Coba

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Coba

Coba (Cobá in the Spanish language

Spanish language

Spanish or Castilian is a Romance languages that originated in northern Spain, and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile and evolved into the principal language of government and trade....
) is a large ruined city of the Pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all archaeology of the Americas in the history of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the Americas continents....
Maya civilization, located in the state of Quintana Roo

Quintana Roo

Quintana Roo is a Mexican state of Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucat?n Peninsula. It borders the States of Yucat?n and Campeche to the north and west, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the nation of Belize to the south....
, Mexico

Mexico

The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federalism constitutionalism republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of Mexico....
. It is located about 90 km east of the Maya site of Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucat?n Peninsula, in the Yucat?n state, present-day Mexico....
, about 40 km west of the Caribbean Sea

Caribbean Sea

The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean situated in the mid-latitudes of the Western Hemisphere, bounded to the south and west by the Americas, with the North Atlantic Ocean proper to the northeast and the Gulf of Mexico to the northwest....
, and 44 km northwest of the site of Tulum

Tulum

Tulum is the site of a Pre-Columbian Maya civilization Defensive wall serving as a major port for Cob?.The ruins are located on 39-foot cliffs, along the east coast of the Yucat?n Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico....
, with which it is connected by a modern road.

Site layout and description
Coba is located around two lagoons. A series of elevated stone and plaster roads radiate from the central site to various smaller sites near and far.

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Encyclopedia

Coba (Cobá in the Spanish language

Spanish language

Pre-Columbian

Quintana Roo

Mexico

Chichen Itza

Caribbean Sea

Tulum

Site layout and description

Coba is located around two lagoons. A series of elevated stone and plaster roads radiate from the central site to various smaller sites near and far. These are known by the Maya term sacbe
Sacbe

Sacbe, plural Sacbeob, or "white ways" are raised paved roads built by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. Most connect temples, plazas, and groups of structures within ceremonial centers or cities, but some longer roads between cities are also known....
(plural sacbeob). Some of these causeways go east to the Caribbean coast, and the longest runs over westwards to the site of Yaxuna

Yaxuna

Yaxuna is the name of a Maya civilization archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucat?n....
. The site contains several large temple pyramids, the tallest, in what is known as the Nohoch Mul group of structures, being some in height.

Coba is estimated to have had some 50,000 inhabitants (and possibly significantly more) at its peak of civilization, and the built up area extends over some 80 km². The site was occupied by a sizable agricultural population by the 1st century. The bulk of Coba's major construction seems to have been made in the middle and late Classic period, about 500 to 900, with most of the dated hieroglypic inscriptions from the 7th century. However Coba remained an important site in the Post-Classic era and new temples were built and old ones kept in repair until at least the 14th century, possibly as late as the arrival of the Spanish

Spanish conquest of Yucatán

The Spanish conquest of Yucat?n was the campaign undertaken by the Spanish Empire conquistadores against the Mesoamerican chronology Maya civilization states and polity, particularly in the northern and central Yucat?n Peninsula but also involving the Maya polities of the Guatemalan highlands region....
.

Economy

Coba traded extensively with other Mayan communities, particularly the ones further south along the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America....
coast in what is now Belize

Belize

Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
and Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a democratic republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras ....
. It utilized the ports of Xcaret

Xcaret

Xcaret is a Maya civilization archaeological site located on the Caribbean Sea coastline of the Yucat?n Peninsula, in the modern-day state of Quintana Roo in Mexico....
, Xel-Há

Xel-Há

Xelha is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization from pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, located on the eastern coastline of the Yucat?n Peninsula, in the present-day state of Quintana Roo, Mexico....
, Tancah, Muyil

Muyil

Muyil was one of the earliest and longest inhabited ancient Maya civilization sites on the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is located approximately south of the coastal site of Tulum, in the modern day state of Quintana Roo, Mexico....
, and Tulum

Tulum

Modern explorations

Knowledge of this expansive site was never completely lost, but it was not examined by scholars until the 1920s. John Lloyd Stephens

John Lloyd Stephens

John Lloyd Stephens was an United States explorer, writer, and diplomat. Stephens was a pivotal figure in the rediscovery of Maya civilization throughout Middle America and in the planning of the Panama railway....
mentioned hearing reports of the site in 1841, but it was so distant from any known modern road or village that he decided the difficulty in trying to get there was too daunting. For much of the rest of the 19th century the area could not be visited by outsiders due to the Caste War of Yucatán

Caste War of Yucatán

The Caste War of Yucat?n began with the revolt of native Maya people of Yucat?n against the population of European descent in political and economic control....
. Teoberto Maler

Teoberto Maler

Teoberto Maler or Teobert Maler was an List of explorers who devoted his energies to documenting the ruins of the Maya civilization.Teobert Maler was born in Rome to Germany parents....
paid Coba a short visit in 1893 and took at least one photograph, but unfortunately did not publish at the time and the site remained unknown to the archeological community.

Amateur explorer Dr. Thomas Gann

Thomas Gann

Thomas William Francis Gann was a medical doctor by profession, but is best remembered for his work as an amateur archaeologist exploring ruins of the Maya civilization....
was brought to the site by some local Maya hunters in February 1926. Gann published the first first-hand description of the ruins later the same year. Gann gave a short description to the archeologists of the Carnegie Institution project at Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza

J. Eric S. Thompson

For other persons named Eric Thompson, see Eric Thompson .Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson was an England archeology and Mayanist epigraphy, regarded as the pre-eminent mid-20th century scholar of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization....
. Thompson's initial report of a surprisingly large site with many inscriptions prompted Sylvanus Morley

Sylvanus Morley

Sylvanus Griswold Morley was an United States archaeology, epigraphy, and Mayanist scholar who made significant contributions toward the study of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization in the early twentieth century....
to mount a more thorough examination of the site. Eric Thompson made a number of return visits to the site through 1932, in which year he published a detailed description.

The site remained little visited due to its remoteness until the first modern road was opened up to Coba in the early 1970s. As a major resort was planned for Cancún

Cancún

Canc?n is a coastal city in Mexico's easternmost state, Quintana Roo, on the Yucat?n Peninsula. Cancun is located on the Yucatan Channel that separates Mexico from the island of Cuba in the Greater Antilles....
, it was realized that clearing and restoring some of the large site could make it an important tourist attraction.

The Mexican National Institute of Anthropology & History began some archeological excavations in 1972 directed by Carlos Navarrete, and consolidated a couple buildings. At the start of the 1980s another road to Coba was opened up and paved, regular bus service begun, and a small Villas Archeologicas Hotel was opened up by the Club Med

Club Med

Club M?diterran?e , commonly known as Club Med, is a France corporation of vacation resorts found in many parts of the world, usually in exotic locations....
(with its own electric generator, since the village at Coba was otherwise without electricity). Today there is a resident population of 1,167 (2005 census).

Coba became a tourist destination shortly thereafter, with many visitors visiting the site on day trips from Cancún and the Riviera Maya. Only a small portion of the site has been cleared from the jungle and restored by archaeologists. Local guides are available at the entrance to the site, as well as bicycle

Bicycle

The bicycle, bike, or cycle is a pedal-driven, human-powered transport with two bicycle wheel attached to a bicycle frame, one behind the other....
rentals to get to some of the farther ruins within the archaeological zone. Coba, like all archaeological sites in Mexico open to the public via INAH, is free to Mexican citizens on Sundays and national holidays.

There is a small pueblo near the ruins, with some restaurants and small shops selling local crafts.

Media

In the BBC series Planet Earth

Planet Earth (TV series)

Planet Earth is an Emmy Award and Peabody Award-winning BBC nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough and produced by Alastair Fothergill....
, the Nohoch Mul pyramid is featured in one of the shots of the episode on caves.

Image gallery

External links

INEGI: Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática