From the Spanish and Indian chronicles it is known that in each Yucatan state-"province" there was one or more large cities. However, after the conquest (conquest), the Spaniards erected their own villages and cities in their place, using hewn stone taken from ancient palaces and temples for construction. Later, all traces of pre-Columbian life were almost entirely buried under the centuries-old strata of the colonial era and under modern buildings.
One outstanding monument of that troubled for the Maya era escaped a common sad fate and has survived almost unchanged to this day. We are talking about Tulum - a relatively small ancient Mayan city (564 AD), located in Quintana Roo, on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula.
In the folklore of the modern Maya, there is a tale about how in ancient times Tulum was connected with the cities of Coba, Chichen Itza and Uxmal by means of the Kushan san - a road suspended in the sky. This Kushan (living) san (rope) has a real archaeological base underneath - at one time these cities were actually connected by stone-paved roads.
Built on a limestone cliff above the blue-green waves of the Caribbean Sea, Tulum was reliably protected by both nature and man: on three sides it was surrounded by a high and thick stone wall, and on the fourth - a ten-meter cliff, abruptly ending into the sea.
Tulum means in translation from the Mayan language "wall", "fortification", since the city is surrounded by a wall. But in ancient times it apparently had a different name. There is every reason to believe that in the pre-Hispanic era Tulum was known to the local Indians under the name Sama - "the city of dawn".
Tulum has its origins in the distant past. It was expanded while the Toltecs were in the Yucatan, and it was inhabited when the Spaniards in four ships under the command of Juan de Grijalva sailed along the sea coast in May 1518.
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Priest Juan Diaz reported seeing “three large cities at a distance of two miles from each other. There were many stone houses … such a large city appeared before our eyes that Seville would not have seemed bigger than it. There was a very high tower, on the shore there was a huge crowd of Indians who carried two standards, which they raised and lowered, giving us a signal to approach. In reality, there were four cities: Shelkha, Soliman, Tulum and Tanka, located so close to each other that it seemed like one continuing city.
El Castillo, Tulum. Frederick Catherwood, 1844 / ru.wikipedia.org
Tulum is the largest and most impressive Mayan city on the east coast of Yucatan. And although it was noticed as early as the 16th century, John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, who arrived in Tulum in mid-March 1842, can be considered its real discoverers.
Tulum is the only monument that in its appearance and layout fully corresponds to our idea of an ancient city. Sandwiched between the sea and a stone wall, it has a clear rectangular shape, the long side of which runs parallel to the sea coast. The wall was piled dry of roughly hewn stone and was clearly defensive. Its total length was over 721 meters, its height was from 3 to 5 meters, and its thickness was up to 5 meters.
Five gateways were made in the wall, each of which could only let one person pass at a time. Guard rooms were located at the western end of the city. Outside it, the land is completely covered with dense vegetation of swamps, which extend for many kilometers inland. The northeastern gate was a passage in the wall that opened onto a paved road in the direction of the city of Shelkha, located 10 kilometers from Tulum, and somewhere not far from it there was a turn to the city of Koba, and from there the road led to Chichen Itza. Inside these gates, a building of three rooms was erected, standing over the only source of water in the city - a small cenote, which gave the residents of the city fresh water.
The inner area of the walled quadrangle measured 380 × 170 meters. Most of it was occupied by stone palaces and temples located along three long and parallel straight streets. The main street, divided strictly along the north-south line, connected the gates pierced in the opposite side sections of the defensive wall.
The most significant architectural ensemble of Tulum is El Castillo. This 7.5-meter-high structure is located in the city center on a rocky hill and can be seen from the sea at a great distance. At the top of El Castillo is a squat temple that once had a roof on wooden beams. Perhaps this small sanctuary was used as a beacon for approaching boats. This building marks a rift in the barrier reef that runs along the coast.
El Castillo
In the same location there is a small cove, a landing beach and a crevasse in the cliffs, making it ideal for mooring merchant boats. This set of geographic features was probably the reason for the founding of Tulum, which became an important Mayan port.
Inside the walled space, dominated by El Castillo, there are ten other structures from different periods. Located in the southwestern part, the Temple of the Diving God is not only the most picturesque building in Tulum, but also one of the few that has survived.
Temple of the Diving God
Its interior, exterior walls and both sides of the doorway are covered with frescoes. In a niche above the door is an alabaster figure of a winged god diving or descending, jumping headfirst to the ground. It was found that this is the god of bees - Ah Mutsen Kab.
Temple of the Diving God. Photo: Steve Grundy
Tulum's architecture is typical of the Mayan cities of the peninsula's east coast - squat, squat outlines, rough stonework, flat roofs on timber beams, and a mass of molded alabaster figures on the facades. Purely Mexican features of Chichen Itza and Mayapan are also traced here, for example, columns in the form of feathered serpents separating doorways in sanctuaries.
The exterior and interior walls of El Castillo, as well as other sanctuaries and temples, often feature fresco paintings. The best-preserved fragments are found in the two-story Temple of the Frescoes.
In style, these paintings are very close to the pictorial manuscripts of the Mistec Indians from the mountainous Oaxaca (X-XVI centuries), but in content they are purely Mayan. Various Maya gods are represented here: the rain god Chak with the ruler's scepter in his hands, female deities performing some complex rituals among bean sprouts, the sky god Itzamna, and various animals.
Fragment of the image of the rain god. Photo: Steve Grundy
One of the frescoes depicts Chuck sitting astride a four-legged beast of rather considerable size. Given the apparent unusualness of this motif for the entire pre-Columbian iconography of Mexico and Central America, it can be assumed that the Maya, who lived in the late 15th - early 16th centuries on the east coast of Yucatan, had already seen or, rather, heard about the Spanish horsemen who sowed horror in those years and death in the islands of the West Indies (Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica).
The Temple of the Wind God (Templo del Dios del Viento) served as an observation post where there was a storm warning system. There was a hole in the roof of the building that made a whistle when the wind was strong. When the inhabitants of the city heard the whistle, they knew that a storm was coming.
Temple of the wind god. Photo: Steve Grundy
House Chultun (Casa de Chultun) in translation from the Mayan language means "a place to collect rainwater", it housed a container for this purpose.
Chultun House. Photo: Steve Grundy
Artifacts found in and around the city indicate that sea and land trade routes from central Mexico and Central America converged at Tulum. Copper objects from the Mexican highlands, flint objects, ceramics, incense and gold objects from all parts of the Yucatan have been found. Salt and textiles were brought to Tulum by sea and then distributed inland, from where exported feathers and copper objects were brought in. Goods were transported by sea to the estuaries of rivers such as the Rio Motagua or Usumacinta, and upstream in small canoes.
Sheltered from the sea by formidable coral reefs, and from land by impenetrable swampy jungle, Tulum probably could have existed for some time even after the conquistadors Francisco de Montejo landed in Yucatan in 1527. But this, by no means, changed the overall bleak picture. From the 15th century onwards, traces of confusion and decline were increasingly evident in the life of the Yucatan Maya.
It was the agony of a great people, the sad decline of a once brilliant civilization. The hours of history were relentlessly ticking down. The Maya had no more time for either creative pursuits or political transformations. On the blue expanses of the Atlantic, the sails of Spanish ships were already looming, carrying with them destruction and death to the entire former way of life of Indian America.
Materials used from sites:
indiansworld.org / V. I. Gulyaev, "The Forgotten Cities of the Maya"
k2x2.info / "The origin of the Maya: history and geography"