“I met a traveler from an antique land…” Visiting the Mayan ruins in Yucatán, it’s hard not to think of Shelley’s immortal “Ozymandias.” Proud though it once was, little remains of that extraordinary civilization.
I began my encounter with the Maya at Chichen Itza. Gazing up at the spectacular faceted pyramid which dominates the complex, I tried to imagine myself back a thousand years, negotiating the precipitous staircase that leads straight up the sheer face to the chamber at the top.
I wondered at the ballpark, as big as a football field, and the domed observatory and labyrinthine temples and studied the intricate carvings which scrolled across walls and pillars and stelae. There were figures of warriors and skulls, of jaguars and eagles with exuberant feathers, clutching human hearts in their massive claws. The motif of death was inescapable. […]
From The Spectator US, first published on 6 August, 2022.