Mayan mystery lingers in Mexico

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Clamber to the top of ancient pyramids for an inspiring view of the Yucatan Peninsula and its lost civilization

The brave scramble to the top. It takes a mere 365 steps to reach it, a vertigo-inducing view from the summit of one of the most well-known Mayan pyramids - El Castillo (the castle) at Chichen Itza.

But it's getting down that is an even more dizzying prospect. The pitch of the pyramid is so steep that you can only see a few steps in front of you when you peer downward from the top.

Some visitors are able to descend in an upright walking fashion, more or less. Others crawl down backward, chest pressed tight against the steps. And still others choose a sitting position, coming down step by step on their butts, some grasping at the rope that's been installed to help unsuspecting tourists in their descent.

The climb isn't for the faint-of-heart. So, why do so many visitors climb the pyramid?

Well, because it's there. And because climbing to the top of El Castillo is like climbing to the top of an unknown world - the world of an ancient civilization that mysteriously disappeared about 1,000 or so years ago.

"The ruins are truly amazing - most visitors have never seen anything like them," said Carlos Hampe of the Mexico Tourism Board.

Just look at El Castillo. The number of steps to the top reflects the number of days in the year. And twice a year, during the spring and autumn solstice, the shadow of the pyramid forms a perfect serpent on the ground.

Examples of this kind of mathematical knowledge and understanding of the solar system are seen in ancient Mayan cities throughout the Yucatan Peninsula on Mexico's east coast.

"The ancient Maya were a proud and formidable people whose cities, built on a monumental scale, continue to dominate the landscape today," said Timothy Laughton, a University of Essex lecturer who has studied the cities and written a book about them called The Maya: Life, Myth and Art (Duncan Baird Publishers).

Those ancient cities, along with flour-soft sand and bathtub-warm waters, are part of the reason this area of Mexico - known as the Riviera Maya - has become the most popular tourist destination in the country.

The state it's located in (Quintana Roo) accounts for more than a third of Mexico's annual tourism revenue, more than $3 billion U.S.

"There's something for everyone in this area,"said Martha Chapman, manager of corporate communications for Signature Vacations, which offers all-inclusive packages to the region.

Stay in Cancun if you want a vacation packed with action, day and night. Head south to the many all-inclusive resorts that dot the Riviera Maya for rest and relaxation. And if you're looking to immerse yourself in a bit of history and culture, don't miss the ruins, Chapman said.

It is in these ruins that you find the hieroglyphic history the Mayas left behind, and where archeologists find clues they piece together to better understand this fascinating civilization.

Even a casual visitor can get a sense of what Mayan life was like. Just check out the ball courts - fields constructed for a game that involved shooting a ball through a very small hoop, without using your hands. Making the game even more challenging was the position of the hoops - either on sloped walls or very high overhead. And, as if the game needed even more tension, the team that lost could look forward to a beheading. (Some translations of Mayan history, however, believe it was the winners who had the honour of having their heads cut off and sacrificed to their almighty gods.)

There are several interpretations of how the Mayas lived, but almost all who study them agree on one thing - the Mayas were a proud people, much like the Mexicans who live in the area today.

Take the village of Pac-Chen, for example. For years, this village watched its numbers dwindle and families splinter as young men left home to work in the job-rich tourist areas many miles from the village.

So, in their quest to keep families together, villagers decided the tourists (and their money) must instead start coming to them. They turned their village into a mini-adventure mecca, where visitors can canoe, hike, rappel into an underground cave and pool, and then end the day by flying across a lagoon.

On the road to Pac-Chen, visitors often stop at Coba, another venue for viewing Mayan ruins.

Coba may well have been the largest of all Mayan cities, with about 6,500 structures spread over 50 square kilometres, housing up to 50,000 Mayas. Excavation of this lost city didn't begin until 1973, and even today, much of it is still buried in the jungle, making for a fascinating visit.

Just 40 kilometres away from Coba is Tulum, a city that has some of the most visited ruins in the area. Tulum is 131 kilometres south of Cancun. Known as the "walled city," Tulum sits on the coast, which meant it attracted many Mayas.

It was perhaps the success of these cities that led to their ultimate downfall and abandonment. Some theories suggest the cities were abandoned because of famine and disease. More recent studies say the cities were overpopulated. That population problem, combined with battles with neighbouring communities, may have led to their eventual downfall. It's all part of the mystery of the Mayas.

Calgary Herald