Historical landmark
El Castillo
Clifftop stone shrine whose seaward window once guided trading canoes through the only gap in the reef.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to El Castillo, the clifftop building above the ruins of Tulum, follows an amateur archaeologist's hunch about a small stone window and a gap in a reef offshore. It traces how one observation in the early nineteen eighties led a Mexican underwater archaeologist and a National Geographic backed team to test what the ancient Maya had actually built into this modest stone platform. Along the way it touches on the jade, cacao, and copper trade that once moved along this coast. Best heard looking out past the cliff edge toward the water.
This audio guide was created using AI.