Kohunlich

Coordinates: 18°25′09″N 88°47′24″W / 18.41917°N 88.79000°W / 18.41917; -88.79000
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
One of the sights at Kohunlich

Kohunlich (X-làabch'e'en in

Rio Bec region, and about 65 km west of Chetumal
on Highway 186, and 9 km south of the road.

The original name of the site is unknown. The actual Spanish name does not actually derive from Mayan but from the English Cohune Ridge where cohune palm grew. In 1912 this place was known as Clarksville, referring to the nearby logging camp that was 3 kilometers north of the site.[1]

Background

The site covers about 21 acres (85,000 m2), surrounded by dense sub-tropical rainforest, and it contains almost 200 mounds, that remain largely unexcavated. The city was elaborately planned and engineered, with raised platforms and pyramids, citadels, courtyards and plazas surrounded with palace platforms, all laid out to channel drainage into a system of cisterns and an enormous reservoir to collect rainwater.

The site was settled by 200 BC, but most of the structures were built in the Early Classic period from about 250 to 600 AD. Many of them are still covered with thick vegetation and overgrown by trees. The city appears to have functioned as a regional center and stop along the trade routes through the southern

el Petén region of Guatemala and neighbouring Belize
.

The site is best known for its Temple of the Masks, an Early Classic pyramid whose central stairway is flanked by huge humanized stucco masks. The Temple was built around 500 A.D. and is one of the oldest structures at Kohunlich. After 700 A.D., this temple was covered over with a Terminal Classic construction, which protected the masks and accounts for the marvelous state of their preservation today. The only standing remains of the later temple are some steps in the lower portion of the stair.

The road approaches the site from the north and leads into an enormous central plaza ringed by pyramids and temple platforms. To the north there is a massive, raised acropolis, or citadel, with a palace complex around a courtyard to the north-west. Further east there is the Temple of the Masks, built in honor of the sungod. Originally there were eight carved masks flanking its central staircase; only five remain, three having been looted.

Gallery

  • a closeup of one of the masks
    a closeup of one of the masks

References

  1. ^ "Kohunlich". "Mexican Routes [mexicanroutes.com]".

External links

18°25′09″N 88°47′24″W / 18.41917°N 88.79000°W / 18.41917; -88.79000