Kohunlich is an ancient Mayan city in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo . It is located in southeastern Mexico on the Yucatí¡n peninsula, close to the borders of Belize and Guatemala . The entrance sign states:
Kohunlich Archaeological Site
Cultural heritage of the people of Quintana Roo
Cultural heritage of the Nation
Entrance Sign at Kohunlich
SOURCE: Entrance Sign at Kohunlich (Kohunlich, Quintana Roo, México); photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 02 February 2012.
Details about the area are provided on one of the descriptive signs in the site (reproduced here with spelling and grammatical errors on the original):
The site is of a city built in the early VIth century A.D, and abandoned in the XIIth or XIIIth century A.D . Its original name is now lost to us since “Kohunlich”, which apparently comes from the English “Cohoon ridge” (Cohoon being a type of tropical palm), is a relatively modern name . Its architecture resembles the Río Bec style, to the South of Campeche, and the Petén style, to the North of Guatemala and Belize . This shows the close ties and importance Kohunlich would have had with the other areas of Mayan culture . During its days of grandeur, the site looked very different from how we see it now, since all the buildings would have been stuccoed and painted predominantely in red . Some were also decorated with stuccoed figures and geometric designs . It boasted a complex drainage system which diverted rain water to an artificial reservoir or “aguada” . The constructions that can be visited served for different purposes, these being mainly residential, administrative and religious . They constitute only a part of the site, since the rest was made up of worker and peasant quarters, who supplied the foodstuffs and manufactured the various shell and flint artifacts.
Cohune Palm (Orbignya cobune)
SOURCE: Cohune Palm (Orbignya cobune) (Kohunlich, Quintana Roo, México); photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 02 February 2012.
Fruits of the Cohune Palm
SOURCE: Fruits of the Cohune Palm (Kohunlich, Quintana Roo, México); photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 02 February 2012.
Turtle Carved from the Nut of the Cohune Palm
SOURCE: Turtle Carved from the Nut of the Cohune Palm (Kohunlich, Quintana Roo, México); photographed by Stephen J. Danko on 09 February 2012.
Copyright © 2012 by Stephen J. Danko
