"This better be worth it," you mutter to yourself as you catch
the tram from the parking lot to the site itself. It's hot, you can't see your tour guide,
and you have sunscreen in your eyes. Then you hand in your ticket and walk through the
portal in the stone wall, and raise your head to see...
The sight is breathtaking, but the tour guides have this all planned. You
will find yourself awed by each new sight, only to be all the more surprised at the
next...
I would recommend taking the tour the guides have planned for you, but you're free to
wander if you choose.
Tulum means fence, trench or wall, and is the name given to the site in recent times
because of the wall surrounding it, although its ancient name was possibly Zama,
a corruption of Zamal (morning), associated with the dawn. This is an ideal name
for the site, as sunrise in Tulumis a superb sight. The first mention of this city was
made by Juan Diaz, who was on Juan de Grijalva's expedition that reached the coast of the
Yucatan peninsula in 1518. He wrote, "We followed the coast day and night; on the
following day... we sighted a city or town so large that Seville would not have appeared
bigger or better... a very tall tower was to be seen there..." which no doubt refers
to Tulum and the building known as the Castle, standing on the edge of the cliff.
In Juan de Reigosa's Las Relaciones de Yucatan, written in 1579, Zama is
mentioned as a walled site with stone buildings which included a very large one that
looked like a fortress. Pedro Sanchez de Aguilar, author of Informe Contra Idolorum
Cultores del Obispado de Yucatan, (Madrid, 1639) mentions the coast of Zama when
telling the story of ten shipwrecked Spaniards who were taken prisoner by the chieftain
Kenich. Among them was Geronimo de Aguilar, who later became Hernan Cortes' interpreter
during the Conquest of Mexico.
After this there are no other references to Tulum until Juan Pio Perez in a letter dated
1840 says that Juan Jose Galvez had visited Ascencion Bay, discovering that between there
and Cape Catoche there were two ancient cities, Tancah and Tulum, the latter surrounded by
walls.
In 1842, John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood visited tho site and later made it
known to the world with the book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, where Stephen's
text is complemented by Catherwood's magnificent illustrations. During the Maya uprising
of the War for the Castes, which began in 1847 and lasted until 1901, Tulum was occupied
several times by rebels because of the protection its wall afforded. In 1871 it became one
of the sanctuaries of the "Speaking Cross" cult, led by the Indian woman Maria
Uicab, who was known as the patron saint or queen of Tulumn.
Several expeditions rcached Tulum later. In 1895, W.H. Holmes made two drawings of the
area from his yacht, and in 1913 Sylvanus G. Morley and J.L. Nussbaum paid a short visit
to the site.
The Carnegie Institution of Washington organized expeditions in 1916, 1918 and 1922 led by
Morley and including other noted researchers. In 1937, members of the Mexican Scientific
Expedition studied various sites on the east coast of the Yucatan peninsula, including
Tulum. The following year Miguel Angel Fernandez began the work of restoring and in
investigating the site. Finally, the National Institute of Anthropology and History,
through the Southeast Regional Center is continuing investigation and maintenance of this
important Maya archaeological site.
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