Mexico is a wonderful country, there are many archaeological findings in it that have become important tourist attractions. Such is the case of Tulum, which is an archaeological zone located in front of the Caribbean Sea, specifically in the extreme south of the Mayan Riviera, in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, which stands erect ahead of time and hurricanes.
It is important to note that the Mayan Riviera represents the main destination for underground cave diving that has been developed in recent decades, and that has made significant progress in recent years. It shelters great mysteries of the prehistoric world, having been explored 1500 kilometers of submerged caves of the 8,000 kilometers that are estimated to be in the entire Yucatan Peninsula.
Thus, the Mayan Riviera gives us a vast archaeological and cultural heritage in different places, as it is the case of Tulum, which is divided into three different zones: the hotels zone, the village, and the archaeological area properly said. In the first one the most beautiful beaches of the Caribbean are, a site that has managed to preserve some wild and unspoilt nature because the hotel business is small and simple rustic style, giving a special harmony of the environment.
It is worth mentioning that the architecture of this archaeological zone is very characteristic since it dispenses with the right angles, which is not very common in the structures of the American continent, and it is a clear example of the homogeneity lacking in symmetry. We can thus appreciate rooms and temples “crookedly aligned”, which are directed towards the displacements of the Sun, the Moon and the planets, which in turn follow an imaginary line that goes from East to West and which is called Ecliptic, but for the Mayas that line represents a two-headed serpent.
It is important to know that Tulum is a walled city with small doors that allow access that in ancient times facilitated its defense against the different attacks of pirates and foreign expeditions. The archaeological ruins are the main attraction of this area, and they are assiduously visited by the proximity of the tourist poles of Cancún and Carmen beach. The translation from the Maya is ‘wall or palisade’, this name is believed to have been assigned when the Mayan city was already abandoned and in ruins, because at the beginning of the twentieth century even the Mayans who lived nearby visited the temples of the city.
Many tourists visit this strange natural beauty and immerse themselves in its interior where there is an enigmatic enclosure that has been studied, explored, excavated and transformed to the taste of archaeologists. These ruins are located on the sea in a wonderful landscape that leaves a halo of mystery, and being located in front of the great barrier, the story tells that the Spaniards had a hard time accessing it, so several expeditions were carried out before being able to access them.
The stories tell that it was a city of gold, because its black stones turn golden with sunlight; however, when the Spaniards arrived, they found dark stone constructions, thinking that their inhabitants were witches and had turned gold into stone to prevent it from being seized. This is one of the historical stories that generally give a mysterious aspect to the area, and that finds allies in people who like to hear this kind of stories, forming part of a special attraction for tourists.
These archaeological ruins are famous for their imposing walls located in front of the multicolored waters of the Caribbean Sea, besides that at one time it was an astronomical observatory that is still there. Its azure blue waters are also very admired, as well as its virgin beaches, its lush jungle and natural wells called “cenotes”, which make up an underground network of rivers, which make it an eco-archaeological destination of special interest for nature and history lovers.
One of the mysteries of Tulum is its archaeological findings, which give a particular magic to this particular area, with an exuberant nature in which numerous prehistoric findings have been discovered that until now have not been sufficiently exploited, and as Aceves assures (2017) that is part of the Institute of Prehistory and is one of the few specialists trained to take photographs and underwater videos for research, and who has participated in explorations in which bones of people and animals have been found that lived in the area 10,000 years ago, finding replicas of them in the Museum of Prehistory that is in this archaeological zone.
Also, this researcher says they have human skeletons of the first settlers of America, ranging from 10,000 to 14,000 years old, proving to be the oldest found in the Americas.
On the other hand, among the most important constructions of Tulum are El Castillo, the Temple of the descending God, the Temple of the Fresh and the Temple of the Wind with circular structure that allows the free circulation, in which visitors connect with an energy full of mystery, history and culture, which brings to the area a particular attraction that should be used for the development of tourism in the Mayan Riviera and to increase the archaeological contributions to Mexicans and the world.
However, although there have been numerous underground explorations in cenotes and caverns, there are no specific scientific publications that expand information on Tulum, coupled with the fact that the Castilian chroniclers have not left enough historical sources, which is why it has been involved in contemporary myths that distort their historical reality.
Another myth about Tulum is that it was a sanctuary dedicated to the Goddess Ixchel. The Mayans had no gods but divine entities and represented them in multiple ways and forms, because they themselves acquired attributes or borrowings from other divine entities.
In this way, high-value archaeological findings have been found during explorations in the world’s largest underground rivers, which are located in the surroundings of Tulum, Quintana Roo, and are known as Aktun Ha, Nohoch Nachich, Autlan, Sac Actun, Oxbel Ha and Dos Ojos. This has been achieved thanks to some divers who have entered the sacred enclosures for a few decades to explore them and have located the skeletal remains of prehistoric animals and the bones of individuals considered to be the oldest of the American Continent.
In this order of ideas, it is said that thanks to these underground investigations carried out in Tulum, it has been possible to have clues to understand the climate change and the possible causes of the collapse of the Mayan civilization. These evidences have not been sufficiently spread in spite of the great importance for humankind, considering that it is about the preservation of life on the planet.
These clues seem to be based on the findings found in the stalagmite baptized as Itzamna (Mayan God of creation), since by analysis of oxygen isotopes, the evolution of the climate between the years 1500 before Christ and the year 560 after of Christ is registered.
In this regard, Obregón (2014) explains that recently Alejandro Álvarez, director of the Tulum Speleological Project (PET), unveiled one of the most important findings in contemporary history. The author notes that “Alejandro, together with his expedition partners Alberto Nava and Franco Atollini located the bone remains of animals and humans of the Ice Age in a hole 50 to 60 meters deep located in one of the underground rivers nearby Tulum and they named it The Black Hole”.
About this subject, it should be noted that the discovery of fauna and individuals with more than 10 thousand years comes to revolutionize our historical perception, to support hypotheses that were considered out of context in the past, as they contradict the world’s archaeological status and locate the Mayan Underworld as one of the most important spaces to study climate change that it is so disturbing to researchers and puts at risk the continuity of our societies, which represents a significant contribution not only for archeology, but for the tourism sector, the culture of the area, and above all for scientific advances full of history.
Álvarez (2018) told the newspaper El Universal the following: “The Black Hole is the biggest finding so far registered in the area. Its magnitude is impressive. The importance of the site is that besides humans, there is a context of animals, plants, human activities such as bonfires”
All this series of findings and the natural beauty of Tulum in the Mayan Riviera, is a fundamental source for the development of a tourism aimed at preserving nature, in which the ecological, the social, the economic, the archaeological and the cultural thing combine to offer different alternatives to all those tourists from all over the world who seek different destinations where they can enjoy different activities that fill them from the recreational, spiritual and cultural point of view.
So, the main attraction of Tulum is framed in a lush landscape full of history and culture, which makes it a mandatory destination for bohemian travelers, and those who are restless, eager for adventures and different experiences that transport them to the past in the search for answers of the enigma of life on planet earth, and the events that have caused both the evolution and the extinction of species and cultures.
Therefore, Tulum represents a place with enough attractions for tourists who generally direct their gaze towards the Mayan culture and the archaeological findings found in the multicolored waters of the Mayan Riviera.
ALFA