Mayan wonders and tropical jungle

Chichén Itzá

El Castillo is built so that at the equinoxes the shadow draws a serpent descending the stairway. Go at opening: by eleven it is unbearable.

Uxmal

Puuc style, with the round-cornered Pyramid of the Magician. Far less crowded than Chichén Itzá and, for many, more beautiful.

Cenotes de Cuzamá

Three underground cenotes you climb down to on wooden ladders. You get there by truck, a horse-drawn trolley on rails from the henequen era.

Paseo de Montejo

The mansions the henequen rich built in imitation of Paris. It explains where Yucatán's money came from before tourism.

Izamal

The yellow city, painted entirely that colour, with a Franciscan monastery built on top of a Mayan pyramid. 70 km out.

Tikal al amanecer

Temple IV rises above the forest canopy and you hear the howler monkeys before you see anything. It is the closing shot of the first Star Wars.

Gran Plaza de Tikal

Temples I and II facing each other, with the acropolis on either side. It is the heart of a city that reached 60,000 inhabitants.

Yaxhá

Above a lagoon, far more solitary than Tikal and with the best sunset in the Petén from the top of Temple 216.

Isla de Flores

A whole town on an island in Lake Petén Itzá, joined by a causeway. The last independent Mayan kingdom fell here, in 1697.

Zona arqueológica de Palenque

The Mayan city best folded into the jungle: the temples appear out of the vegetation and there is mist most mornings.

Templo de las Inscripciones

Pakal's intact tomb was found beneath it in 1952, with his jade mask. The sarcophagus is still inside; the mask is in Mexico City.

Agua Azul

Turquoise pools stepped by the carbonate in the water, 60 km out. In the rainy season they run brown: worth asking before you go.

Misol-Ha

A 35-metre fall with a path that runs behind the curtain of water. It appears in Predator.

Bonampak

The best-preserved Mayan murals in existence, with war and sacrifice scenes in full colour. It is on Lacandon land.