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1、Ou Yang 142015 Yucatan Trip ReportOverview of Yucatan TripThe state of Yucatan is located in Southeastern Mexico, which is the major component of Maya region. Specially, it has its own government. We started our field trip from Merida, and made a tour around archaeological sites to Uxmal, Izamal and
2、 Chichen Itza, among which Uxmal and Chichen Itza are the main ruling and ceremonial sites of Maya region. After that, we went to Cancun, a famous tourist city situated along the coast in southeastern Mexico. City Tour in MeridaMerida is the cultural, financial and political capital city as well as
3、the largest city of Yucatan peninsula. It is famous for its rich Mayan history and culture as well as some of other remarkable Mexican archaeological sites, which makes it one of the most important tourist cities in Mexico. Thought back to the history of Merida, we know that it was once a Colonial c
4、ity, making it have a mixed culture of both local Mayan custom as well as Spanish one. As we walked around the street in Merida, we can see a lot of catholic buildings, which are mostly influenced by prehispanic style as well as some European style such as French. Typically, they organized their tra
5、ditional town in a Spanish style. Standing in the main street, there is the governors palace on one side, and some Catholic Church buildings on the opposite, which is considered to be an organization form that can protect the city. The picture on the left is a famous structure in Merida, the Merida
6、Cathedral. According to our teacher, the cathedral was built on the top of one of the ruined Mayan city. The Spanish rushed in the Mayan city and forced Maya as slaves to build a new religious center in the center of the city for them, which makes the Cathedral look exactly a Spanish style. It is a
7、Catholic Church that built by Mayas, which makes it still remain some typical characteristics of the local custom. For instance, it was highly decorated with beautiful lights all along its walls ad roofs. What is more, they added some traditional Mayan carvings on the wall above the doorway as well
8、as the windows. Attractively, the windows were usually decorated with colorful drawings like some human figures or geometric patterns.After that, we also looked around other building along the way. On some structures, we can see a mixed style of French and Spanish. Usually, there are some human figu
9、res like royal women and men, or heroic warriors carved on the wall. Typically, we can see the figure of a warrior standing on the hanging head of another dead man, which may show the victory and power of the warrior. Besides, we walked around the local market. I felt like I have been back in China
10、at the first sight, since I have never seen any market that selling fresh meat in the US. In the US, people usually by meats and vegetables in supermarkets, which are well packed and the meats are usually stored in refrigerator separated by different parts of the animals. It is really an interesting
11、 experience by comparing the market in Merida and that in China, which makes me think about the differences between developed and developing countries through a tiny scope.Physical EnvironmentMerida is located in the northwest part of the state of Yucatan, which is not along the coast. The state of
12、Yucatan is a flat area which is only a little above sea level. Through the whole state, it mainly has three land types volcano, tropical rainy forest and rocky mountain. The Yucatan Peninsula is an area with Karst topography whose bedrock is mainly covered by limestones. (That should be the reason t
13、hat traditional Mayan structures were mostly built with limestones.) As a result, there is very little surface water, not to mention drinking water. Thus, we could find a lot of caves and sinkholes called Cenotes that can be used by the Mayas to access the ground water. As for the climate, Yucatan f
14、eatures a hot and humid climate, and have an average annual high temperature of about 33 degree centigrade. Thus, it is suitable for varies kinds of crops and fruits to grow in this area. Besides, Yucatan Peninsula has only two typical seasons tropical wet and dry climate, which means residents need
15、 to store water for dry season. Meridas rainy season mainly run from late May to October, during which residents would definitely do all they can to store the water for the rest of the year. As is mentioned in Gallopins article, the Maya region in Mexico was separated into highland Mexico and lowlan
16、d Maya, and “One condition separating these two settlement adaptation is the availability of water.” (Gallopin, 1). From this reference, it is apparent that water is a main contributing factor for the development of an area, as we know that lowland Maya was once a thriving region. It sounds quite reasonable that Gallopin claims: “However, in those areas of the southern Maya Lowlands without such water sources and with an abundant though seasonal rainfall, reservoir m
