Mayans

…The Maya

The indigenous Mayan population in this region extends from all over southern Mexico to Guatemala, Belize, and parts of northern El Salvador and Honduras, and like many indigenous populations worldwide, a lot of Maya face constant discrimination, poor health, and poor education. And also like many indigenous populations, their history is ancient and extremely interesting. 

As we travelled across Mexico and down into Guatemala, we came across many Mayan people. Apart from the fact that a lot of them wear traditional clothing (hand woven shirts, trousers/skirts, all with a myriad of colours), a typical Mayan, if you will, is easy to spot because their facial features are so different to other locals (of European descent) – many Mayans look Asian; similar to the Chinese. A local Mayan tour guide that we had at the Palenque ruins told us that the Mayans actually came from China; this is not something that we’re aware of, but he was deadly serious – we’ll have to look it up.

Regardless, what most people are aware of regarding Mayans is their architecture. Across the region, there are literally thousands of ancient cities deep in the jungle – many of which are still to be excavated, and many of which probably won’t be excavated. The Governments in the area, particularly Mexico and Guatemala, are reluctant to let archaeologists excavate more Mayan sites because of the impact it will have on native flora and fauna that a dig will have. Some sites – such as Palenque and Chichen Itza – have actually had their digs stopped for this reason. Since the decline of the ancient Mayan city-states over 500 years ago, many of these ancient cities have simply been swallowed by the jungle. And to excavate, enormous swathes of land must be felled – an exercise that some governments won’t allow in this “environmentally friendly” day and age.

We’ve mentioned the Coba ruins in another blog. Our next major ruin we went to was Chichen Itza – about halfway between Cancun and Merida. This site is considered one of the largest Mayan cities that has been discovered. It’s an enormous site, with a large number of buildings having already been excavated. The biggest of which is the main temple, forming a giant pyramid right in the centre of the site. The temple is made up of 7 large tiers with the temple sitting on top, and 91 stairs on each side leading to the temple. Archaeologists claim that the 91 stairs represents the amount of time between each season (91 days x 4 = 364, and the temple on top represents one day of the year). The rest of the site is made up of small houses, temples, municipal-type buildings, ball courts (where an ancient version of basketball was played), and several specific places where sacrifices began (human (virgin women, children, and sportsmen) and animal).

Overall, the site really is impressive, however the most interesting thing about the place was the design of it, and in particular the acoustics. It was designed in a way that if you stand on a particular spot (that was marked by a stone where the sacrifices would begin) – and it had to be this particular sport – you could talk in a normal voice and someone on the other side of the main square (approximately 100 metres away) could easily hear you. This is a completely open-air site, however the Mayans designed it in a way that whenever a sacrificial ritual was started, or some other announcement had to be made to the city, everyone could easily hear it. Pavarotti performed at this spot with no amplification to an audience of 50,000 (or some ridiculous number…I didn’t even know there were that many people who liked opera) a number of years ago (before he got done for all his tax evasion stuff and married his 16 year old wife…dirty dog).

This blog is starting to drag on, so I’ll finish up soon…

Palenque ruins was next, and I think this is the most dramatic of Mayan ruins that we saw. Palenque is right in the middle of a lush green jungle, high up in the mountains. It’s a proper rainforest. Very dark, very misty, and lots of animals throughout the site. Slightly smaller than Chichen Itza, Palenque was more beautiful than Chichen Itza – simply given its location. The three most striking things about this site were:

• The existence of aqua ducts. This is a site that was built about 2,000 years ago, and the Mayans were able to dam a stream higher up in the mountains and channel the water through aqua ducts into the city;
• The main site at Palenque is actually an ancient cemetery (a Necropolis) – where a number of kings and queens were buried. Tomb raiders have looted the site a number of times over the years, but many of them ended up dead shortly after. The Mayans were able to somehow seal a lot of the more important tombs with mercury, so when tomb was opened and the seal was broken, the thieves inhaled an enormous amount of mercury which caused them to die a painful death soon after; and
• On May 7 each year, men would have their penises pierced with a branch from a tree that contained hundreds of thorns, and young women would have their tongues pierced with the same branch. The wet season starts on May 7 each year here, and these rituals were supposed to convince the gods to start the rain so the crops would grow. If I can find a picture of this tree branch I’ll put it up. Put to try and put things in perspective (if an annual cock piercing wasn't enough for you), I wouldn’t even like to brush up against the tree that these branches came from – they are seriously sharp, and there are LOTS of them.

Lastly, the strangest thing we came across regarding Mayans during this time in Mexico, was the site of an old Mayan lady (well over 60 years of age), wearing traditional clothes, cycling a push bike while talking on a mobile phone. It certainly made for an interesting sight!

Adios amigos!