This is William, a guide we hired. He's been working at Ek Balam since he was 9 years old! A local who speaks Mayan (his parents speak only Mayan), Spanish, English and wants to learn Chinese and Russian. Good guide. Very informative. He was well worth his fee of 350 pesos
This is a partially reconstructed stairway to the top of the main building, called The Acropolis. The building is about 160 meters long and 32 meters tall. It's actually taller than the pyramid at Chichen Itza. The kings lived here. Probably the queens too! The steps were good size so going up and down was a lot easier to climb up and down than other Mayan temples/pyramids. Peggy made it about 2/3's up to the main facade. Ed went to the top. What a view! You can actually see the pyramid at Coba, 30 miles away.
This is part of the main facade. It is a huge carving of a jaguar's mouth (opening from the underworld), surrounded by the jaguar's teeth. A carving of the king sits on the Jaguar's nose. To the right are "Mayan Angels" (see below), probably gods or kings with wings. Ed thought one of them looked exactly like him. Peggy disagreed. The entire carving was actually behind a wall and backfilled with dirt. When the archeologists broke through this is what they found. It is perfectly preserved. They discovered a burial chamber which contained over 7,000 actifacts. Most of those artifacts have been moved to Merida for security reasons. The stucco and carvings are intact and unblemished.
Here are two of the "Angels". The ruins were discovered in 1987 and excavated and partially reconstructed in 1999. No work is being done now because of the lack of funding. There are several mounds of rubble that are unexcavated builings. The city, which probably had a population of 18,000 at its peak, was enclosed by 2 walls- both pretty low (1 1/2 meters tall?).
Here's the view from the very top, looking out over the other Ek Balam ruins.
This is William, a guide we hired. He's been working at Ek Balam since he was 9 years old! A local who speaks Mayan (his parents speak only Mayan), Spanish, English and wants to learn Chinese and Russian. Good guide. Very informative. He was well worth his fee of 350 pesos 
This is a partially reconstructed stairway to the top of the main building, called The Acropolis. The building is about 160 meters long and 32 meters tall. It's actually taller than the pyramid at Chichen Itza. The kings lived here. Probably the queens too! The steps were good size so going up and down was a lot easier to climb up and down than other Mayan temples/pyramids. Peggy made it about 2/3's up to the main facade. Ed went to the top. What a view! You can actually see the pyramid at Coba, 30 miles away.
This is part of the main facade. It is a huge carving of a jaguar's mouth (opening from the underworld), surrounded by the jaguar's teeth. A carving of the king sits on the Jaguar's nose. To the right are "Mayan Angels" (see below), probably gods or kings with wings. Ed thought one of them looked exactly like him. Peggy disagreed. The entire carving was actually behind a wall and backfilled with dirt. When the archeologists broke through this is what they found. It is perfectly preserved. They discovered a burial chamber which contained over 7,000 actifacts. Most of those artifacts have been moved to Merida for security reasons. The stucco and carvings are intact and unblemished.
Here are two of the "Angels". The ruins were discovered in 1987 and excavated and partially reconstructed in 1999. No work is being done now because of the lack of funding. There are several mounds of rubble that are unexcavated builings. The city, which probably had a population of 18,000 at its peak, was enclosed by 2 walls- both pretty low (1 1/2 meters tall?).
Here's the view from the very top, looking out over the other Ek Balam ruins.
No comments:
Post a Comment