Exploring the Ancient City of Cobá - Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico.
Hands down, one of the best travel recommendations I’ve received — mark my words, one day Cobá will be more famous than Chichén Itzá!
Admittedly, upon visiting the famed Chichén Itzá site*, I was a bit taken aback by the level of commercialization at the site and it ultimately left me feeling disinterested in checking out the second ancient site on our list, Cobá. However, after arriving at Cobá and checking things out, this gave us exactly what we were looking for: some Uncharted* / Tomb Raider* vibes. A word of advice — don’t be food by the first pyramid you see at the entrance, thinking that is all there is. Thankfully, after talking to a few other tourists who were on bikes, we decided to take a chance and check out more of the site, paying an additional fee to have us cycled around the area (there was also the option to rent our own bikes, but going with a cyclist allowed us to ask questions like it was a private tour).
Turns out, Cobá is actually a massive ancient city, eclipsing in scale that of Chichén Itzá, with its recently uncovered pyramid actually being larger than the one at Chichén Itzá. Granted, the pyramid is still be excavated (hence why this site is probably not as popular), but the region in its entirety does offer a greater sense of awe and reverence as compared to the more popularized Chichén Itzá.
Interestingly enough, Cobá was not only a major city for the ancient peoples of Mexico during its heyday (housing over 50,000 inhabitants, though some speculate it could have been more), but it is also home to a gigantic merchant highway that (if followed) leads directly to Chichén Itzá!
It’s always funny and enlightening every time we visit one of these acient sites, as you come to realize the recurring patterns we exhibit as a species. Inherently, we are drawn to large cities; we enjoy commerce; and we communally worship something we believe to be far greater than ourselves. Major metropolitan cities of today are structured nearly identical to how they were back then, and it would be foolish for us to think that, just because we’re in a more “modern” era, we know morerrv than the people of the past; when in reality, it’s all the same — just a little bit different in its presentation.
-never stop exploring.
