Mexico's Mayan Secrets

Writer Doug McKinlay explores Mexico's "hidden" Yucatán.

There are more than 60,000 documented sites in the Maya world, which encompasses the five Mexican Yucatán Peninsula states - Chiapas, Tabasco, Campeche, Yucatán, Quintana Roo - and also the countries of Guatemala, Honduras, Belize and El Salvador. These sites are everything from small villages, which were home to just a few inhabitants, to large cities with populations that topped 70,000.

Many of these big cities - Chichen Itza, Tikal and Uxmal - have been open to the public for decades now. However in the state of Campeche things are a little different. Chock full of its own Maya cities and towns, it is the Yucatán yet to be discovered, and it is here where I began my own journey into the world of the Maya.

I started in colonial San Francisco de Campeche, a UNESCO World Heritage city and capital of the state. Restoration work in recent years has brought the Historical Centre of Campeche back to its 16th century splendour although with the modern touch of multi-hued pastel paintwork on the houses and buildings.

The Central Park is the heart of Campeche life. The 18th century Cathedral on the east side dwarfs all other nearby structures, while in the park families stroll around the Victorian centre piece or sit on shaded benches out of the mid-day sun.

When the Spanish arrived in 1517 the area was nothing more than a small coastal Maya village. But by 1540 it was a thriving Spanish trading port. Full of riches from the region it also became a favourite target for Caribbean buccaneers like Britain's own Sir Francis Drake, known as El Draqui - the Dragon - to his Spanish enemies. Eventually a heavily fortified perimeter wall was built keeping would-be pirates at bay.

Today there are only small sections of the wall intact, but the San Miguel Fort at the western edge of the city still stands, offering long views up and down the pebbly coastline.

For 100 years after the arrival of the Spanish the Maya city of Edzná, 60-kilometres southeast of Campeche, was still in use by indigenous people. As it was slowly abandoned the surrounding jungle began to creep in, finally covering all traces of the city. Although locals always knew the location, it took until the mid-20th century for archaeologists to rediscover the site.

I wanted to be there as close to sun up as possible. Eight in the morning is opening time and that's when I arrived, along with my guide Edwin Valdez. We walked along a jungle-covered trail, the only sounds the buzzing of bees and the calls from the vast array of birdlife. However, it wasn't until we cleared the trees that the full impact of the site hit me.

Most of the jungle has been removed from the middle of the city and many of the buildings rebuilt, the centrepiece being the Edificio de Cinco Pisos, a five floored pyramid the top of which towers above the surrounding jungle. Maya pyramids were primarily used as places of worship, almost like a pulpit where holy men would preach to a gathered congregation at the foot of the building.

I think what struck me about Edzná is its tranquillity. Unlike more popular Maya cities like Chichen Itza or Tulum there are no people. Except for Edwin, I was virtually alone, left to discover the city in my own time. This is when Edwin's vast knowledge of the Maya brought the ruins to life. He explained the relationship of the Maya's three states of existence, deciphered hieroglyphs on the buildings, and as a Maya himself offered his own interpretations and thoughts about his heritage and how the Maya today look at the history of the Yucatán.

The state of Campeche is a treasure trove of Maya history, most of it still buried in a thick blanket of foliage.

Our journey brought us to some of the sites where archaeologists have been hard at work piecing together some of that history. At Balamku, a small city still covered in trees, there is an amazing two-storey jaguar mask, representing the Lord of the Underworld. The architecture at the city of Chicanná is unique to this area of the Yucatán known as Rio Bec; the main structure is adorned with fantastic iconography depicting one of the many Maya nose gods. While at Becan scientists have discovered the only known instance of the ancient Maya using a water-filled moat for defence.

Probably the best example of stucco masks though is at Kohunlich. Here, both sides of the main structure's staircase is adorned with well-preserved masks representing the sun god as he descends beneath the horizon at sunset to continue his nightly battle with the gods of the Underworld.

Of all the Maya sites in Campeche none is more important than Calakmul.

It is located deep in the heart of the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve, a 1.8 million acre patch of wilderness home to jaguars, howler monkeys, vultures, and hundreds of varieties of birds, butterflies, and plants. Again, like all the other Campeche sites, there are just a handful of people exploring the remains of this extraordinary Maya ghost town.

With the number of buildings - big and small, covered and uncovered - it's not a great stretch of the imagination to see that Calakmul was once a place of great influence.

By the time the Spanish came on the scene at the beginning of the 16th century most Maya cities were either abandoned or in serious decline.

There is no single theory as to why this happened. Ideas range from famine, to revolution to disease, but whatever the circumstances the Maya themselves never disappeared. They are here in today's Yucatán, in every face of every taxi driver, hotel clerk and police officer. Thankfully the language, customs and architectural evidence of their place in history still survive.