Dzibanché’s Eastern Complex

Posted on 12 February, 2012 by Eric

Well, OK — I have a confession to make. I don’t really know what this section of Dzibanché has actually been named. I do know that it’s way out on the eastern end of the site, and has recently been restored.

Unfortunately, this part of Dzibanché has been restored so recently that it doesn’t yet have interpretive signs, or even show up on maps at the site itself. But it was fun to wander aimlessly through — lots of courtyards and buildings, some still preserving scraps of their original plaster. And few have heard of the place, so should you visit, you’ll likely have it to yourself.

The Great Pyramid, Uxmal

Posted on 11 February, 2012 by Eric

Definitely one of the steeper pyramids we saw on our 2011 trip, in the Terminal Classic Puuc site of Uxmal:

As you might be able to tell, kids had no problems with these steps — the bigger ones were racing each other to the top! Regular adults have to do the usual angle-walk up the steps.

You might also notice that this is the only one of the pyramid’s four faces that has been restored. Aside from saving money up front (restoration isn’t cheap), this saves money over the long run too — since once you restore something, you have to maintain it. Restoration also (in a way) destroys — since you can never be 100% sure you’re restoring something exactly the way it once was. So 3/4 of this structure is being saved for future generations of researchers to study and (maybe) restore at a later date.

On the beach

Posted on 9 February, 2012 by Eric

At the ruins of Tulúm in Quintana Roo, Mexico:

You can’t actually walk on this beach (it’s reserved for nesting sea turtles), but a trail through the site runs right past it — and it makes a great foreground for shots like this! The only real problem is that trash tends to wash up after storms, so you need to clone it out of your shot (since, obviously, you can’t walk out and get it off the beach).

Palacio Norte

Posted on 7 February, 2012 by Eric

In the Maya ruins of Sayil, Mexico (along the “Puuc Route“):

If you’re looking for Puuc-style architecture, most of its sub-styles can be seen somewhere in this structure — its three levels were built in a mix of Puuc styles over hundreds of years. In the interest of preservation, you can’t go up the front steps any more, but with a decent long lens, you can get good views / shots of all sorts of architectural details even from down on the ground.

You’ll need either a wide lens, or some stitching software to get the whole thing in one image, though. I shot this with a 7 mm lens on my Olympus E-5 — so, equivalent FOV to a 14 mm full-frame setup.

Angels in the Stucco

Posted on 5 February, 2012 by Eric

Stucco decorations on the face of the Acropolis at the Maya ruins of Ek’ Balam:

This stucco is in fantastic shape for its age — in no small part thanks to the fact that it was buried inside the Acropolis pyramid not long after it was built. It’s a tricky photographic subject thanks to the protective thatched roof overhead (the light’s even, but low, all day long), but it’s worth it to preserve this amazing work.

Xlapak’s Palace

Posted on 4 February, 2012 by Eric

Xlapak has just three standing structures — this is the north face of the best of them:

Xlapak is a tiny little Maya site along the “Puuc Route” in Yucatán, Mexico. It’s so small that it may well have been a “suburb” of one of its Puuc neighbors. Still, admission is free, and you can see what there is to see of these ruins in well under an hour — so if you’re ever in “the neighborhood,” it’s worth stopping to check it out.

House of the Serpent Mouth

Posted on 3 February, 2012 by Eric

From the ancient Maya ruins of Chicanná, here’s the House of the Serpent Mouth (a.k.a. Structure II):

As you can see with a bit of squinting, this structure gets its nickname from the fact that the front of the building is modeled after a monster mouth (teeth both above and in front of the door, stylized eyes, etc.).

The site was discovered and named (Chicanná means “serpent-mouth house” in Mayan) by Jack D. Eaton in 1966. So… this structure was named after its Chenes-style monster mouth doorway, and the site was named after the structure. It’s a great little site to explore — not very big, but also not crowded.

El Castillo

Posted on 2 February, 2012 by Eric

This is the northwest corner of El Castillo in Chichén Itzá, Mexico:

El Castillo is a bit of a funny thing — half of it has been restored to nearly what it once looked like (or at least, so it’s thought locally — although some writers are skeptical about the accuracy of its current form). Meanwhile, the other two faces have just been consolidated. So if you want a pretty picture of the structure, the north and west sides are the ones to use.

By the way, I’ve got a bunch of Maya shots languishing over in my Flickr stream — so to get them a bit more visibility, I’ll be getting them in blog posts here over the next week or two. Prepare for an onslaught of ruin(s)!

House of the Cenote

Posted on 17 November, 2011 by Eric

At the ancient Maya ruins of Tulúm, México:

This was a tricky shot to get — bright sky above, and (dark, cave-like) cenote below. It didn’t turn out well as a multi-image HDR, for some odd reason — but tweaking a single image and running HDR on that did the trick. Amazingly, the structure at the top still has some of its original (500+ year old) plaster, in spite of being close to the cliff’s edge and the Caribbean.

Want to know more about photography in Tulúm? You might want to check this out…

Majestic

Posted on 11 November, 2011 by Eric

Building 6 at the Maya ruins of Dzibanché, near Chetumal in Quintana Roo, México:

Dzibanché is a bit of an odd duck — great things to see, but it’s sufficiently off the “usual” track for tourists that it doesn’t get many visitors. It doesn’t help, either, that basically all the tour guide books describe the road to the site as being a rutted dirt track (it’s narrow and crooked, but has been paved for at least 10 years).

Of course, the good news for those that *do* drive out to Dzibanché is that you’ll most likely have the place to yourself. Oh, and you can climb most of the pyramids here (unlike many of the more-visited ruins).

Building 6, by the way, is the first pyramid you see on your walk into the site. It’s also known as the “Palace of the Lintels” after some carved wood beams that were discovered here (sadly, they’ve been removed and replaced by more modern wood).

12 November update — by the way, if you happen to be planning a trip to the Yucatan, I’m in the process of releasing a set of 12 guides to Maya ruins. Oriented toward photography in the ruins, they only cost a couple of dollars each via Amazon’s Kindle store — the one for Dzibanché and its neighbors is described here. I’ve released two guides so far, the rest of the dozen should be out before the end of the year — so stay tuned!