The Yucatan has a very rich history, which led to the success that it has today. It started out being the stronghold of Mayan civilization during the 12th century; however, the Yucatan went through many years of power struggle and war. In 1824 Yucatan became an official Mexican State. Until the mid-1900s, Yucatan’s only contact with the outside world was by sea. As a result, Yucatan’s trade with the United State’s, and the European and Caribbean Islands were far more profitable than that of all other Mexican states. Yucatan was linked to the rest of Mexico by railway in the 1950s and by highway a decade later. In the 1960s, the first commercial jet airplanes arrived in Merida. International airports were built in Cozumel and Cancun in the 1980s, …show more content…
The most recognizable structure here is the Temple of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo. This glorious step pyramid demonstrates the accuracy and importance of Maya astronomy and the heavy influence of the Toltecs, who invaded around 1000 AD and precipitated a merger of the two cultural traditions. The temple has 365 steps—one for each day of the year. Each of the temple’s four sides has ninety one steps, and the top platform makes the 365th. Devising a 365-day calendar was just one feat of Mayan science. Incredibly, twice a year on the spring and autumn equinoxes, a shadow falls on the pyramid in the shape of a snake. As the sun sets, this shadowy snake descends the steps to eventually join a stone snake head at the base of the great staircase up the pyramid’s side. The Mayan’s astronomical skills were so advanced they could even predict solar eclipses, and an impressive observatory structure remains on the site today. This great city’s only permanent water source was a series of sinkhole wells. Spanish records report that young female victims were thrown into the largest of these, live, as sacrifices to the Mayan rain god thought to live in its depths. Archaeologists have since found their bones, as well as the jewelry and other precious objects …show more content…
The Tulum ruins are the third most visited archaeological site in Mexico after Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. Located just south of the popular beach resort of Cancun on the Yucatan Peninsula, Tulum is an easy day trip by bus. Tulum is known for its rich history. By 900 AD, Mayan civilization had begun its decline and the large cities to the south were abandoned. Tulum is one of the small city-states that rose to fill the void, establishing prominence in the 13th century as a seaport. It controlled trade along this section of the coast from Honduras to the Yucatan. Much of what we know of Tulum at the time of the Spanish Conquest comes from the writings of Diego de Landa, the third bishop of the Yucatan. The bishop recorded that Tulum was a small city inhabited by about 600 people who lived in houses along a street and who supervised the trade traffic. Though it was a walled city, most of the inhabitants probably lived outside the walls, leaving the inside for the residences of governors and priests and ceremonial structures. Tulum remained inhabited about seventy years after the Conquest when it was finally abandoned; however, local Mayan peoples continued to visit the temples to burn incense and pray until the late 20th century when tourists visiting the site became too many. Over the