The splendor of X & # 39; baatún: the Mayan city of the fortified palaces of Yucatan

Mexican and Spanish researchersThey gradually reveal the grandeur of the archaeological zone of X & # 39; baatún, a Mayan city of fortified palaces located in an ecotourism park in the Mexican state of Yucatan.

This ancient Mayan city was discovered in the 90s of the last century in an almost virgin jungle., between the cenotes and lagoons of the Oxhuatz Ecotourism Park, in the municipality of Tekal de Venegas, Yucatan.

The Spanish Juan García Targa, a researcher at the University of Barcelona, ​​told Efe that the site looked like a paradise because it has a cenote of transparent waters. "It's a fantastic place that also has traces of hacienda"he says.

"X" baatún, which in the Mayan language means "place of collection of water", was discovered by specialists from the Mexican Autonomous University of Yucatan and the Spanish Universities of Barcelona and Santander.

Among his buildings is a ball game, a pyramid of 15 meters high "and constructions that we interpret as palaces with rooms at the top, everything is around an aguada (lagoon) ", explains the expert.

Garci & # 39; s in Targa ensures that we can observe turkeys from mount, parrots among other types of birds, as well as mammals, endangered fruit trees such as the cap "and night camping can be organized".

The researcher states that at X & # 39; baatún, we can observe that in the last phase of the occupation Building material was used to wall part of the site.

At X & # 39; baatun, a type of megalithic architecture is observed, large stones with cornices that show an influence of Izamal, a neighboring Mayan center.

He argues that in two or three years you can get a glimpse of the archeological area and already it will be possible to determine whether, in what seems to be palaces, "rituals or usual activities of the Mayan cities have been realized".

García Targa reveals that if X "baatún could not be explored in depth" we noticed that some constructions of this site look like small replicas of those of Izamal ".

He explains that the Mayans have walled the central area of ​​some buildings for various reasonseither by the danger or the attack of other neighbors.

He says his people have benefited from the abundant resources from the square and cultivated corn, beans and squash, as found by found seed remains.

The story of the search for this lost Mayan paradise began when García Targa was himself part of the Izamal project and was participating in a topographic study of X. Baatún.

In 2006, he carried out further research with colleagues at the Autonomous University of Yucatan and In 2018, he sought the permission of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) for the research project X & # 39; baatún.

Permission was granted "after a series of administrative procedures whichWe have included project reports and programs from Barcelona and UADY participants, "he recalls.

Then the researchers worked only three days, "because we did not have a lot of resources, so we have just completed another topographical study, anthropological reports and interviews with officials of the ecotourism plan led by the owner of the ejido, Manuel Chan Chi.

Currently, peasants make "sustainable, serious, rigorous and respectable use of nature by taking tourists They do not just want to see the sun and beaches or popular places like Chichen Itza. Oxhuatz are people who want to see a different and fantastic Yucatan, "he says.

Explain that the project is still in progress stage of diffusionHe hopes that researchers such as Carmen Varela, from the University of Santander, will come together to find resources that will enable them to work in the region.

"We are trying to coordinate with Yucatan colleagues to optimize resources and do an integral job, according to the standards established by the INAH center of Yucatan, "he says.

Affirms receiving resources at the first stage of the Palar de Barcelona Foundation, "a very amateur pharmacist who gives research money to Spanish universities abroad".

Now waiting for a new call. Palar is seeking resources and enjoys the support of other private sponsors from Spain and Mexico., as Fundación Cultural Banamex to do decent and continuous work in Yucatán ".