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Coba Archeological Zone

The second largest Mayan city in the Mayan civilization, Coba covers over 70 square km (42 square miles)! This site doesn’t get as many visitors as Chichen Itza and Tulum. It hasn’t been excavated as much either. This is a great location to get a real feel of what life would have looked like for the Mayan people. You’ll wander through the jungle and see birds, monkeys small animals and iguanas along the way. The hills you see are not hills. There aren’t any hills in the Yucatan peninsula. Every single hill you see is an ancient temple that have been covered by the jungle and has yet to be excavated!

The pyramids in Coba are different than the ones in Chichen Itza and Tulum. The architecture resembles that of Tikal in Guatemala. This is because a queen from Coba married a king from Tikal and built their empire together. The Mayas built temples that only had one staircase whereas the Mayans with Toltec influence built temples with staircases on four sides. Once the temples were built, they were considered sacred and only priests and royalty were allowed to climb them. The Mayans did not sacrifice humans, that came from the Toltec influence, they sacrificed animals instead.

History

It is located between lake Coba and lake Macanxoc. The name Coba means “Waters stirred by the wind”. It was inhabited from 300-900 AD and at its peak, the city housed 55,000 inhabitants. This city had a road that ran all the way to the city of Yaxuna which was next to Chichen Itza. Coba was allies with Yaxuna and they were both in war with Chichen Itza for many years. In 860 AD Chichen Itza destroys Yaxuna and Coba was defeated shortly after.

Coba was discovered in the 1800’s but access to the site was nearly impossible because of the Castle War.  The site visited by a few archeologist in the early 1900’s.  The site started to gain popularity in the 1970’s when they paved a road leading to the site. In 1973 it became an archeological site. This is not a single site. It is multiple sites connected together with Mayan roads There are more than 5000 mounds that have yet to be excavated.

Nohoch Mul

One of the last few pyramids that you can still climb in the Yucatan peninsula. Nohoch Mul (Large Mountain in Maya) is 42m (138ft) high. It’s 120 steps to the top of the pyramid. The Temple at Chichen Itza is only 91 steps. The view from the top is worth the climb. It’s a breathtaking view of the Yucatan. You can see lake Coba and Lake Macanxoc as well as the sections of Coba that are not open to the public. The temple building on top of the pyramid has two small carvings depicting the god descending. They are associated with the planet Venus.

The steps are extremely slippery on the way down. Please use the guide rope even if you think you don’t need it. We can no longer climb Chichen Itza because someone thought they didn’t need the guide rope and it would have saved her life. If anyone falls, they will close the site for future climbers.

Coba Stelae

There are forty four stelae in Coba. Out of the forty four, eleven are flat stelaes and the remaining thirty three are carved stelaes. The eleven flat stelae are large slabs of rocks that the Mayans used kind of like a billboard. The Mayans would cover the slab of rock with stucco. They wrote their important information unto these stelae by painting it unto the stucco. They would write about local heroes, important dates, like weddings and ceremonies. They would tell the stories of priests, kings and warriors. When the information changed, they would simply replace the stucco and start over.

There are thirty three carved stelaes. These are carved with one main image surrounded by smaller images. These stelae were carved with major events and the information on them never changed.

Sacbes

Sacbes were Mayan roads. The sacbes were elevated in the jungle to create a level road. Elevation ranges from 30 cm to 2 meters (6.5 ft). They would fill in the jungle floor until it became level and then cover the entire surface with a stucco made from white limestone. This resulted in super smooth white roads. This came in super handy for the Mayans who did not use wheels or animal power to carry their goods. It was all done on foot by people carrying parcels. It’s hard to carry things in a hot jungle so the Mayas did most of their traveling at night when the temperature was cooler. At night, the moonlight reflected off the white limestone sacbe and illuminated the way for travelers.

Ballcourts

There are two ball courts that you can visit in Coba.  They are in great condition. Unlike the one at Chichen Itza, the walls on these ones are slanted like other Mayan ball courts. These are believed to have been used for ceremonies.   You can still see the carvings on them.

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