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We’re not archaeologists. We didn’t even stay at a Holiday Inn last night (though, alarmingly, there is a Holiday Inn not far from here). And yet we’re making a bit of a career of visiting the half-eroded cryptic remains of previous civilizations here in Southern Mexico.

One of the most famous piles of rocks in all of Mexico is what’s left of the once-mighty Mayan city of Tulum (51 peso entrance fee).

This is essentially the view that greets visitors as they enter the Tulum Ruins site today.

Eric was here more than 15 years ago and he remembers a place that still felt a bit wild–a bit Indiana Jones. These days the Tulum Ruins have been manicured so much that it feels a bit like walking through a nice urban park that just happens to have a lot of mysterious old buildings in it.

Still it’s enjoyable and since Tulum isn’t a huge site and you can’t climb any of the structures you can tour the place in less than two hours–unless you’re really, really into ruins or really, really into iguanas. There are hundreds of the things living here in every nook and cranny.

This ornate temple at the Tulum Ruins almost looks Greek.

You can use your entrance wrist band to re-enter Tulum multiple times in the same day, so hang onto it in case you want to see the place in morning light and afternoon light which are both great times to take pictures of Tulum. Unfortunately, the caretakers of the site have roped off some key vantage points for safety reasons, making it hard to get the ruins, cliff and ocean in one picture.

The Mayans who lived at Tulum had a million dollar view of the Caribbean.

We like to think of the Mayans who lived in Tulum as the real estate agents of the Pre-Colombian world. How else to explain how and why they ended up with such gorgeous beachfront property perched high up on a dramatic 40 foot cliff overlooking  the gorgeous Caribbean when their contemporaries were hacking their way through the humid, mosquito plagued jungle? Okay, maybe there are one or two other explanations, but we’re not archaeologists, remember?

The Mayans who lived at Tulum had a million dollar view of the Caribbean.

These days the only inhabitants of Tulum are some birds and hundreds of iguanas.

After touring Tulum in the hot sun visitors can walk down to the beach and take a dip.

After visiting Tulum we drove out to Cobá, which is less than an hour from Tulum, where a very different city with very different ruins and a very different way of touring them awaited. The Cobá  complex was home to at least 50,000 inhabitants and their city spreads out over 80 square kilometers. This means there’s a lot to see and a lot of space to cover.

This oval pyramid at Cobá was our favorite structure there.

We chose to walk between the various “neighborhoods” of Cobá but you can also rent bicycles and peddle yourself or rent a bicycle taxi and a driver to do the peddling for you.

Unlike Tulum, there’s plenty to climb at Cobá. Most impressive is the 138 foot tall Nohock Mul or Grand Pyramid, which lays claim to the title of tallest Mayan pyramid in the Yucatan (with many more piles of rocks in our future, we’ll be the judge of that, so stay tuned).

Cobá's Nohock Mul, aka the Great Pyramid, is a rocky dare with steps all the way up to its summit almost 140 feet up.

The jungle canopy stretches out forever from up at almost 140 feet on top of Nohoch Mul, aka the Great Pyramid, at Cobá.

Karen climbing down the Great Pyramid at Cobá.

This archway underneath the stairs that ascend a temple at Cobá shows just how small (and clever) those Mayans were.

Related Posts: 

• Ancient Mayans and Black Jaguars – Ek’ Balam Ruins, Yucatan State, Mexico
• Rocks For Sale! – Chichén Itzá, Yucatan State, Mexico

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Related posts:

1. Ancient Mayans and Black Jaguars – Ek’ Balam Ruins, Yucatan State, Mexico
2. Beach Boom – Tulum, Mexico
3. Mujeres y Mayans – Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico
4. Where Mayans and Popes Mingle – Izamal, Yucatan State, Mexico