If you could travel back in time and see the Riviera Maya as it was hundreds of years ago, you would see a thriving civilization, with a complex social, political, and religious community. From the Cancún hotel zone to the Playa del Carmen shoreline to the beaches and jungles of the Riviera Maya, there were hundreds of structures, religious temples, dwellings, stone roads, and even recreational facilities. When the Mayans abandoned their cities, their buildings were reclaimed by the jungle, and many of them deteriorated. Some sites retained their spiritual significance and were occasionally used as ceremonial sites by the local population until not long ago.
Archaeologists began uncovering the sites in the early 1900s, and little by little, more sites were re-discovered, studied, and, in some cases, restored to their original splendor. Many of the sites have been declared federal property by the Mexican archaeological institution and have been turned into public parks, where locals and tourists can visit to learn about the Mayan culture and history, and to experience first-hand the places where the ancient Mayan’s lived, worked, prayed, and played. Many others sites remained buried, shrouded by jungle, sometimes just out of view, and some are too remote to be discovered. New sites are being uncovered all the time and many others remain hidden.
If you can’t make time to visit any of the major sites in the area, you can always peek through the fence on the east side of Quinta Avenida at 14th Street in Playa del Carmen to see an authentic, though quite unassuming, bit of Mayan history. Surrounded by a chain-link fence and official-looking signs declaring it a federal archaeological site is a small temple built at the base of a tree. It’s not labeled, but it’s rumored to be a small ceremonial site or even an ancient dwelling.
More:
Riviera Maya Hotels
Airport Transportation
Tours & Activities
Xcaret Mayan Theme Park
