Dzibilchaltún

Schedule

subir Days: Monday to Sunday
Schedule: 8:00am - 5:00pm
Cost: $ 79.00 pesos

Nota: Los domingos el acceso a las zonas arqueológicas es gratuito para visitantes nacionales, previa indentificación. De lunes a sábado se aplican descuentos para estudiantes y maestros con credencial vigente, personas de la tercera edad con credencial del INAPAM (antes INSEN) tienen acceso gratuito.

Information

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Considered to be one of the oldest Mayan cities, its name means “the place where there is writing in flat stones”. Dzibilchaltún has its own charms, since it has a Franciscan chapel of the XVI century in the middle of the Mayan city.

The Museum of the Mayan Town is home to several Spanish and Mayan devices, from ceramic objects to Spanish paintings, armors and arms, several Mayan wakes, stones and carved lintels in excellent conditions. Another characteristic of Dzibilchaltún is its cenote.

It has a tourist center that offers the services of a restaurant, crafts and information booth. It is located in km 14 of the Merida-Progreso highway. This archaeological zone can be visited every day from 8:00 to 17:00 hours.

On the 21st of March and 21st of September, the equinox can be observed in the Temple of the Seven Dolls, the most important in this zone.

History

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It was one of the great urban centers that bloomed in the north of the Yucatan Peninsula, peculiar for being one of the oldest large cities, this is confirmed by scientific data that calculates its existence from year 500 b.C to the 1500 of our era. Around 17 km2 they had more than 8 thousand architectonic structures, nevertheless, few have been excavated. The site is located few kilometers next to the coast, its economy took so much advantage of the marine products of the coast of the Gulf, producing salt, doing snail tools and consuming seafood, as well as those ground, seeding and harvesting maize.

The city conserves 12 sacbés or white ways, most of which leave from the center and they go towards the constructions of the periphery; one of them leads to the Xlakáh natural well, that in Mayan means “old town” and of which have rescued objects of bone, stone and wood.

The most excellent building of this zone is the Temple of the Seven Wrists, call thus by an offering that was in its interior of seven mud figures with human form. Through its central door a solar phenomenon can be appreciated each equinox. In the place, also we can observe the construction of an opened chapel, with an architecture of the great simplicity, in which the new religion was taught to the Mayan town.

Dzibilchaltún reunites in a single site to a pre-Hispanic city, an echo-archaeological park and the Museum of the Mayan Town, where it will be able to see numerous representative pieces of the zone, as well as the house.

Location

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It is located in km 14 of the Merida-Progreso highway.
This archaeological zone can be visited every day from 8:00 to 17:00 hours.

Equinox

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The archaeo-astronomical phenomenon of the equinox occurs in Dzibilchaltún, when the main door of the Temple of the Seven Dolls is illuminated with the glow of the sun that appears on the horizon and, at one point, a flashlight disc is shown at the center of the door and creates a spectacle of light and shadow on the west facade.

On March 21 and September 21 we may observe the equinox, this is one of the most important temples in the area.

Gallery

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