Mayan City of Tulum

The stone temples and walls of the Mayan city of Tulum have stood on the cliffs of the Yucatan Peninsula overlooking the Caribbean Sea for some thousand years. When the city was inhabited (up until perhaps 500 years ago), the buildings would have been brightly painted with colorful frescos. Now the paint is largely gone; the walls are gray and eroded; iguanas bask on their exposed ledges - but to call them ruins does not capture their presence. Now, the buildings appear to grow organically from the cliffs, opening into archways that frame the sea and sky with elemental force.

The Mayan culture is known for the sophistication of its writing, mathematical, and calendar systems. The Mayans were among the first civilizations to use the concept of "zero." Looking through the ancient arch of the Temple of the Winds to an ocean of the most extraordinary blue, I think they also must have understood infinity.