"Dzibilchaltłn--"Place with writing on... " a Dzibilchaltùn Travel Page by Redlats

The Dzibilchaltłn site was a Mayan city for 2000 years until the Spanish conquered the city in 1540's. Dzibilchaltłn was a major Mayan city covering 19 square km, 6000 structures and over 40,000 inhabitants.

Dzibilchaltłn means the "place with writing on flat stones". Only half a dozen structures have been reconstructed to date. The site has an interesting air-conditioned museum (labeled in Spanish and English) and for days that are really hot (as it was when we visited), you can swim in the cenote on site.

It also has landscaping where you can see and identify local trees and flowers (although in 2005 they were still recovering from Hurricane Isadore three years earlier). The ruins themselves have a bit more shade, so you are less likely to melt on a day where the temperatures go up above 35°C.

Our guide indicated that the area's buildings were not only Mayan. Some were older than Mayan, and of course, there are remains of the Spanish. The cenote has been used as a water source for the area from the beginning, and when the Spanish controlled things, there was a cattle ranch using the area near the cenote as well as an open-air church built from Mayan ruins.