Justin Jennings leads ROMtravellers through 2,000 years of Maya history

Posted: February 7, 2012 - 16:01 , by royal

Submitted by Justin Jennings, Curator, Department of World Cultures.  Follow his Maya adventures with ROMTravel.

As our bus travels through Mexico, it feels as if we are touring through 2,000 years of history.  Today, our bus started out in Campeche, a city fortified against English pirates who sought to seize the silver on Spanish galleons.  The city walls still stand with cannons pointed towards long-gone enemies.  We took the bus to Edzna, a Maya site that is famous for its 1500 year old sacbes, or raised causeways, that connected the site to other centers in the Yucatan Peninsula. Our day ended at another Maya site, Uxmal, one of the most breathtaking of Maya ruins from the Terminal Classic Period, 800-1000 AD.  This was the end of the Classic Maya, but they were going out in style.

ROMtravel participants in Campeche

Buenos dias from sunny Campeche

Giant rain god masks adorn the buildings, and everyone on the trip had fun finding the turtles, macaws, snakes, and other animals that the Maya integrated into the facades.