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!

Xaibe

Posted on 3 November, 2011 by Eric

You may not realize it, but this is a particularly odd structure in the Mayan world:

It’s a pyramid called Xaibe at the ancient ruins of Cobá in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula. The name comes from a Maya term for a crossroads, since it’s at the junction of four Maya roads — and it’s nearly unique in being a Maya pyramid with an elliptical (vs. rectangular) footprint. It *may* have been used as a lookout tower, but I’ve never seen anything resembling an authoritative statement on that.

Structure IV — Becán, México

Posted on 31 October, 2011 by Eric

As seen from neighboring structure II:

The ruins on the top of the pyramid were once an elite residential area in the heart of the ancient Maya ruins of Becán — at the time, the ultimate gated community.

The Labná Arch

Posted on 10 October, 2011 by Eric

Labná is a neat little Maya ruin that doesn’t get nearly as much visitor traffic as it deserves. On the east end of the “Puuc Route” in the Yucatan, Labná isn’t particularly close to any major modern cities — but it and its neighboring sites are an easy day trip from Mérida.

Should you ever make it to Labná, its arch is its claim to (touristic) fame:

The unusual (and somewhat funny) thing about this arch is where it’s found. Most arches at Maya sites served as ceremonial entrances to the cities — a way to both announce your arrival at the city, and demarcate the boundaries of the city core.

But this arch is different — it separates the royal from the mercantile parts of Labná. This side of the arch (the fancier of the two) is what you’d see as you were walking into the royal part of town (those two ground-level doors may have been where guards were stationed). The other face of the arch, far plainer, announced your arrival into the home of the merely affluent.

I guess some things never change…

Life among the ruins

Posted on 14 September, 2011 by Eric

Seen among the Maya ruins of Dzibanché in Quintana Roo, México:

It was more than a bit odd to run across this flower in the depths of the Yucatan peninsula’s dry season this summer — so when I spotted it, I just had to grab this shot. Bright colors against muted tones, life among long-vacant ruins. Can’t beat the contrasts!

The main plaza

Posted on 14 August, 2011 by Eric

“Downtown” Tikal, Guatemala — standing on the platform of Temple II, looking east toward Temple I:

This is a 2-shot panorama using a wide-angle lens, so covers just short of a 180-degree field of view.

Turtles all the way down

Posted on 30 June, 2011 by Eric

I haven’t antiqued any photos for months (if not years), so while I was playing around with black and white conversions I thought I should indulge myself and give a shot from Uxmal the full aging treatment: