Kohunlich

Kohunlich rewards the drive with faces. Its Temple of the Masks, an Early Classic pyramid of about 500 AD, carries up its central stairway a series of two-metre stucco masks - wide-eyed, mustachioed solar deities with cartouche eyes and elaborate headdresses, protected under thatch and startlingly expressive after fifteen centuries; five survive of the original eight, among the finest stucco monumental art left anywhere in the Maya world. The city around them spreads through a forest of corozo - the cohune palms that give the site its anglicized name - with plazas, an acropolis, a ballcourt and elite residential compounds like the 27 Steps emerging from the fronds, laced by walking paths where trogons and parrots make the soundtrack and morning visitors frequently have the entire city alone. The site's engineering shows in its vast cistern system, which watered a city without cenotes. Paired with Dzibanche up the road, it makes the case that the deep south holds the peninsula's best ruin-days per visitor.

History

The original name is unknown; the present one comes from the English Cohune Ridge, after the cohune palms, and in 1912 the place was known as Clarksville, after a logging camp nearby. The city was settled by 200 BC and most of its buildings date from about 250 to 600 AD; the Temple of the Masks, built around 500, was covered by a later building after 700, which is why its masks survive so well (Wikipedia, Kohunlich).

What you'll find

• The mask stairway - giant stucco sun faces under thatch.
• The palm forest - corozo groves swallowing plazas.
• The 27 Steps - elite compounds on the high ground.
• The solitude - a major city at whisper occupancy.

When to go

Dry-season mornings for birds, cool paths and the masks in raking light. Combine with Dzibanche for the full southern day from Bacalar or Chetumal.

What to expect

It is remote - services end at the gate, so carry water and fuel. The masks are viewed behind rails at respectful distance. Paths are long enough to earn the term walk.

Nearby

Dzibanche and Kinichna lie off the same highway; Bacalar's lagoon and Chetumal's Maya museum close the loop.

Key facts