For a thousand years or more, this sparkling jewel of a city set on a high cliff on the coast of Quintana Roo was the terminus of trade routes connecting Mexico with South and Central America. Though it also served, like most Meso-American cities, as a ceremonial and administrative center, this was a city with a practical purpose with close ties to the central Mayan government in Mayapan.
      Here, such mundane goods as salt and salted fish, raw cotton, embroidered mantles and decorative shells would be exchanged for luxury items like quetzal feathers, obsidian and jade from the Guatemala highlands and turquoise and fine pottery from as far away as Teotihuacan. While most of the transactions would have been simple barters, cacao beans and quills filled with gold dust were sometimes used as currency.
      Mayan culture, like the Greek, was homogenous only in language, religion and customs. Each city-state was autonomous and frequently warred with its neighbors. So, though relatively small, Tulum was undoubtedly very wealthy and, being vulnerable to attack from both land and sea, was one of the few ancient sites to be surrounded by protective walls, complete with watchtowers at the northwest and southwest corners. Only the seaward side, protected by the steep drop to the white sand beach, was left unwalled. It was here that traders from far away beached their pirogues and unloaded their wares.
      The modern name, Tulum, literally means “Walls” though there is evidence that it was originally known as Zama, or “City of Dawn.” Several early documents refer to a walled city with stone buildings of that name.