The Yellow City

This week, Gaby presented at an Anthropology conference in Mérida, which is the largest Mexican city in the Yucatán peninsula. We also happen to really like it, so it became a vacation and Sam & I went along for the ride.

I'll talk about Merida some other time (and I did! See this post on Merida)—in the meantime, let me tell you about the nearby town of Izamal, one of the strangest, most fascinating places I've seen. Izamal is nicknamed "the Yellow City", for reasons made apparent by the picture below:


Yes, the whole downtown is yellow. Paint sale at Glidden? A city council elected on a pro-obsessive-compulsive platform? Yellow rain? A promotion for Sunlight dishwashing liquid? (hey—Barbie did pink in the UK)

Don't ask me—I have no idea.

Here are some more shots (click through for full-size):

Smack in the middle of town is a massive monestary, built on top of (and from the stones of) a former Mayan temple. It is a stunning piece of architecture that was started in 1533—some mere 40 years after Columbus.


Embedded in the town's low horizon are huge lumpy hills—in fact, pre-columbian Mayan pyramids. Unlike most other sites, where you ride a bus for an hour into the jungle or countryside, these temples are actually encorporated into the town, surrounded by houses.

Despite being more or less between tourist-ridden Mérida and Chichen Itzá, Izamal is largely ignored by the hoards—which gives the town a slightly spooky quiet. Combining that with the colour scheme and the architectural features, I found it a fascinating, slightly surreal place. Well worth the visit!

I have a few more shots up on Flickr, if you're interested.