by Mildred Boyd

     This sacred city of the Maya, with its terrible well of sacrifice and mysterious structures seemingly of Toltec design, has fascinated laymen and archaeologists alike ever since it was featured in John Lloyd Stephens’ Incidents of Travel in Yucatan in 1843. The list of excavators reads like the Who ‘s Who of archaeology: Desire Charnay in 1863, Augustus Plongeon in 1875, Teobalt Maler and Alfred Maudsley in 1880 and Edward H. Thompson, who actually owned the site, from 1899 to 1910. Most of the work done since then has been under the supervision of the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

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