Coba
A Maya city whose stela writes the creation date inside a count of time far vaster than the 2012 cycle.
- Location
- Quintana Roo, Yucatán Peninsula, ~47 km NW of Tulum
- Modern country
- Mexico
- Type
- Maya city; ruins
- Peak
- Classic period, c. 500–900 CE
- Known for
- Sacbe causeways; Nohoch Mul pyramid; long-count stela
What is Coba known for?
Coba is a large Maya city on the Yucatán Peninsula in Quintana Roo, Mexico, around two lakes about 47 kilometres northwest of Tulum. It was occupied from the Late Preclassic to the Postclassic, with most building in the Classic period, about 500 to 900 CE. It was the hub of the largest network of stone causeways, or sacbeob, in the Maya world; one runs over 100 kilometres west to Yaxuna. Its tallest pyramid stands about 42 metres high.
Coba is important for the Maya calendar. A stela there (usually called Stela 1) records the mythological creation date, 13.0.0.0.0 in 3114 BCE, but places it under a long string of higher time units, each set to 13, above the bak'tun. This implies a span of time vastly longer than the 13-bak'tun era that ended in December 2012.
Scholars read this as a statement that the current era was one turn within enormous cycles, not an end point.
The Coba stela shows that the Maya imagined time far beyond the 13-bak'tun era that ended in 2012.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeMaya Long Count
Sources
- Wikipedia, 'Coba'Reference
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, 'Cobá'Reference
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