Home»All Photographs»Travel Adventures»Playa del Carmen, Mexico»Coba Archeological Ruins, Mexico 10/06/2009

On Tuesday, Ocober 6, we rented a car and traveled south to the Mayan ruins of Coba with our friend John Hartman.

Coba (Cobá in the Spanish language) is a large ruined city of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. Coba is estimated to have had some 50,000 inhabitants (and possibly significantly more) at its peak of civilization, and the built up area extends over some 80 km².

The site was occupied by a sizable agricultural population by the 1st century. The bulk of Coba's major construction seems to have been made in the middle and late Classic period, about 500 to 900, with most of the dated hieroglypic inscriptions from the 7th century.

However Coba remained an important site in the Post-Classic era and new temples were built and old ones kept in repair until at least the 14th century, possibly as late as the arrival of the Spanish.