear the roar of a much bigger waterfall.

Wild flowers form a delightful carpet along the banks of the stream. Eryngo (Latin: Eryngium) is a flower found primarily in grasslands. Many of the related species are used for food and sometimes to control inflammations. To those from north of the border, it seems odd at first that Western Mexico wild flowers bloom in Fall rather than in Spring. However, April through June is our hot, dry season. Fall is a cool, moist time of year that these flowers seen to love. My thanks to Ron Parsons, my flower expert, for this identification.

Foaming white water crashes down a another series of steps into a broad pool. There are actually several more cascades in the upper falls area than I show in this posting. I decided to limit my photo display to some of those that seemed more dramatic. Should you decided to visit Las Cascadas Paraíso, you may be surprised at the number of lovely falls you encounter in this section of the stream..

Fruit sprouts from the paddles of nopal cactus. The nopal is another of the wild food plants extensively utilized by ancient indigenous people. In fact, it is still harvested all over Mexico and is even sold at the supermarket where we shop. The green paddles can be prepared in a variety of ways, including sauteed and boiled. Served raw, nopal is crisp, slightly tart, and would nicely complement a salad. The fruits along the edges of the paddles ripen into a deep red color. The tuna, as the fruit is called in Spanish, is about the size of a hen's egg. After carefully peeling off the spiny skin, you will find the pulpy interior to be sweet and tasty.

Near the end of the upper falls, the canyon walls close in and the steps get steeper yet. The constant rising mist encourages the growth of moss and ferns along the water's edge, even as cactus grows a few feet away. At this point, the roar of the lower falls is clear, although they are still invisible.

The Lower Falls

Taking its final drop, the water of the lower falls crashed almost vertically into the canyon bottom. Photographing waterfalls is always tricky, particularly when done from the top. There weren't many vantage points from which I could safely shoot. At the lower right, you can just see the brown pool into which the lower falls flow. Without a point of reference, such as a human figure, it is difficult to appreciate how high the falls really are. At this point the walls of the narrow canyon form nearly vertical cliffs.

A closeup shot of the head of the lower falls. The pent-water blasts out in a curving arc as if from a fire hose. I took this shot with my telephoto zoom. Clambering about these slippery rocks would have been more than a bit risky.

My companions took a break on the viewpoint above the lower falls. From left to right are Phil, a Canadian, Mike, an American, Larry, another Canadian, and Martin, from Great Britain. Like me, Mike and Larry are full-time residents of Mexico. Phil owns a house here, but is a "snow bird" who splits his time between Canada and Mexico. Martin had just recently retired from his job as a homicide detective and was hugely enjoying his several-month Mexican adventure.

From the viewpoint, we could see a beautiful valley, lush and green, spreading out below. Although it is fairly wide, the low mountains ringing the valley give it a secluded feeling. This valley is typical of the many found nestling between the ridges of the Sierra del Tigre.

Directly below the viewpoint, the stream begins its flow down the narrow lower canyon. Once again, my telephoto lens makes the bottom seem closer than it really is. Our stroll down the path to the lower falls viewpoint was not tiring, and the lower canyon looked intriguing. There was no apparent route down from the head of the falls, so we decided to look for the canyon mouth and approach the falls from below.

The Canyon Bottom

Martin forces his way through the thick brush of the canyon bottom. After driving around hairpin turns down into the valley, we set off on foot in search of a trail that might take us to the base of the lower falls. This involved a good deal of what my fellow hikers euphemistically call "bush whacking." The process involves physically forcing your way through the brush, sometimes whacking at it with your hiking stick. I have broken several very good sticks this way. The brush often fights back with stickers and brambles that can leave bloody scratches on unprotected arms and legs. In this case, the brush was not only thick, but very wet.

We followed the stream, the only clear part of the jungly canyon bottom. The water still retained its cafe au lait color, even after tumbling over multiple cascades on its way down the canyon. The light brown color contrasted nicely with the deep green of the forest vegetation.

Phil emerges from thick brush onto a narrow trail. He has just landed from a jump over a deep ditch and is balancing on his hiking poles. Like many hikers, he carries two poles, which look like ski poles without the little basket at the tip. They are adjustable to height and have grips that are molded to the hand. However, such poles can be expensive and I prefer an old handle from a mop or broom with rubber tips at each end. If I break one or lose it, the cost to replace it is negligible.

A large bromeliad grows out of the crotch of a tree. Bromeliads like this are distantly related to pineapples. After a few hundred yards, we became so soaked from brushing against the wet vegetation that we gave up the effort to find the bottom of the falls. On a second attempt several months later, we failed again. That time we ran into a large swarm of angry, Africanized bees. Stumbling, flailing and tripping, we were pursued almost all the way back to our car. I didn't even realize that I had lost my hat and eyeglasses until I got back to the road. To the best of my knowledge, the lower canyon has yet to explored by expat hikers.

This completes Part 2 of my Sierra del Tigre series. I always appreciate feedback, and if you would like to comment please do so in the Comments section below or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email address so that I can respond.

Hasta luego, Jim

A rushing stream passes under the 17th Century aqueduct of ex-Hacienda Toluqilla. I found the ruins of this hacienda by accident. Sometimes, when you are in search of one treasure, you stumble across others. In this case I had come into possession of a hand-drawn map showing the location of a large waterfall in the heart of the Sierra del Tigre. This turned out to be Las Cascadas Paraíso (see previous posting). My friend Larry drives a high clearance 4X4, and is always up for an adventure, so I recruited him and three others to see if we could find the as-yet-unnamed waterfall. At that point it was little more than a few squiggles on the map. As we scoured Google Earth to determine the waterfall's precise location, we kept finding mention of an old colonial aqueduct located in the same general area. A bit more internet research revealed that the aqueduct had once provided water to a 17th Century hacienda that had played a role in the founding of the nearby town of Concepción de Buenos Aires. We decided to include a search for ex-Hacienda Toluquilla on our waterfall expedition. However, finding the physical ruins proved easier than finding their history. My information is still a bit sketchy, and if any of my readers can supply more (or corrections), I would appreciate it. For a map to locate Toluquilla, click here.

Ex-Hacienda Toluquilla

The crumbling adobe ruins of the hacienda's Casa Grande stand in the center of the tiny town. Sometime during the Revolution, or not long after, the hacienda's lands were broken up and shared out among the former peones (farm workers) whose families had worked there for centuries as little more than serfs. In many such cases, former peones cannibalized hacienda buildings for materials to improve their own homes. That appears to have happened at Hacienda Toluquilla. Contrary to popular conception, a hacienda was not simply a house where a rich man lived. The word hacienda means "place where something is done or made", and refers to a large economic operation. Haciendas were generally devoted to raising livestock such as cattle and horses, or cash crops such as wheat or sugar cane. The casa grande (great house) of a typical hacienda was both the residence of the hacendado (owner) and the center of an administrative complex called la casca (the helmet). Generally, Mexican haciendas possessed at least 2000 acres and were relatively self-sufficient. However, some were huge, comprising 65,000 acres or more. Some of these even possessed their own railroad stations. The original size of Hacienda Toluquilla is not clear, but it appears to have occupied a good part of El Llano de San Sebastian, a large rolling plateau in the heart of the Sierra del Tigre, south of Lake Chapala. There was apparently enough land in 1869 for the owners to set aside a substantial portion in order to found the town of Concepción de Buenos Aires.

Next to the ruins of the Casa Grande is the old capilla. Virtually every hacienda possessed its own capilla (chapel). It was usually located very near, or even attached to, the casa grande. From the earliest days of Spanish rule in Latin America, Catholicism provided the ideological justification for the domination by a small wealthy elite over millions of indigenous and mestizo people. The hacendados always kept a watchful eye on the religious messages received by their peones, hence the proximity of the capilla to the casa grande. Under the hacienda system, the meek were unlikely to inherit anything more than their peon father's debts, and the hacendados wanted to keep it that way. Occasionally a hacienda would have its own priest in residence, but in the case of Hacienda Toluquilla, the priest was based far away and faced a long journey to service his flock. In the early 1860s, Padre Ignacio Romo rode a circuit that extended from Hacienda Huejotitán, near Jocotopec on the western tip of Lake Chapala, to Hacienda Toluquilla, deep in the Sierra del Tigre mountains. At the time, primitive roads would have required many days of rugged travel by horse or mule. If he was lucky, the padre may sometimes have had access to a two-wheeled ox cart (unsprung, of course). Not relishing the prospect of continuing this arduous circuit, the padre took the opportunity of a pastoral visit to speak to the owners of Hacienda Toluquilla, the brothers Pablo and Benito Echuari. Padre Ignacio proposed a new town, to be built on their land, which would have a school, a market and--best of all--a church. To his delight, Don Benito agreed. The town became Concepción de Buenos Aires, and the new church was called Templo de la Inmaculada Concepción. While we found Toluquilla's Casa Grande to be in ruins, the little chapel appeared to be functional. This is not unusual, since the country people remain deeply religious. After the demise of the old haciendas, the capillas began to serve as community churches and social centers for villages like Toluquilla.

The remains of a graceful old arch were among the few clues of former grandeur. When we entered the village, it soon became clear that the old hacienda had been scavenged almost beyond recognition. In such cases, I have found the best thing to do is to approach a local resident, the older the better. We soon encountered a gentleman with a very weatherbeaten face who was dressed in blue jeans and a battered straw hat. He seemed a bit puzzled by our quest, but readily agreed to show us around. As he warmed to our search, he began to point out easily missed details, including the ruins of this old arch, which apparently led into the stable area of the Casa Grande.

Another local resident monitors our progess. This handsome rooster poked its head out of the undergrowth that is slowly overwhelming the Casa Grande's ruins. Village chickens in Mexico are seldom confined, and wander freely in the streets, pecking at whatever they can find. As I outlined in Part 1 of this series, much of the Sierra del Tigre south of Lake Chapala was taken over by Conquistador Alonso de Avalos in the 1540s. He received encomiendas (the right to the forced labor of indigenous inhabitants) for broad areas including El Llano de San Sebastian. In the early 1600s, these rights passed into the hands of Don Joaquin Fermin Echuari. Encomiendas granted the right to forced labor, but not necessarily ownership of the land. In the 17th Century, the encomienda system was phased out and replaced by Royal land grants through which the great haciendas were created. The land was seized--forcibly if necessary--from the local inhabitants whose forebears had worked it for thousands of years. The former owners of the land became the peones working for the hacendados. The Echuari family kept possession of Hacienda Toluquilla at least until the last part of the 19th Century, and possibly until the final breakup during or after the Revolution.

Maiz now grows inside the adobe walls of one of the casca buildings.Maiz (corn) has been a staple of the rural Mexican diet for thousands of years. Unfortunately, with the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) US grain companies have been able to dump huge amounts of surplus corn on the Mexican market. These surpluses, which are subsidized by US government agricultural policies, have depressed maiz prices and undercut small family farms throughout Mexico. This, in turn, has forced the migration of those farmers to work in the fields of US agribusiness north of the border. A large number of those migrant farm workers found it necessary to enter the US illegally in order to feed their families back home. This, of course, makes them easy targets of exploitation by US employers, who profit from low wages and the ability to avoid paying for any benefits such as worker's compensation or unemployment insurance. Just as the old hacienda system turned indigenous farmers into peones, US agribusiness has turned millions of modern Mexican small farmers into "illegals" hunted by US authorities and despised by some (but by no means all) Americans.

This cut stone provides another hint of the past. We found the stone atop a rough wall surrounding a corral. The walls surrounding Mexican fields are usually built from uncut stones picked up as the fields were cleared. The presence of this carefully cut stone, complete with a rounded edge, indicates that it was originally part of one of the hacienda's casca buildings, possibly the Casa Grande. The lichens growing on the store mean that it was probably cut long ago, perhaps as early as the 1600s. Left undisturbed, lichens can have a lifespan of several centuries.

Mike inspects the Casa Grande. Mike was one of our party of five. He lives in Ajijic full time and owns one of the local real estate agencies. Although we could tell the general orientation of the building, the state of the ruin was such that little else about its interior could be determined with any certainty. By this time, our presence in their pueblo had attracted the attention of a small group of locals. They seemed as curious about us as we were about the hacienda. The kids were the boldest of the lot, as they often are. I had no doubt that our visit would be the talk of their town, since things tend to be a bit slow in this mountain back country. We were happy to provide some free entertainment.

Our local guide pointed out this old stone water trough as one of the original features. What is new is the piped water. In earlier times, water arrived via the stone aqueduct, built in the 17th Century. Today, all homes in Toluquilla are connected to the piped public water supply. According to official government records, the population of the pueblo of Toluquilla is 155 people, with women slightly outnumbering the men. About 40% of the total are children, and 13% are over 60. Of the 37 homes in town, 3 are without floors, and two consist of only one room. While only 29 of the 37 homes have indoor toilets, all have electricity. There are no computers in any of the homes, but 30 have washing machines and 36 have TVs. Although Toluquilla has not quite caught up with the 21st Century, it has at least made it into the 20th.

A sleek horse kicks a hind leg against persistent flies as it munches the thick, juicy grass. This is horse country and kids learn to ride from an early age. We encountered the horse near the gated entrance to the property where the old colonial-era aqueduct is located.

El Acueducto

The aqueduct cannot be seen from the road. It was not until we closely questioned our local guide that we discovered how to find the aqueduct. This gate stands directly across the highway (to the south) from the entrance to Toluquilla. There was no sign indicating an historic site, or forbidding entry, so we parked and walked on through. Not far beyond the gate, you can see a path leading off to the right toward the aqueduct. On the upper left is the creek bed of the stream that used to feed the aqueduct.

Martin and Larry mounted a rough stone path to the top of the aqueduct. By the latter half of the 19th Century, Hacienda Toluquilla was apparently no longer getting its water supply from the aqueduct. I deduced this from information indicating that, in the mid-1860s, the Echuari family donated stone from the structure to help build Templo de la Inmaculada Concepción, the new church in Concepción de Buenos Aires.

This stone trough once carried the water from the rushing stream down the hill to the hacienda. A steady water supply being essential to agriculture as well as to organized community life, aqueducts are some of the oldest civic structures in human history. In the Old World, they date back to at least the Assyrians of the 7th Century BC. The earliest evidence of aqueducts in the New World is in Peru, a development of the Nazca culture around 540 AD. Upon their arrival in 1520 AD at the Mexica (Aztec) capital of Tenochitlán, Hernán Cortéz and his Conquistadors discovered two major aqueducts feeding water to the city. Cortéz conquered Tenochitlán in part by destroying its aqueducts.

After crossing the creek bed, the aqueduct makes a sharp turn up a hill to the right. Notice the heavy growth of moss and liches on the old stones. This structure was built to last, and it certainly has. I have no doubt it would still be providing water if the Echuaris had not found another source, probably a well. If it kept on in the direction you see above, the aqueduct would intersect the creek in another 33 m (100 yds) or so. Out of sight at the upper left is the home of the farmer who owns the land around the aqueduct.

Mike walks across the aqueduct where it passes over the creek. This has to be one of the most picturesque ruins I have encountered. Before our visit, the hacienda and its aqueduct were virtually unknown within expat community at Lake Chapala. I doubt it is known even by most Mexicans, except those who live in the immediate area. It would be a great place for a picnic, or just to laze away a warm afternoon.

Side view of the aqueduct after it crosses the creek. The arch originally appeared in ancient Mesopotamia in the 2nd millenium BC. The Romans were the first to use it widely as a key feature of their architecture. That was how it made its way to Spain, a Roman province, and from there to New Spain in the 16th Century. The true arch is an architectural form never mastered by the indigenous civilizations of the pre-hispanic Western Hemisphere, although they had developed a precursor called a corbel arch.

Another side view of the aqueduct, looking downhill toward the creek crossing. Although I have very little direct information about this aqueduct other than the century in which it was built, it probably functioned in a similar manner to those of other haciendas. One of these was the Espada Aqueduct, built in 1745 in the Texas province of Nueva España. It used a system of floodgates controlled by the mayordomo, or ditch master. He used them to feed water to one field or another, or to provide for bathing, washing, or to power a mill.

Phil peers through one of the arches from across the creek. The great estates of the Echuari family, including this hacienda, extended from the border of Michoacan to the Pacific beachs of Zacoalco, a vast area. Today, the ruins of this old, lichen-covered aqueduct, hidden in the undergrowth near a tiny, backcountry pueblo, provide some of the few clues to the fall in the fortunes of that once powerful family.

Red Bird of Paradise, also known as Pride of Barbados, grew by the road near the aqueduct. One can always depend upon Mexico to provide a burst of color wherever you go. I noticed this plant, formally known asCaesalpinia purcherrima, growing wild beside the road. I was able to identify it thanks to my flower expert, Ron Parsons.

This completes Part 3 of my Sierra del Tigre series and also the series itself. This area of the Sierra del Tigre is lovely year-round and is relatively untouched by the more negative aspects of tourism which have (in my opinion) somewhat blighted other places in the area like the resort town of Mazamitla. I always appreciate feedback and if you would like to contribute some, please do so in the Comments section below, or email me directly.

If you leave a question in the Comments section, PLEASE leave your email so that I can respond.

NW Yucatan Part 10: The Maya Cosmos

NW Yucatan Part 11: The Royal Road to Campeche

NW Yucatan Part 12: Dzibilchaltún and its Temple of the Seven Dolls

NW Yucatan Part 13, The North and West sides of Dzibilchaltún's Great Plaza

NW Yucatan Part 14: The Dzibilchaltún Great Plaza's South and East sides.

NW Yucatan Part 15: Dzbilichaltún's Cenote, Ball Court, and Colonial-era ruins

NW Yucatan Part 16: Mérida's Barrio de la Mejorada and Museum of Popular Arts

NW Yucatan Part 17: Las Monjas and random scenes around Mérida

NW Yucatan Part 18: Loltún Cave and its 10,000-year occupation

NW Yucatan Part 19: Labná, Maya jewel in the jungle

NW Yucatan Part 20: Labná's Plaza and famed Arch

NW Yucatan Part 21: A bonanza for chocolaholics at the Cacao Eco-Museum in Tikul

NW Yucatan Part 22: The Great Palace of Sayil

NW Yucatan Part 23: Sayil's Mirador, Hieroglyphic Doorway, and Phallic Stela

NW Yucatan Part 24: The Maya household

The Tastoanes of Tonalá

Independencia 2012: Mexico kicks off its fiesta season

Sierra del Tigre Adventures Part 1: A visit to the mountain town of Concepción de Buenas Aires

Sierra del Tigre Adventures Part 2: Las Cascadas Paraíso

Sierra del Tigre Adventures Part 3: Ex-Hacienda Toluquilla & its 17th Century aqueduct