Description

Tulum

The best-preserved coastal Mayan site

Tulum (Tulu'um) is a Mayan word for fence, wall or trench, and the walls surrounding the site allowed the Tulum fort to be defended against invasions. Tulum had access to both land and sea trade routes, making it an important trade hub, especially for the obsidian trade. From numerous depictions in murals and other works around the site, Tulum appears to have been an important site for the worship of the Diving or Descending god.

The site may formerly have been known also by the name Zama, meaning City of Dawn because it faces the sunrise. Tulum stands on two 12-meter (39 ft) tall cliffs along the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea. Most of its buildings were constructed in the post-classic period.

Tulum was one of the last cities inhabited and built by the Mayas; it was at its height between the 13th and 15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. Old World diseases brought by the Spanish settlers appear to have been the cause of its demise. At the end of the 16th century the city was completely abandoned.

Nowadays Tulum is one of the best-preserved coastal Mayan sites of interest in the Yucatan Peninsula.

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