A visit to the Mayan ruins at Parque Nacional Tulum (National Park Tulum), Mexico

Hey all

So the second Mayan village I visited while in Mexico was the one of Tulum, Quintana Roo in Mexico.

Just under a two hour drive south from Cancun and a much closer hour from Playa Del Carmen Tulum is accessible via highway, although be warned, if you try this drive you will deal with vast numbers of speed limit changes, where the regular single file roads found heading towards Coba have higher speed limits set on them.

And with that we'll start with the wildlife!

Of the wildlife seen within the park Iguanas were the main ones seen, and they seriously didn't care one bit of be being there with the camera.

Now Tulum is situated right on the Caribbean coast and with that, you do get to see the wonderful blues that the sea produces in the area

Which can be seen here as well just outside of the national park on the public beach.

Where if you were to look closely, you might see a wedding photo set being taken upon the rock! This was something I didn't even notice on the day and only spotted when looking at this image at full res, which really caught me by surprise!

Now onto the the national park, and the ruined city of Tulum has a number of well preserved buildings with the site, which I will give you all a tour of here, starting with The Temple of the God of Wind

And as you view from the Temple, to the north you see the open space of the park and more inland again.

Close up with the The Temple of the God of Wind, which is known in Spanish as Templo Dios del Viento, which sounds far more fetching.

And just to give an idea of just how close to the coast the village is, the same temple here can be seen right next to the beach!

As with all Myan villages or cities, there is often a Castle (or pyramid) as the center point. and to the back of this is a cove which was known as a docking point for many canoes used for trading within Tulum.

This building here is known as the Cenote House and is one of the first buildings you see as you enter the village before heading to the cove area

Known as the Great Platform this has the look of a place where ceremonial or performances must have taken place, I've not been able to locate info on this, but if I do this will be updated!

At the back of The Castle, you can see the cove beach area, where this is would have been the spot where canoes would have arrived for trading.

And again, just look at the colours of the sea from here!

This is one of the noted coves that was used for the arrivals of trading canoes into the Tulum.

A more wide angle view of the cove area, beach, Castle and Temple of God of Winds with the coast sweeping round towards the hotel resorts of Tulum

As the castle is considered the center point of any village or city, then a few extra pictures are due, with a couple of wide angle shots to give a sense of size

and with some of the smaller ruins within shot too, like with the palace remains at the front

As close as I could manage to get to the Castle, since the ruins themselves cannot be accessed by visitors anymore

But the views of it are still very good as can be seen

The Temple of the Frescoes was the center of art within Tulum, and appears a mainstay in may a Mayan village and city

It consists of two gallery areas, a lower and upper which can be seen here. And on top of this the temple was also used as an observatory for tracking the movement of the sun.

Up close with the detailing on one of the buildings, and within this, being the "diving god"

A thatched awning covers the entrance to the Palace, most likely not original!

And as we come to the end of the photo set, we look back towards the Castle one last time.

And with a final view, as viewed from the rear of the Castle, towards the cove and the Temple of the God of Wind, I can only imagine how stunning this view would be come sun setting time.

I have to admit, I felt visiting here was one of the best locations I have seen while in Mexico, and I might consider this better then visiting Chichen Itza, although I will leave that for you the reader to decide on a future post! 😀