The ruins of the ancient Mayan city of Tulum are located in Mexico, on the Yucatan Peninsula, in the state of Quintana Roo, 128 km south of the city of Cancun. Tulum Ruins is the third most visited archaeological site of Mexico after Teotihuacan and Chichen Itza. The city has been known since the VI century, in those days it was called Zama (the city of Dawn), the later name Tulum in translation from the Mayan language means the Wall. The city was built on the Caribbean coast, on a steep rocky cliff 12 meters high. Inaccessible cliffs protected from the sea side of Tulum, and from the land side - a wall 3-5 meters high, about 7 meters thick and 784 meters long. Tulum is one of the few Mayan cities that had defensive fortifications. The city was a seaport, sea and land trade routes from the central regions of Mexico and Central America converged here. By the X century, Maya civilization began to decline, large cities in the south were abandoned. Tulum remained the only Mayan city that flourished in the 13th-15th centuries. The city was inhabited for about 70 years after the conquest of Mexico by the Spanish conquistadors, and then abandoned by the population and finally abandoned by the end of the XVI century. The ruins of Tulum are some of the best preserved among the coastal Mayan cities. Of the structures of Tulum, special attention is given to the El Castillo fortified temple, the Temple of frescoes and the Temple of God. The construction of El Castillo was carried out in several stages, it is located on the edge of a 12-meter cliff and, most likely, served as a beacon for ships. The temple of frescoes has three levels, which symbolize the underworld of the dead (first level), life (second level) and the third level - the abode of the gods. Along the perimeter of the facade, in niches, statues of the Descending God are installed, murals depicting deities and mythical creatures decorate the walls. Mayan priests used the Temple of Frescoes as an observatory to observe the movement of the Sun. Images and statues of the Descending God adorn the Temple of God, located in the northern part of Tulum. At the foot of the cliff on which El Castillo rises, there is a beach, considered one of the best beaches in Mexico. Typically, tourists combine visiting the ruins of the city of Tulum and swimming in the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea on the beach of El Castillo.