Becán: A Mayan City with a Moat!
BECÁN
Aside from the brief rain storm that soaked us at Muyil, this had been a perfect day, weather-wise, with temps in the high 70’s, and beautiful blue skies. We’d been on the road for almost five hours, altogether, making good time, when we finally spotted a sign that read Becán, along with the pyramid symbol that indicates a ruin.
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I’d circled it on our map the night before, mostly because it was directly in our line of travel. Other than location, I knew very little about the place. We slowed and made the turn, driving past a rustic hotel.
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A short distance further along there was another sign, and an empty parking lot. Just like at Muyil, we appeared to be the only visitors.
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A path led from the parking area into the trees, and after a short distance, the vegetation closed in on us, almost like being back in the jungle. We walked for a quarter of a mile or so before we finally spotted the entrance booth. Couldn’t miss it–the path actually went right through the building!
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The site’s caretaker (the only staff person in evidence) charged us 80 Pesos apiece to enter, which was more than Muyil, but less than every other place we’d been.
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The caretaker asked us to add our names, along with our home towns, to their guest book, a custom from a bygone era that I found quite charming. I wondered how many books they’d filled with names over the years, and how far back they went?
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There was a site map posted outside the entrance booth, and we paused for a moment to study it. This was the first plan of the city that I’d seen, and the name of the place suddenly made sense: Becán, which translates from the Mayan as “Stream formed by Water.”
In this case, the stream in question was a circular canal that surrounds the old city center. This wasn’t a natural formation. This was a moat, pure and simple, backed by earthworks that created a dual barrier for defensive purposes. All you can see from ground level are scattered, disconnected segments:
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But when viewed from the air, or better yet, from a satellite, the outline of the original channel is still plainly visible.
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There was a time when scholars viewed the ancient Mayan society as a peaceful theocracy, comparable to that of the Tibetan Buddhists. The discovery of this defensive moat at Becán was an important revelation, evidence that the Mayan version of a theocracy might not have been quite so peaceful after all. At Becán, they obviously went to a lot of trouble to protect their city. It’s only fair to wonder why they felt that was necessary.
According to the map, there were originally seven bridges that crossed the moat. We followed the main causeway to a wide staircase inside the walls;
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That led us up to the main plaza, where several massive stone buildings surrounded a circular altar.
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Stones on the altar, and on several other structures in the old city center still bear traces of the red pigment that once colored many of these buildings.
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We climbed the steep steps on the front side of the building identified as “Structure I.” Once we were safely up on the first level, we made our way around to the back side, where we gained a completely different perspective.
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A wide terrace ran the entire width of the building,
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And from there, we had a bird’s eye view of the multi-level terraces down below us.
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Trying to imagine this area filled with people, with the pomp and grandeur of the Mayan priests and Nobles in their flowing robes and elaborate feathered headgear, and these buildings all intact, stuccoed, and painted in bright colors. It would have truly been something to see!
CLIMBING DOWN AN UP PYRAMID
There’s a trick to climbing a Mayan pyramid. Many of ’em are proportioned opposite to a standard staircase, with narrow treads and tall risers; (in this set of photos, each step is a full foot in height). The pitch of the steps is so steep, you can’t approach them straight on. For safety’s sake, it’s best to keep your feet sideways on the steps, with your body parallel to the stairs, so you can move diagonally as you climb. Your feet get a better purchase, and you’re less likely to slip. (Slipping on a Mayan staircase could be a disaster!) Mike demonstrates his technique, on steps so steep, it’s more ladder than stairs.
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Several of the structures around this main plaza were partitioned into individual rooms, many with concrete benches, thought to have been used for sleeping. These had to have been elite accommodations for important people, the royal family, the nobility, the high priests.
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I’d have to hope, for their sake, that these spartan quarters were fixed up a bit when they were in use. Blankets, maybe some curtains, and a nice soft mattress? Stripped down to cold bare stone, these digs were about as inviting as a prison cell–albeit without the iron bars.
There was a second, smaller plaza to the west of the main plaza, still inside the city walls. We started to walk over that way, but I called a halt to talk it over with Mike. We still had a two hour drive to Escárcega, where we planned to stay the night, plus, there was one more stop I wanted to make. Considering the time, I figured it was best if we cut it short at Becán. Mike agreed, so we turned around, and headed back to the parking lot.
The west plaza’s buildings were concealed from view by the trees, so we didn’t even realize that Becán’s largest pyramid was over there, just out of sight. Like a couple of dummies, we missed what might have been the best part of the ruin, all for the sake of saving a few minutes? There’s a lesson here: if you should ever decide to forego seeing something, especially after you’ve traveled a long distance? You’d best know exactly what you’re skipping, before you walk away!
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Like all the Mayan sites we visited, there were fascinating details everwhere, when you looked more closely. Inside one of the stone rooms there was a wasp’s nest unlike anything I’d ever seen, the size of a volleyball with intricate patterns, a perfectly symmetrical work of art.
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When I looked at the ground, I spied a column of leafcutter ants, each of them hauling a sliced bit of leaf four times the size of their bodies, cogs in the endlessly moving machine that keeps their colony fed.
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And then there’s the stone in the ancient buildings, the skillfully carved segments that fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Every Mayan city we’d seen so far was different from every other. There were common elements, but there were also major regional distinctions, and much of what we were seeing at Becán was unlike anything we’d encountered elsewhere. This part of the Mayan world was known as the Rio Bec region, and the school of design that predominated here was known as Rio Bec Architecture. I did a bit of study on all this, after the fact, and what I found is utterly fascinating:
RIO BEC MAYAN ARCHITECTURE
"Rio Bec” was a style of architectural design that was largely based on illusion. Instead of traditional step pyramids topped by temples, the Rio Bec Maya built wide structures with twin towers on either end. The towers narrowed toward the top, so if you looked up at them from below, they appeared to be much taller.
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False doorways lead into alcoves with no exits, and buildings that appear to be temples are actually solid structures with no interior space.
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Stairs were mere decoration: these steps for example, lead to a blank wall. In the Rio Bec region, form won out over function, and many of the massive structures they built here were–no joke–strictly for show.
It was almost 4:00 PM when we left Becán, and we needed to be in Escárcega, 90 miles west, before the sun went down. Even at that, I figured we had just enough time to make a VERY quick stop at Becán’s sister city, a small site called Chicanná, less than three clicks up the road.
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The main reason I wanted to stop there was the name: Chicanná, a Mayan word that translated as “House of the Serpent Mouth.” The name supposedly described a particular building among the ruins, and that was something I just had to see.
Next up? Chicanná!
Chicanná: The House of the Serpent Mouth
CHICANNÁ
We left Becán, and we were barely underway when we spotted the sign with the pyramid, pointing to the left:
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Do I even need to say it? Ours was the only vehicle in the small parking lot. We stopped at the ticket booth to pay the 50 Peso entry fee, then studied the site map:
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There were just six buildings, most of them in one cluster. We had 30 minutes to see the place, so we got straight to it!
I did some research, (after-the-fact), and the information I turned up was really very interesting. Chicanná was first occupied around 300 BC, about 50 years after Becán got its start, and was abandoned around 1100 AD, which was about 100 years sooner than Becán. It’s thought that Chicanná was actually an exclusive enclave for Becán’s elite, a segregated suburb for the rich and famous. The houses were finer, the temples more ornate. Nothing was too elaborate for the noble folk, and when times were good, they lived like kings. Chicanná peaked early, from the time of its founding until around 250 AD, and it remained, throughout its existence, intertwined with its patron, Becán. There’s nothing big here, no pyramids, just an assortment of smaller structures, done in a hodge-podge of architectural styles.
We turned right when we first entered the ruin, following a path which took us to “Structure XX,” the remains of a temple that, despite the ravages of time, is still the tallest building in Chicanná. The structure is a perfect example of mongrel architecture.
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The temple at the top is pure Rio Bec: a doorway leading to a blank wall in a solid structure with no interior space.
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Viewed from the front side, the entire building becomes a giant zoomorphic mask with an open mouth, a feature of the Chenes style of Mayan architecture,
And, of course, there were the carved stone facades, especially the multiple depictions of Chac, the rain god. All of that was influenced by the architectural stylings of the Puuc region.
Chicanná was a city in the jungle, and that’s what it felt like, walking around the place. The site seemed to be mostly uncleared, and essentially unrestored, lacking the manicured, park-like look of the more famous Mayan cities.
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I’m sure there was an enormous amount of effort put into exposing the principle structures here, but these tropical trees grow so quickly, they’re already starting to take over again. Being the only visitors, it was very easy to imagine what it would have been like here in the early days, before there was any such thing as tourists in the Yucatan.
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Conical towers at either end of a stone platform, designed to give the illusion of larger size.
The buildings in Chicanná show the influence of half a dozen distinct schools of Mayan Architecture, but at the core, the underlying theme is that illusive style known as Rio Bec. Structures are built atop a platform, and at each end of the platform there is a tower that comes to a point at the top.
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When stuccoed, finished, and painted, these towers would appear to be taller than they really are to an observer looking up at them from their base.
THE HOUSE OF THE SERPENT MOUTH
We were already running short of time, but we’d saved the best for last.
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A rectangular building with two doorways, one of which was surrounded by Puuc style bric-a-brac.
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A complex geometric pattern which, if you looked closely, had eyes and a snout!
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The doorway was a mouth, surrounded by stone teeth. A little bit of imagination is required to see it, but the Chenes-style construction of this facade turned the entire building into the head and mouth of a serpent!
The facade would have been painted, back in the day. If you look closely, you can still see traces of red pigment in the recesses between the stones. The inside of the serpent’s mouth would have been red, the color of blood; the teeth white, and the eyes yellow, along with shades of green, blue, and black, to complete the pattern.
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The Maya were a people who loved color, and with a temple like this one, they would have gone all out. The “House of the Serpent’s Mouth” was a place where important ceremonies took place, grand spectacles that we can only imagine. When the Mayan priests in their colorful feathered robes disappeared through that doorway, they were stepping through the mouth of the Great Serpent into the abode of the gods, and when they emerged again, they were imbued with god-like power.
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I would have loved to spend more time at Chicanná, but it was already 4:30, and we were going to have to really push it to make Escárcega before sundown. We jumped back onto MX 186, and I drove as fast as I dared, with Mike providing a second set of eyes to help us avoid the hazards in the road–especially the topes! Most of them were well marked and painted yellow, but in some cases there were so many skid marks on the yellow that the hump had turned black, and blended with the asphalt, practically invisible. We hit one of those at highway speed, and literally went airborn!
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Fruit stand, MX 186
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Needless to say, we wasted no time on that stretch, and rolled into Escárcega at 6:30, just as the sun dropped below the horizon.
We hadn’t made any reservations, so we kept our eyes peeled for hotels, and spotted a place called the Global Express; they had a room for us for 900 Pesos (a bit more than $50). That seemed high, but we were too tired from the drive to shop around for something cheaper. We’d been pretty spoiled by some of the nice places we’d been staying, so this hotel was a disappointment. Not because it was bad; more because it was boring! We weren’t planning to hang around Escárcega, so all we really needed was a clean bed for the night, and the Global Express served that purpose well enough.
This really had been a long one. More driving than anything else, but with three more Mayan cities checked off our list, it felt like we’d had a very full day. I had images of temples and pyramids jumbled together in my brain. I’d taken hundreds of photographs, counting all my shots from Cobá, so I was going to have my work cut out for me, just keeping all those images organized. I was honestly too tired to fool with any of that, there in Escárcega. We had a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, then went back to the hotel and crashed, planning an early start for the next day.
Next up: Edzná, First House of the Itzás
On the Road to EDZNA (First House of the Itzás)
DAY 15: Escárcega to Edzná, First House of the Itzás
Escárcega is a small city of about 30,000, located at the junction of two Federal highways and a railroad. Very few tourists pass through the place, and those that do are mostly in a hurry, on their way to somewhere else. The only reason Mike and I stopped and stayed the night was timing: the sun was almost down when we got there, and driving any further after dark would have been foolishly dangerous.
This was Day 15 of our road trip. We wanted to get going as early as possible, but took the time to check the weather reports before starting out. The strongest hurricane on record was screaming in from the Pacific with winds approaching 200 mph, affecting weather throughout the region; we’d had daily downpours for most of the past week, but the latest forecast showed the track of the storm veering to the north. Hopefully, that meant a reprieve from the rain, because we had a lot of miles to cover, and Mexican highways can be treacherous when wet.
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Weather reports from October 23, 2015; the track of the hurricane veered north, so we were about to enjoy clear skies for a change.
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Route from Escárcega to the Mayan City of Edzná
The plan was to drive north from Escárcega, through Champoton, headed for Campeche, where we had a hotel reservation. Along the way, we’d be making a stop at a Mayan city called Edzná, one of several sites in the area that I hoped to visit in the next two days. We wanted to be in San Miguel de Allende for the Day of the Dead celebration at the end of October, and I still wanted to visit San Cristobal de Las Casas and Oaxaca. The distances weren’t vast, but many of the roads were very slow, so we had very little time to waste. Two days in Campeche, two or three more getting to San Cristobal, another two or three through Oaxaca to San Miguel, and along the way, another half dozen Mayan cities. Fun stuff, but a very tight schedule!
Most of this day’s route was a rerun: when we drove from Palenque to Merida the previous week, we traveled the exact same road, and it really did seem familiar, distinct from all the other roads we’d driven since crossing the border.
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This was a very rural highway, with turkeys, topes, horses wandering loose, and vendors selling heaven knows what from stands at the side of the road.
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We went through a roundabout where they had a statue dedicated to “La Campechana,” a woman of Campeche in traditional dress, hands on her hips, and showing a defiant attitude.
This whole part of the Yucatan had a unique cultural identity, and I was looking forward to experiencing some of that.
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Once we got to Champoton, we could smell the salt air from the Gulf of Mexico as the road merged with MX 180, the highway that runs along the coastline.
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The town was larger than I remembered, and there was a fair amount of traffic, but we finally got through it, and back out on the open road.
We entered an agricultural area, passing numerous cultivated fields, but these weren’t large scale farming operations. Rather, they were mostly small family plots where people still worked the land with horse-drawn plows (along with the occasional tractor). Life out here was far removed from the gritty hustle and bustle of the towns. Were the country people better off than the city dwellers? That’s very much a matter of opinion.
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When we reached the intersection with MX 188, we made a right turn toward the ruins of Edzná. We still had some flexibility, as far as WHICH Mayan cities we should visit, and I’d been studying my guide books, looking for the most interesting possibilities. Edzná came highly recommended as one of those “hidden gems” that shouldn’t be missed, so it wound up at the top of our list.
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As we approached the ruins, the trees closed in on both sides of the road, and signs directed us to the “archaeological zone,” and the parking area for Edzná, The First House of the Itzás.
THE ITZÁS
First House of the Itzás? That’s a statement that prompts a question: just exactly who, or what, were the Itzás? In a nutshell: they were an ethnic group. The ancient Maya were never a single unified cultural entity. There were dozens, if not hundreds of different ethnic divisions, ranging in size from isolated clans with a few dozen members to sprawling cities with tens of thousands of citizens. There were scores of different Mayan dialects, countless unique oral traditions, and endless variations in the style and pattern of dress. The Itzás were a particular ethnic lineage, and, more importantly, they were a a noble bloodline of kings with exceptional organizational skills. They rose to prominence in Edzná, and when their population outgrew the food supply, many of them migrated to the northern Yucatan, where they founded what might be called the “Second House of the Itzás.” That one turned out to be a bona fide wonder of the world, and it still bears their name:
Chichén Itzá!
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(And now you know!)
Next up: Edzná!
Edzná, First House of the Itzás
EDZNÁ
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There were four or five other cars in the small parking lot when we got there. They were apparently the first shift, the folks who came early when the park first opened, and by the time we arrived, they were already starting to leave. At that, we had this marvelous ruin practically all to ourselves, almost from the moment we walked in! But hang on, I’m getting ahead of myself.
Edzná is one of the older Mayan sites. First settled way back in 600 BC, the city flourished for the next thousand years, becoming a center of significant influence in the Late Classic era of the Mayan civilization. From 400 AD until around 1000 AD, Edzná dominated the surrounding region. At its peak, the city was home to 25,000 people, spread across a territory of ten square miles.
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Ticket booth: Edzná
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Buying tickets to Edzná
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Site Map
We studied the site map near the entrance, and I could see that the main section of the ruin was relatively compact, with most of the important structures clustered around an acropolis, where the largest pyramid was located.
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We had to walk for half a mile or so on a wide path before we reached a cleared area, and the first of the ancient stone buildings.
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The buildings surround a plaza, centered around a stone altar, consisting of one large, and two smaller circular platforms. Significant efforts have been put into the restoration of this part of the ancient city, and much of the labor was provided by a group of Guatemalan refugees, working with a program that combined badly needed humanitarian relief with historic preservation. Funding for the program that employed the Guatemalans was raised by a coalition of European diplomats, many of whom have visited the site in support of those efforts. Originally known as the Grand Plaza, the restored grouping of ruins was renamed the “Courtyard of the Ambassadors,” in honor of the men who made it possible. Ironically, the refugee laborers, like most of the region’s poor, are modern day Mayans, descendants of the people who built the city in the first place.
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Whether restored or not, the remnants of Edzná are impressive, well built and artfully designed. The older buildings are based on Peten style architecture, while the newer structures exemplify the Puuc style, similar to what we saw at Uxmal.
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Near the courtyard, there’s a stepped platform called the Nohoc Na, the Big House, more than 400 feet long and 30 feet high,
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as well as a ball court that’s missing its goal rings.
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Beyond that, several small pyramids, some built in a simpler style and obviously older, from the early days of the ancient city.
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The real prize here was the acropolis, and Edzná’s signature pyramid, a unique structure known as the Palace of the Five Floors.
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We could see the top of it from a distance, but it wasn’t until we got closer that this extraordinary building fully revealed itself.
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There are five levels, as the name suggests, with a temple topped by a massive roof comb on the top step, and a wide staircase leading from the base all the way to the peak.
The structures on the various levels all had Puuc style facades, smooth stone slabs cut square and fitted together like puzzle pieces over a concrete core. Doorways in the facade led to more than a dozen small rooms that may have been residential quarters for the city’s elite; or perhaps they were used by the priesthood, when conducting ceremonies and communing with the Mayan gods. Back in the day, the entire building would have been painted, with red being a dominant color, and the roof comb with its projecting tenons would have supported a massive molded plaster sculpture. We can only imagine how that might have looked; sadly, not a single trace of it remains.
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The back side of the building is buttressed by elegant, curved structures that may have been used as ramps, to facilitate the hauling of heavy loads to the upper floors. All in all, this Palace, or whatever it may have been, is impressive as the dickens!
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Off to the side of the acropolis was a temple, partially covered by a thatched palapa. The roof protects two large stucco masks that were discovered during excavations conducted in 1988.
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Molded and painted stucco was a common decorative element on Mayan buildings, but it’s extremely fragile, so very few examples have survived in good condition; these masks at Edzná are among the best that have ever been found. They represent the two faces of the Mayan sun god, one looking toward the sunrise, and the other toward the sunset.
All in all, Edzna was a pleasant surprise. Bigger than I expected, but quite manageable, and the state of preservation of the major structures ranks among the best I’ve seen. Taking it in, we could almost feel the presence of the ancient Maya. I tried to imagine what it would have been like when it was still in use, with all the sights, sounds, and smells of a living city teeming with people, with the kings and nobles in their palaces, and the priests in their temples. What a different world that must have been, and not so very long ago.
Next up: A Night on the Town in Campeche
A Night on the Town in Campeche
Onward, to CAMPECHE!
We left the Archaeological Park at about 2:30, pretty well beat after four hours spent walking around the ruins. Campeche was only an hour away, and I’d booked us a hotel through Expedia.Mx, the Mexican version of Expedia, which was proving to be surprisingly useful, giving us some excellent recommendations.
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In this case, we’d made a reservation at the Hotel del Paseo, located right at the edge of the historic city center, and easy walking distance from the plaza. Turned out to be a great choice: the rooms were modern, clean, and quiet, and at the time of our visit (October of 2015), a double was less than $50 per night. Today, in 2024, they’ve gone up a bit–closer to $100–but, considering the great location, that’s still quite reasonable.
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Hotel del Paseo in Campeche, a quite decent place to stay, at the edge of the historic district, and a short walk from the main Plaza
Campeche, founded in 1540 is one of the oldest Colonial cities in the Americas. In its day, it was one of the most important ports on the Gulf of Mexico, the place where the treasure galleons took on their cargo of riches from the interior before sailing home to Spain. There were stockpiles of gold and silver that made the port a favorite target for pirates, so fortifications were built around the old city center. Many of the old walls are still standing, and sufficiently well preserved that the “Historic Fortified Town of Campeche” was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1999. The restoration and renovation of the area is an ongoing project, and a source of considerable civic pride.
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House fronts and store fronts along the cobblestone streets of old town are painted in bright colors, giving the place a decidedly tropical feel. Many years ago, I lived for a time in Cartagena, a fortified Colonial city on the coast of Colombia. The many similarities took me right back to those days of my youth, and a powerful sense of nostalgia.
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The opposite of drive through dining. In Campeche, they close the whole block to traffic, and restaurants place tables in the middle of the street.
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A little public art. (Okay, BIG public art!)
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More public art. The guy in the middle almost looks real!☺ The colorful facades of the historic city center create an ambience that's unique to Campeche.
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Several views of Campeche’s main cathedral and central plaza.
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Mike and I were strolling around the plaza, taking photos of the cathedral and the surrounding side streets, when we ran into a crowd of beautiful girls, all in traditional dress, assembled in front of a stage that was festooned with balloons.
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The sign on the stage read: Festival of Dance and Folklore. And did I mention the crowd of beautiful girls?
Next up: La Guaranducha!
