Tulum

In order to get inside the city of Tulum, you have to walk through an arched tunnel through an 18 foot wide wall.

The minute Boyd and I walked through the tunnel we drew in a quick breath.

It was BEAUTIFUL!!

 In fact, it was SO beautiful that Boyd and I decided that had we been alive during this time period this is where we would have lived.

No questions asked.

 The setting of Tulum is right on the coast of the Caribbean Sea.

There are palm trees waving gently, beautiful green grass everywhere, a brilliant blue sky and the lovely waters of the Caribbean right next to the city.

 Breathtaking!

There are ruins that are similar to others that we had seen, but interestingly enough, in addition, there were foundations everywhere.

 A lot of people lived in this city.

 And I can see why.

This picture shows some of the foundations that were dotted all over the landscape.

This is the temple at Tulum.

It is amazing to think that as old as this building is... up to 1600 years old...it has survived numerous episodes of severe weather.

Our tour guide, Lemuel, told us he is 41 years old. He has seen 12 hurricanes in those 41 years, including Hurricane Wilma.

He told us to do the math and imagine how many hurricanes have hit this city.

That is how well the buildings were constructed and how strong their cement was.

The Book of Mormon talks about the Nephites being exceedingly expert in cement making and they obviously were.

Sigh.

Bigger sigh.

Boyd and I with the Tulum temple in the background.

(Note: we were wearing our swimming suits because we were going swimming in an underground river called the Grand Cenote right after we toured Tulum.)

There were iguanas everywhere.

In fact, on one of the altars, there were dozens of them.

It reminded me of the scene in the movie "Holes" where those creepy lizards were everywhere in one of the holes the boys dug.

AND, they were big.

A peek of the Caribbean right there at the edge of the city.

This is a grave site. There are steps that face the east, so when the person is resurrected, he will face the east when he walks out of the grave.

Also, in this grave site, there was found numerous pieces of pottery which they assumed was filled with food in case the deceased person got hungry on his way back to heaven.

This building was so fascinating. There were so many cool things about it.

The coolest? If you look really close you can see two red hand prints in the upper left corner.

The archaeologists called this the seven fingered hand.

Lemuel told us a different story.

He told us that if you put one hand over the other with the index fingers on top of each other you have seven fingers. And that is quite possibly a painting of Christ's hands healing the people.

So touching.

This is the Tulum temple.

About twenty feet behind the temple is a cliff that leads right to the sea.

Unfortunately, my camera died right before we got to the cliffs so there is no picture evidence...

See the three openings at the top of the temple?

 

Above the three openings there are carvings. It is kind of hard to see but the carving on the far left represents God the Father.

The carving in the middle looks like an upside down baby which represents Jesus Christ coming down to earth.

The carving on the right?

Nothing.

Lemuel told us it represents the Holy Ghost, who doesn't yet have his body.

Tulum had all kinds of buildings with holes in them that would line up with the sun during certain seasons like the spring solstice. The sun would shine through these holes and create a beautiful sight.

There was also a building that lined up with the moon at a certain time. When the moon hit the hole on the correct date, the entire building would light up.

We didn't see it, we just saw a picture of it.

Another fascinating thing they discovered was a building that would whistle when the weather turned very windy.

If the wind was blowing hard enough, the building would whistle and warn that people that they needed to move to safe ground.

Basically, it was a hurricane warning!

One of the things that I enjoyed learning was about the places that Jesus Christ visited and the name that the people called Him. My favorite name was Kukulcan. When Lemuel would say that name it would give me chills. There is a picture online that shows recorded visits of the Savior in the Americas. I couldn't copy it because of copyright restrictions but you can see it  here on page 30.

I hope you have enjoyed these few little tours and I will give a quick post of the rest of the trip tomorrow.