Tulum’s Ruins Site To Receive Infrastructure Upgrades Ahead of Maya Train’s Arrival

Founded over 1,500 years ago, this city was initially called Zamá (dawn) and later changed its name to Tulum (wall). (Source: AMResorts)

Mexico’s eastern state of Quintana Roo, part of the Yucatán Peninsula, is home to several of the country’s most popular tourism spots, of which Cancún is likely the most famous. But, the historic destination of Tulum, famously home to the ruins of an ancient Mayan city, is also becoming increasingly trendy among travelers and is predicted to draw loads more visitors once the Maya Train begins operating in the region.

According to Riviera Maya News, Mayor Diego Castañón recently announced that Tulum’s archaeological zone will receive a significant investment from the Mexican government for infrastructural improvements to be made and maintained at the site. Castañón said that, following four decades of neglect, considerable resources will finally be allocated to the preservation and upkeep of the archaeological site’s 73 pre-colonial monuments and the region’s that they represent.

The other goal in making these infrastructural upgrades is to create more pathways and a more sustainable framework for managing the influx of tourists that’s expected to pour in daily once the long-awaited Maya Train makes the area easily accessible to large volumes of visitors coming in from other parts of Quintana Roo.

According to the federal government, the Promeza Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones is dedicating over 4.1 billion pesos ($227.6 million) in funds for the Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) to restore the Tulum archaeological zone and preserve the region’s pre-Hispanic heritage.

Ruins of the Great Palace of Tulum. (Photo via Noreen Kompanik)

“The resources that will be applied will be from the Promeza Program that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador created for the preservation of the country’s pre-Hispanic sites,” Castañón said, adding that the, “rescue in Quintana Roo is led by our Governor Mara Lezama Espinosa.”

During a meeting, the mayor and INAH director Margarito Molina Rendón both confirmed that the Institute and the city are strengthening their, “cooperation in favor of improving the experience of the large flow of archaeological visitors that the area currently receives.”

Molina Rendón explained that the priority would be facilitating visitor flow through proposals for new public spaces within the historic site’s walls and walking trails that have not been explored before. Castañón believes that current visitor number stand to more than double, possibly reaching 3.5 million Maya Train commences operations in Sections 5 and 6.

Upon completion, the highly anticipated rail line will stretch almost 1,000 miles across the Mexican Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, helping to bring more visitors and development to the region’s under-the-radar destinations that are presently less accessible, due to the density of its tropical jungle landscape.

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