Tulum MLS Listings

Tulum ( (Tuluum in Modern Maya); in Spanish orthography, Tulum) is the site of a Pre-Columbian Maya walled city serving as a major port for Coba.

The archaeological site is relatively compact (compared with many other Maya sites in the vicinity), and is one of the best-preserved coastal Maya sites. Its proximity to the modern tourism developments along the Mexican Caribbean coastline (the so-called "Riviera Maya" surrounding Canc n) has made it a popular destination for tourists. Daily tour buses bring a constant stream of visitors to the site. The Tulum ruins are the third most-visited archaeological site in Mexico, after Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. It is popular for the picturesque view of the Caribbean and a location just 128 km (80 miles) south of the popular beach resort of Cancun.

A large number of cenotes are located in the Tulum area such as Maya Blue, Naharon, Temple of Doom, Tortuga, Vacaha, Gand Cenote, Abejas, Nohoch Kiin and Carwash cenotes and cave systems.

The tourist destination is now divided into three main areas: the archaeological site, the pueblo (or town), and the zona hotelera (or hotel zone).

The Maya site may have been formerly also known by the name Zama, meaning city of Dawn. Tul m is also the Yucatec Mayan word for fence or wall[1] (or trench), and the walls surrounding the site allowed the Tulum fort to serve as a defense against invasion. From the numerous depictions in murals and other works around the site, Tulum appears to have been an important site for the worship of the Diving or Descending God.[1]

The city was first mentioned by Juan Diaz, part of Juan de Grijalva's expedition of 1518.[1] The first detailed description of the ruins was published by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in 1843 in the book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood first visited Tulum in the mid-19th century AD. As they arrived from the sea John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood first saw a tall building that impressed them greatly. This was most likely the great Castillo of the site. They made accurate maps of the site wall and other buildings while Catherwood made some stunning sketches of the Castillo, along with others, which would have been as close to a photograph as possible at the time. Stephens and Catherwood also discovered an early classic stela at the site that had an inscribed date of AD 564 that was most likely brought in from a nearby town to be reused. Work conducted at Tulum continued with that of Sylvanus Morley and George P. Howe beginning in 1913. The work was continued by the Carnegie Institution from 1916 to 1922, Samuel Lothrop in 1924 who also mapped the site, Miguel Angel Fernandez in the late 30s and early 40s, William Sanders in 1955, and then later in the 1970s by Arthur Miller. Through these investigations done by William Sanders and Arthur Miller it has been determined that Tulum was occupied by the late Postclassic around AD 1200. The site continued to be occupied until contact with the Spanish was made in the early 16th century with the site being abandoned completely by the end of the 16th century.