Coba

July 29, 2013

Coba was a place I did not know much about and we had no plans to visit but with our plans to visit the country of Belize canceled we decided to take a day to explore the Coba site. I was happy to learn that the city was dated to be 400 BC. The city is 70km by 70km square and had an estimated 55,000 dwellings along with large stone government buildings, pyramids, observatory and temples. The one thing that stood out to me was the Mayan Highways around the city. The main road which is 2m high, 10m wide and 100km long the locals call Highway #1. It is as straight as an arrow and they have no idea how the Mayans accomplished it. The road is not used today as it is a protected historical site. In 3 Nephi 8:13 we read "And the highways were broken up, and the level roads were spoiled, and many smooth places became rough". I have added a scanned image of Coba that shows the many Mayan Highways in the Blog Photo Gallery below. Double click the image for a larger image.

The link below for part 3 is for a Nova series called Mayan Empire Documentary. You can go back and watch the first two parts but part 3 talks about the roads, engineering, and depth of knowledge and understanding the Mayans or Nephites had. Their knowledge exceeded that of the ancient Egyptians, and a 1000 years earlier to boot.

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ml7Co0w22M

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n69-Ng_D9xI

Part 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCc47vfIgcs