Page 28 - Mexico Diving From the Caribbean to Pacific Isles

Coba

The main attraction to visitors of Coba is the Ancient Pyramid
which is still open for the public to climb its 130 steps up to
the top of the site. Coba was never found by the Spanish, thus
being left covered by jungle until the 1890s, when it was redis-
covered.

C oba lies less than two hours from Playa del and far. Some of these causeways go east, and H owever Coba remained an important
Carmen, and is different from the other the longest runs over 100 kilometers westwards site in the Post-Classic era and new
big sites in the Yucatan. It is situated by four to the site of Yaxuna. The site contains several temples were built and old ones kept in re-
natural lakes, which is a rare sight in the Yucatan. large temple pyramids, the tallest, in what is pair until at least the 14th century, possibly
These lakes are believed to have given the city known as the Nohoch Mul group of structures, as late as the arrival of the Spanish. Archae-
its name, which means “Waters stirred by wind”. being some 42 meters in height. Ixmoja is the ological evidence indicates that Cobá was
Furthermore, it is not as excavated nor recon- tallest pyramid on the Yucatán peninsula. Coba first settled between 100 BC and 100 AD. At
structed as Chichen Itza or Tulum. Coba still has is estimated to have had some 50,000 inhabit- that time, there was a town with buildings
a number of big structures covered with the ants (and possibly significantly more) at its peak of wood and palm fronts and flat platforms.
growth of the jungle, making it a wild place that of civilization, and the built up area extends over The only archeological evidence of the time
truly triggers your imagination. It doesn’t see some 80 km². The site was occupied by a sizable is fragments of pottery. After 100 AD, the
nearly as many visitors as Chichen Itza or Tulum agricultural population by the 1st century. The area around Coba evidenced strong popu-
and if you’re early you might be all by yourself bulk of Coba’s major construction seems to have lation growth, and with it an increase in its
with only birds, monkeys and the dense jungle been made about 500 to 900, with most of the social and political status among Maya city
to accompany you at these mystical ruins. A dated hieroglyphic inscriptions from the 7th states which would ultimately make Coba
series of elevated stone and plaster roads radiate century. one of the biggest and most powerful city
from the central site to various smaller sites near in the Yucatan.