The Mayan ruins of San Gervasio on the Island of Cozumel are small but significant. San Gervasio was home to an important religious center where Mayans would come to worship Ix Chel who was known as the goddess of fertility. That made the Island of Cozumel and San Gervasio a popular pilgrimage among the Mayan people.

Visiting San Gervasio is not the easiest thing to do in Cozumel. A taxi cab from Puerto Maya to the ruins is about $35-40 each way. As you can see, the taxis at the ruins are not plentiful.

Outside tours that visit San Gervasio are currently requiring a minimum of two people per booking. That didn’t work for me since I was going solo. I found a tour through Carnival that included San Gervasio, lunch, a beach stop, and a tequila tasting for $78. That is how I got there.

There are three other buses here.

When you first walk in they have fountains, shops, benches, and restrooms.

If you plan on doing any foot washing, they prefer you to do it in this area rather than the bathroom sinks.

This is the entrance line. Our tour provided us with two tickets.

This ticket is a local Cozumel parks ticket.

This ticket is the Mexican government one. This is the type of ticket you will get if you go off on your own to sites like Tulum and Coba as I did last year.

The official hole punch.

This site includes four districts spread out over several miles. For that reason we are going to be skipping structures 15-17.

“The Little Hands Structure” consists of two rooms. One of the rooms has a temple built inside of it with red hand prints on the wall.

This structure is believed by some to have been the home of Ah Hulneb “the spear thrower,” who was the overlord of Cozumel sometime during the period of 1000-1200 A.D. The inner temple was Ah Hulneb’s personal shrine.

Here you are able to see the red hand prints on the wall. This reminds me of the “Temple of Paintings” in Tulum which had hand prints on the exterior of the building that were believed by some to be the signature of the architect.

This was used to collect rain water.

There are quite a few iguanas living in the area.

This is known as “Structure 31 & 32.” 31 is a residential structure with unusually large interior spaces and a front porch. It’s roof was made of palm fronds. 32 is a small temple that is believed to have been a chapel.

This is “The Arch Structure.” It was the entrance to San Gervasio. The design of the arch is very much like two sets of stairs inverted and put together.

This road goes 8 miles to the ocean.

We’re going the other way down the road to the main plaza. We are now on the path the Mayans would travel to bring their offerings to the fertility goddess Ix Chel.

This is a look back at the arch. The road is marked scabe 1. Scabe is the Mayan word for road.

We are coming up on the entrance to the main plaza.

These first two structures are “The Niches Structure” on the left and “The Columns Structure” on the right. You can best see the burial chamber on the side of “The Columns Structure” from this angle.

“The Columns Structure” has seven columns, a bench along the wall, and an alter or throne in the middle. Six people were buried in the burial chamber on the side along with obsidian, knives, incense burners and stone stelae with different figures on each of them.

Another iguana.

“The Niches Structure” had shrines on each side of the stairway. It had a blue interior and a stone roof.  It is believed that the stairway with the shrines was used for the placing of offerings.

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In the center of the plaza is “The Altar Structure,” which is believed to have been the dais from which a speaker addressed the people who were gathered here.

“The Alamo Structure” is a temple with an altar on the inside where offerings were placed. Much like “The Little Hands Structure,” the temple inside “The Alamo Structure” also has red hand prints on the wall.

Next to “The Alamo Structure” is “The Murals Structure.” “The Murals Structure” contains altars and benches that were using for the placing of offerings. It got it’s name because pieces of multi-colored murals were found inside it.

On the side of the main plaza is “The Palace Structure.” The Palace has columned halls, benches along the walls, and an altar or throne in the middle suggesting an important person presided here. The Palace contains a total of 19 columns.

“The Ossuary Structure” contained numerous sets of human remains. Right next to it is scabe 4 which takes you to a residential area.

This is the fork in the road that takes you to the two residential areas we won’t be visiting.

And we ended up back where we started.

This was the ticket booth where they punched the hole in my ticket.

Our bus is the last to leave the ruins.

I had heard that the San Gervasio ruins were small but the site was bigger than I thought it would be. I enjoyed the arch with the road through it and the altar the most. Those are things I don’t often see preserved at Mayan sites.

I personally think San Gervasio is a gem on the Island of Cozumel. It’s unfortunate that they make it so difficult to get to. I highly recommend visiting if you want something different than your typical day in Cozumel without enduring the long water shuttle to the mainland.

 

 

 

 

 

• Cozumel
• Mayan Ruins