Photo: (Yucatán a la mano)
Campeche, Camp., (April 02, 2021).- Despite the announcement of the closure of different archaeological zones in the country such as Chichén Itzá or Teotihuacan, of the 16 sacred Maya sites found in Campeche, seven will be open: Calakmul, Edzná, Hormiguero, Balamkú, Xpuhil, Hochob, and Becán, which may be visited during this Easter holiday period, at their usual hours from Monday to Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
During his visit to Campeche, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador stated that the archaeological zone of Calakmul was like the New York of the Maya, which was answered by the archaeologist Adriana Velázquez Morlet, delegate of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in the state.
Calakmul was one of the largest Mayan cities, where more than 120 stelae have been located between structures and pyramids; its development is recorded around the year 200 and 300 BC, according to the investigations of the archaeologist Ramón Carrasco, explained the expert.
In 2002 Calakmul was named a World Heritage Site and, in 2014 it was recognized as a mixed cultural and natural asset and inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage List as a Natural and Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
With its history and all that it offers, Campeche can be one of the places to visit during the Easter holidays, since the state is under a Green on the epidemiological traffic light.
“Campeche is a very pleasant and safe option for a visit because, as President López Obrador said, it is one of the safest states in the country; you can travel without problem to archaeological sites and to our museums with all security measures ”, assured the archaeologist.
Calakmul is located within the largest jungle in Mesoamerica with 70 square kilometers, in the southern part of the Biosphere Reserve, considered the second largest extension of tropical forests in America.
Velázquez Morlet explained that Calakmul is named after the botanical biologist Cyrus Lundell, when he discovered the site in 1931, once he was taken to the site by loggers and chicleros who discovered it before him.
“He identifies it by structures 1 and 2 and since they are close to each other, he called them adjacent mounds and asked the people of the region how this would be said in Maya; this is how the word Calakmul was created, of course, it is not its original name, that could have been Chiik Naab (house of the water lily), which is mentioned in monuments of the ancient pre-Hispanic city ”, he said.
Although Velázquez Morlet stressed that Campeche is a state that has enormous archaeological and historical wealth “, just to give general data, we have more than a thousand registered archaeological sites, of which 17 have already been explored and at least partially open to visitors.”
This panorama places Campeche as a state with enormous cultural potential, since the sites mentioned by the chief executive, such as Calakmul and Edzná, are constructions that had to do with the political and economic importance of the ancient Maya, between the 7th and 19th centuries.
