Scholarly
Presentations & Excursions into the World of the Ancient Maya
of Yucatan
Your
scientific insight of the World of the Maya of Yucatán
The
art and architecture of the ancient Maya of Yucatán have fascinated
visitors for more than 150 years. Incidents of Travel in Yucatán,
the splendid two-volume publication written by John Lloyd Stephens
and first published in New York in 1843, is still to be found
on the shelves of bookstores the world over.
A
travel to the World of the Maya of Yucatán today is just as exciting
as it was at the time of Stephens and Catherwood but can, of course,
be much easier arranged and be more comfortably done.
One
hundred and fifty years after their report on the lost cities
of Yucatan, the strikingly beautiful stone mosaic which adorns
the south transverse vault of the so called "House of the Governor"
at Uxmal can still be seen as it was captured by Catherwood in
what is perhaps the finest drawing of Maya architecture ever done.
Catherwood's lithograph of the round
temple at Mayapán as it still appeared in 1842 has provided Mexican
archaeologists with an authentic model after which to restore
the building to its present state. This unique structure may be
observed in one of our excursions and it shall be our pleasure
to explain to you its function and significance in the concepts
of the Maya of the 13th century.
Modern
science has unveiled many of the mysteries, which once shrouded
the civilization of the ancient Maya. Epigraphers, linguists,
historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists have worked jointly
in order to free the ancient Maya cities and their noble rulers
from some scholarly misconceptions of the past as well as from
the fancy tales that have been invented to impress ignorant visitors
and which are being told and sold until today.
The
idea that governs our efforts is to present our guests with authentic
information based on the latest results from international scientific
investigations in the Maya area.
We
offer our guests an idea of the political and religious systems
of the ancient Maya of Yucatán as well as introduce them to the
most prominent protagonists who shaped history at their time and
whose memory has been preserved in the hieroglyphs which adorn
their temples and palaces.
One
such inscription can still be seen in the ancient residence of
the Kokom, the "Supreme Judge" at Chichén Itzá. The hieroglyphic
text is an exact description of visible and tangible reality,
telling us that the palace was a low, one story building with
a large number of rooms and that a slab of hard marble-stone was
put in its place over the second doorway of the palace entrance
in the year 870 AD. The lintel is still where the inscription
says it was installed.
We
specialize in small groups of visitors who are more than just
superficially interested in the World of the Maya of Yucatán and
who want to know more about it than the regular tourist service
is capable of providing. The preferred number of participants
to an excursion is three to four, the maximum number is eight.
We offer six different excursions. Each tour will commence in
the early morning and "return to home base" during late afternoon.
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of the Maya World