If you are unfamiliar with Mayan ruins, they are usually excavated from a jungle. Trees and other plant life have overgrown them over the centuries after their abandonment, and dirt then fills them in. We have actually climbed to the second or possibly third level here (this was taken almost 4 years ago, and my memory has dimmed). I am not so sure that the grassy area surrounding this temple wasn't filled with limestone rock when this temple was completed, as we are already partially up the temple.

[mroeder75]

I wonder what it looked like when it was it use? I'm sure it didn't have mowed lawn around it. I wonder if there were wooden structures near it or if sacred buildings were apart from everything else?

I am guessing we are already two stories high from where this photo is taken. Below this layer of grass very likely is a limestone veranda. The site was first reported to the Mexican government in the 1970s. It was seen as a series of hills on a plain in the jungle when first discovered. It is a very recent excavation and while I did not see evidence of continuing excavation, they could continue excavating and restoring if there were resources, to put it back in its original condition.

There are other Mayan temples in the jungle that have not been discovered, and some that have been but have not yet been excavated, in these tropical areas of Southern Mexico and Central America.

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Nice shot. You managed to avoid most of the people.

Having a person almost out of frame gives scale without distraction. Well done.

Without people, a site like this has neither scale nor meaning.

That little girl is my niece. We couldn't pose her if I wanted to do so. She does give scale. She is a pleasant distraction for us.

I so much would like to see Mayan ruins. Thanks for providing this little tease of what's waiting for me.

Those sites are always jaw dropping sights. I had the great fortune to visit Chichén Itzá in 2015.

I love the Mayan buildings. Definitely a bucket list job.

Nice photo. It is an impressive structure.

I have been blessed by my parents who have taken their kids on four Caribbean cruises. The Mayan sites are my favorite parts of the cruise. . . . Well the ships are nice, the ship crews are great, my siblings and their kids a pleasure. There were a lot of great things about these trips. But the Mayan ruins are spectacular. They had great engineers, and hard working stone masons and people carrying rock in hot humid jungles. Their prodigiousness for building and agriculture may have been their ruin. It may have affected their local climate, to their detriment.

Nice shot! Relics like these of old civilizations just confirm that nothing lasts forever. Thanks for sharing.
Best.

Their buildings and evidence of their culture survived their culture. My grandmother was a folk oil painter. She probably would not be remembered for much, but her paintings will descend as treasure through generations. The Mayans built structures we remember them by. If we could each focus on producing like the Mayans, or like my grandmother, you will be recalled by those who come later.

Really a nice shot. If those who built it could talk to us what would they say?

I think they would encourage their descendants, and others, about the importance of building structures.

Fascinating.

Thank you. See my first post in this series. Considering this site was first reported in the 1970s, and only later the jungle was excavated is much more fascinating than the photo. It has not been open very long to tourists.

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Last edited by mroeder75; 11-11-2019 at 10:06 PM.