By now I hope you aren’t getting tired of all the amazing archeological sites that we blog about (I know we are not) but, we feel it is necessary to share our journey because each site we visit is very unique and magical.  I hope that I (we) can eventually get through the bucket list of all the Mayan/Aztec archeological sites that we plan to visit in our lifetime.  

We had the opportunity to visit Ek’ Balam during our road trip to Izamal.  Ek’ Balam is located 16 miles north of Valladolid and 35 miles northeast of Chichen Itza (we visited Chichen Itza in 2014), so if you have time you can actually visit all these sites as they are not too far from each other.   Ek’ Balam means “Black Jaguar’ and according to Mayan legend the Jaguar was the protector of the Tomb of Ukit Kan Le’k Tok’ and you will find stones in the shape of teeth, giving you the impression of a massive jaguar’s mouth.  Like it is protecting the tomb at the side of Acropolis pyramid which is the largest pyramid in Ek’ Balam.  We climbed the pyramid but as usual my fear of heights limited me from reaching the top.  I should also point out that there are no ropes to hold on to when you climb so I did not want to fall.  Rudy made the climb with no problem and said the view from the top was breath taking as he could see the entire village, there are 45 structures at this site and some have not been excavated yet.

We’ve read that this site reached its height of rule from 770 to 840 BCE and the population decrease rather quickly from 1050 to 1100 BCE, there are many theories as to why.  At this site you can find a defensive wall with an arch entrance this was pretty neat, there was also an oval palace said to be aligned to connect with cosmological ceremonies.  So much can be learned if you have the time to hire a guide to show you around the grounds.