Vintage Photos: Exploring the Yucatán Peninsula -- National Geographic

El Castillo, Chichén Itzá
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
In 1936, a visitor scales the northern stairway of the pyramid known as El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in southern Mexico. Built to awe, the 79-foot-tall pyramid has become the towering icon of Chichén Itzá, one of the largest and most powerful of all Maya cities.
Sacred Cenote, Chichén Itzá
Photograph by Luis Marden
Spanish records tell how live victims were thrown into the sacred cenote at Chichén Itzá (photographed here in 1936) on the premise that, as sacrifices to the Maya gods, they would not die—even though they were never seen again.
Ball Court, Chichén Itzá
Photograph by Luis Marden
Legendary National Geographic photographer Luis Marden—on his first foreign assignment—shoots the great ball court at Chichén Itzá in 1936. More than a sport, Maya ball games were spectacles that drew thousands to ceremonial centers.
Uxmal
Photograph from Rafael Andrade
Adventurous tourists visit the ancient city of Uxmal in 1921. One of the largest Maya cities in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, Uxmal was built between A.D. 700 and 1000.
Temple of the Seven Dolls, Dzibilchaltún
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
An aerial photo from a 1950s expedition to the Maya site of Dzibilchaltún shows the Temple of the Seven Dolls, so named for seven small clay figurines found beneath the floor, and a limestone causeway wide enough for four lanes of auto traffic. The site is in the Mexican state of Yucatán.
Diver, Dzibilchaltún
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
Flashlight strapped to his wrist, a diver rises from the depths of a Yucatán cenote at the Maya site of Dzibilchaltún in 1958. He probed for Maya relics, such as this unbroken jar, 80 feet below the surface.
La Venta, Tabasco
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart, National Geographic
An expedition team member examines Olmec artifacts uncovered at La Venta in Tabasco, Mexico, in 1943. The Olmec culture rose on the Gulf of Mexico around 1200 B.C. It was distinguished by exquisite works of art ranging from detailed jade figurines to 20-ton carved stone heads.
Matthew Stirling, La Venta
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart, National Geographic
Between 1938 and 1946 archaeologist Matthew W. Stirling (pictured) led eight expeditions to southern Mexico to study Olmec and Maya sites. In 1940 near Veracruz, he and his wife, Marion, excavated La Venta, a thousand-year-old Olmec ruin memorable for its massive and mysterious carved basalt heads.
Colossal Head, Tres Zapotes
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart, National Geographic
Stirling uncovered this colossal Olmec head at Tres Zapotes in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1939. The head is made from gray basalt and measures just under five feet tall.
Maya Stela, Quiriguá
Photograph by Jacob J. Gayer, National Geographic
Quiriguá in southeastern Guatemala has an impressive array of eighth-century Maya stelae, monuments carved from red sandstone. The site was inhabited beginning in the second century.
Piedra Parada, Chiapas
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart, National Geographic
In 1945, an expedition brought Stirling and his wife to the site of Piedra Parada in Chiapas, Mexico. They used a local home as a headquarters. "I should like to have dug below the house," Stirling said.
Temple of the Sun, Palenque
Photograph by Richard Hewitt Stewart, National Geographic
The Temple of the Sun was one of the buildings in the great Maya city of Palenque in southern Mexico. Palenque also held other temples, an aqueduct, and a palace with a three-story tower.
Maya Glyph, Palenque
Photograph by Richard H. Stewart, National Geographic
Marion Stirling examines a Maya glyph on the palace at Palenque in 1942. The royal residence was designed and constructed over the course of nearly a century, A.D. 615-711.
Monte Albán
Photograph by Luis Marden, National Geographic
Photographed in 1937, the ruins of Monte Albán spread out near Oaxaca, Mexico. Carved out of a mountain, the site was home to a succession of peoples—Olmecs, Zapotecs, and Mixtecs—over a period of 1,500 years.