La Tortuga Hotel and Spa

Location: 37 miles south of Playa del Carmen; Open daily from 8 to 5:30

Facilities: Restrooms, marketplace, nearby restaurants

Atop of a cliff by the turquoise waters of the Mexican Caribbean lay the amazing vestiges of the only Mayan city built on the coast.

Meaning "wall", Tulum was built in the classic period of Mayan culture, around 465 AD, and it reached its Golden Age between the years 1200 and 1500 AD. More than sixty buildings surrounded by three huge walls with five sensational doors protected the city of Tulum.

Some think the walls were built to protect from outside attacks, while others believe that they were meant to separate the nobility and the ceremonial center from the rest of the city.

Tulum was a primary point for night time navigation; lights were allocated in the windows of El Castillo, its main building, orienting sailors and preventing them from hitting the reefs that line the coast.

In addition to El Castillo and La Muralla, the surrounding wall, there mare other structures in Tulum such as the Temple of the Descending God, the Temple of the Initial Series, the Temple of the Frescos, The House of Columns and the Watchtowers.