Tulum Archaeological Zone
Walled late Maya port on a Caribbean cliff, dominated by the clifftop temple known as El Castillo.
Tulum occupies a limestone bluff above the Caribbean on the eastern coast of the Yucatán peninsula. Maya sources call it Zamá, meaning dawn; the present name refers to the wall that encloses the settlement on its landward sides. The site was a trading port of the Late Postclassic period, handling obsidian, jade, cotton and salt along a coastal canoe route, and it remained occupied when Spanish ships first sighted it in 1518. It is one of the few Maya cities known to have been fortified in this way.
The wall runs for some four hundred metres north to south, pierced by five narrow gateways and carrying watchtowers at two corners. Inside, the buildings are modest in scale and often built with sloping walls and stucco decoration. El Castillo, set directly above the cliff, has serpent columns and zoomorphic masks; the Temple of the Frescoes retains mural painting in the Mixteca-Puebla manner; and the Temple of the Descending God takes its name from a diving figure over its doorway. Buildings may not be climbed.
Highlights
- El Castillo standing on the cliff edge above the Caribbean
- Temple of the Frescoes with surviving mural painting
- Temple of the Descending God and its diving figure relief
- Defensive wall with five gateways and corner watchtowers
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