I.I.VI.III – San Francisco de Campeche: Day Three
SAN FRANCISCO DE CAMPECHE
I.I.VI.III – DAY THREE
23/08/22
Having just one day left, I tried to make the most of my time by visiting as many places as I could, dragging Xavier along with me. He had been living in Campeche for six months but, being so enrapt with his work, he had no time to explore anywhere outside the limits of the city.
Our first stop would be the ruins of Edzna. There, we found one of the most impressive guides. Esteban; a very knowledgeable guy in his fifties, seemed to know anything and everything concerning the ruins and Mayan history. Edzna, he told us, means “House of the Itzaes”; the Mayans living in the Péten region of Guatemala. The site is based in a valley and was constructed around 300BC and inhabited until 1500AD.
Throughout its history, the city of Edzna had extensive contact with surrounding cities, such as Calakmul and Tikal. Being so close to the Usumacinta River; an important trading route used by the Mayans. Other cities would often try to either gain favour with Edzna or go to war with it. This is supported by several stelae found onsite, including one showing an important queen from Calakmul who was sent to Edzna to marry their king in order to consolidate their relationship.
The tour started off in a museum at the entrance. There, Esteban took his time to show us a couple of stelae and explain what they represented. One of them features a Mayan king, sporting a feathered crown, a beaded necklace and a jaguar skin skirt, holding a sceptre in one hand and standing on top of a slave; possibly a king from another kingdom.
His elongated head, he added, was a type of body modification performed by the Mayans which would distinguish the elite from the lower-class people. This would come about by tying a piece of flat wood to the sides of the baby’s head, resulting in a process called plagiocephaly which would reshape the baby’s head given the young skull’s malleability. Other forms of body modification included attaching a stick to the nasal bridge so kids would grew up cross-eyed, boring holes in teeth to attach jade or other jewels, and other common contemporary practices such as piercings and tattoos – all signs of superiority and beauty.
On the edge of the stelae are hieroglyphs representing the date of when this event had occurred. The Mayans, he explained, had a complex calendar system which they developed over the years based on others employed by other Mesoamerican civilisations dating back to 500BC. In common use, were three calendars; the Haab, the Tzolkin and the Long Count:
- Haab: A 365-day solar of a date from calendar that is based around the rotation of Earth around the sun, much like the Gregorian calendar we’re used to. This consists of 18 months, each lasting 20 days. The last 5 days of the year, known as Wayeb, were considered dangerous as the Mayans believed that the portals to Xibalba dissolved, allowing the gods of the underworld to wreak havoc on our world. In fact, when anyone would be born on these five days, the father would usually pay the priest a hefty sum in order to change their official birth date!
- Tzolkin: A 260-day sacred calendar consisting of 20 months, each lasting 13 days. This is used to keep track of religious or ceremonial events and can be joined with the Haab to form what is known as the Calendar Round. In this one, any combination of two dates from each calendar would repeat itself after 52 years, meaning that an entire calendar round cycle lasts 18980 days. It is for this reason that people who reached the age of 52 were considered to be imbued with special wisdom.
- Long Count: A universal cycle that counts the days from the mythological date of creation of August 11 in 3114BC. The Mayans believed that at the end of an era, consisting of 13 b’ak’tuns; a period of 394 years each, the world is destroyed and then created anew by the gods. It is exactly for this reason that the apocalypse was thought to occur on the 21st of December 2012, as on that day, it was literally the end of an era.
After the long-sought explanation, we proceeded into the complex via the long sacbe; a white stone road. The main structures to be admired are found around the Grand Plaza, with the Nohoch Ná on the west; a large platform used for administrative functions on one side, and the Great Acropolis on the east; a huge platform with the main temple on the other. The plaza is flanked by the House of the Knives on the north; where a group of flint knives were found, and a pelote court on south.
The Great Acropolis is a large square with buildings on every side, a solar platform used for astronomical purposes on the centre and the imposing Temple of Five Storeys on the east side. This consists of a five-tiered pyramid with a comb on the roof and 22 rooms on the inside. A giant stairway leads from the square to the top of this pyramid; at the base of which are intricately carved hieroglyphic blocks dedicated to the Mayan gods.
Outside of the Grand Plaza to the south, is the Temple of the Masks which houses two marvellous, well-preserved stucco masks of the sun god Kinich Ahau; one showing a young face representing the sun at dawn, and one showing an older version with one tooth, representing the sun at dusk.
Having such a knowledgeable guide, I felt like I was finally piecing together most of the stuff I had learnt about Mayan mythology thus far. With every set of ruins I encountered, my appreciation towards their history kept on growing and expanding.
Fuerte San Jose
After the tour of Edzna, we headed back to Campeche to visit Fuerte San Jose, one of the two main forts in Campeche. The fort is square shaped with four watchtowers on each corner in between battlements. A winding passage leads to a drawbridge suspended over a moat, which, in turn, leads to the castle’s central courtyard where powder kegs and cannons can be found. What makes the fort so charming is the yellow painted battlements and passageway, providing a stark contrast with the grey stone walls and the forest green of the surrounding hill.
Strategically located on a hilltop, the fort was built by the Spanish in 1792 to fight off the pirates ransacking the city of Campeche. With the decline of piracy, the fort was subsequently abandoned and then turned into a subaquatic museum; featuring various ships and weapons used throughout the years and items found on the Gulf and Caribbean seafloor. Cool, cool.
After visiting the fort, we had a few hours to kill before my time in Campeche was up. Xavier and I wandered around the city’s streets until it was finally time to bid each other adios. At the end of my stay, I kind of felt sorry to be leaving Campeche. Little did I know I’d ever feel this way back on my first day there. Being so similar to what I’m used to back home; the very same thing I wanted to escape from, I found it hard to get my head around it at first. Then I met Xavier and that quickly changed. He breathed into me a new perspective, one that was very much needed.