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Tulum Archaeological Site
(click image for detail)
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Thirteen kilometers (8 miles) south of Xel-Ha are the ruins of Tulum, a Maya fortress-city overlooking the Caribbean. The ruins are open to visitors 7am to 5pm in the winter, 8am to 6pm in the summer.
The entrance to the ruins is about a 5-minute walk from the archaeological site. There are artisans' stands, a bookstore, a museum, a restaurant, several large bathrooms, and a ticket booth. Because of the great number of visitors this site receives, it is no longer possible to climb all of the ruins. In many cases, visitors are asked to remain behind roped-off areas to view them.
By A.D. 900, the end of the Classic period, Maya civilization had begun its decline, and the large cities to the south were abandoned. Tulum is one of the small city-states that rose to fill the void. It came to prominence in the 13th century as a seaport, controlling maritime commerce along this section of the coast, and remained inhabited well after the arrival of the Spanish.
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