ahencyclopedia:TRAVEL POST: Maya City Of TulumIT’S a long walk from the parking lot through the jung

ahencyclopedia:TRAVEL POST: Maya City Of TulumIT’S a long walk from the parking lot through the jungle paths under the slow gaze of iguanas beneath the trees or perched on walls. Brightly coloured birds in the branches overhead look down and ruffle their wings as, somewhere up ahead, monkeys yell to each other in the undergrowth. You pass through the ticket booth and step through an archway in a stone wall into the ancient past. The sunlight, after the shade of the path, is almost blinding but what actually dazzles is the bright city rising from the plain before you: Tulum.The Maya city of Tulum was first brought to the world’s attention in the mid-19th century when John Lloyd Stephens and Frederic Catherwood popularized the civilization through their best-selling books Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (1841) and Incidents of Travel in Yucatan (1843), both narratives of their explorations and mapping of ancient Maya sites. Most Maya cities had been steadily swallowed by the surrounding jungle since their abandonment in c. 950 CE but Tulum was a late city, still occupied and operating as a trade centre in 1518 CE when the Spanish arrived. Read More Blog post & photos ©  by Joshua Mark on AHE -- source link

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