Yucatan - Chichen Itza, Uxmal, Merida Attractions

The coastline in the west and north consists of sandbanks, lagoons and mangrove swamps, while along the eastern side it is characterised by coral-reefs and islands (Cozumel, Islas Mujeres). Yucatán is essentially an enormous flat chalkland tilted gently to the south, which has a typical karst landscape with savannah and scrubland. The rainfall, which increases the further south one goes, quickly seeps through the thin layer of earth and the chalk, thereby forming underground rivers and lakes. When the roofs of these caves collapse, circular spring-like water-holes of varying size are formed, called "cenotes" (from the Maya word "dzonot"). Before the Spanish conquest the Mayas built their cult centres around these cenotes, which even today are important for the supply of water.

Flora and fauna Jaguars and ocelots can still be found in the thick scrubland of Yucatán, although in the course of time they have retreated more and more into inaccessible areas. The alligator was also hunted mercilessly and now hardly exists here any more. On the other hand there are roedeer, wild boars, pheasants, wild ducks, wild turkeys and monkeys. Iguanas are still to be found, as well as the boa constrictor and other snakes. A large number of tropical birds, including parrots, toucans, flamingos and humming-birds, are native to the peninsula.

The abundant stocks of palm-trees on the peninsula have been severely affected by a disease which also appeared in previous centuries. An attempt is being made to re-establish a belt of palms along the beaches by planting a resistant strain of south-east Asian trees.

Economy

One of the main branches of the economy is the cultivation and processing of sisal-hemp (henequén), which is obtained from agaves, although its importance has undergone a sharp decline with the development of artificial fibres. Timber production and fishing also play a significant role. Until the 20th c. Yucatán looked more to Europe and had few links with the centre of Mexico, road and rail connections with the rest of the country having only been established since the 1950s. The most important seaport is Progreso on the Gulf of Mexico, which deals with a large part of the trade of the state. In the last few years the number of tourists coming to the archaeological sites of the Mayas and to the beaches has increased considerably.

History

With its large number of finds from the Classic period (ad 300-900) of the Maya civilisation Yucatán plays a key role in the field of archaeology.

In more recent history the period between 1512 and 1519 marks the first contacts between the Spanish conquerors and the original inhabitants of Yucatán. At this time the classic Maya sites had already with few exceptions been abandoned. It was only after 20 years of hard struggle that the conquistadores were able, under the leadership of the two Montejos, to establish Spanish rule over almost half the peninsula. In the colonial period Yucatán remained quite an unimportant part of the viceroyship on account of its isolated position. Rebellious Maya tribes tried again and again to win back parts of the country. In the second half of the 19th c., in particular, this resulted in bitter struggles which at times led to independence from the Mexican central state ("Caste War"). It was only at the beginning of the 20th c. that the Mexican state succeeded in achieving full sovereignty over Yucatán. Many of the vanquished Indians retreated into the wilds of Quintana Roo.

Apart from a number of Spaniards, mainly in and around Mérida, the population of the state of Yucatán consists mainly of Maya Indians and mestizos. In some areas the Maya language is spoken exclusively.

Scarcely any other area of Mexico can boast as many archaeological sites as Yucatán. The post-Classic period of the Mayas (ad 900-1450) was sustained by the activities of Maya tribes, both those who had always lived there and those who had migrated there from elsewhere, as well as Toltecs who had come there from their homes in the Mexican highlands. It led to magnificent architecture, in which early Maya elements became mixed with the style of the Toltecs. Nevertheless, the art of ceramics and stone sculpture no longer reached the high quality of the Early and Late Classic Periods (ad 300-900), which were primarily associated with south Campeche, Chiapas, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras.

The "Long Count" is the historic calendar of the Mayas, which counts every day from when they began to record time, and which uses as its base day our date August 13th 3114 bc. This began to be used only in an abbreviated form in the post-Classic period, whereas the original Maya calendar is considered one of the most detailed and exact of its time. The Mayas were also the first people to use the number zero, which enabled them to calculate dates which involved very long periods of time. The oldest definite Maya calendar date so far found is ad 292 on Stela 29 in Tikal, Guatemala (the origin of the "Hauberg Stela" with the date ad 199 is unsure).

The Mayas possess the only hieroglyphic script which was fully developed both from a logographic and phonetic aspect. The 800 or so glyphs so far identified can stand for both a syllable and a word. Today we are able to read and pronounce 25 to 35 per cent of the glyphs, with at least an idea of the meaning of the remainder. The breakthrough in deciphering it occurred in 1958 when a German living in Mexico, Heinrich Berlin, found what became known as the "weapon glyphs". He discovered that certain signs always only appeared in particular places. This enabled the glyphs of the eight classical Maya towns of Palenque, Yaxchilán (Mexico), Tikal, Piedras Negras, Quiriguá, Seibal, Naranjo (Guatemala) and Copán (Honduras) to be deciphered. From this Berlin was able to deduce that the writings on the stelae and other monuments were in fact the history of those places. Tatjana Proskouriakoff from the Carnegie Institute was then able to establish that the datings on special groups of stelae recorded the dates of a ruler's reign and the dates of his birth and marriage. At the same time it also became possible to find out from the glyphs the names of particular rulers and members of their families. In the 1950s and 1960s Jurij Knorosow did some important work, and in the 1970s Linda Schele, Peter Mathews and Floyd Lounsbury of the University of Texas documented the genealogy of the ruling dynasty of Palenque until practically the end of these sites around 800. In the 1980s the German Berthold Riese and the Frenchman Claude F. Baudez made significant further achievements in deciphering.

Similar to the Maya "books" are the codices made from plaster-lined paper manufactured from bark and folded in a special way. Those which were not destroyed by the Spaniards or disappeared were for the most part sent to Europe as a gift to Charles V and are today to be found in Dresden, Madrid and Paris. The "Grolier Codex", first brought to light in 1917 and the validity of which was initially questioned, is at present in Mexico City.

Sights

The most important Maya sites in Yucatán include Chichén Itzá, Yaxuna, Izamal, Dzibilchaltún, Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labná, Chacmultún, Xlapak and Mayapán. The other important sites on the peninsula are to be found in the states of Campeche and Quintana Roo. Almost all the Maya sites have been adversely affected by acid rain to an increasing extent over the last few years.