Mexican Archaeological Sites On Google Street View

August 24, 2012 1:48 PM

Google Street View has sent people on bicycles around 30 major archaeological sites in Mexico, including Chichen Itza, Palenque, Monte Alban, Teotihuacan, Tulum, Cobá, and more. You can go right up to (but not up) the pyramids. For me, seeing the tourists and the souvenir vendors is part of the fun. Daniel Hernandez at the LA Times has some more good links.
posted by Fnarf (22 comments total)

Nice! And hey, they've got Dzibilchaltun, one of the smaller and less famous sites, the only one I've been to.
posted by kmz at 1:59 PM on August 24, 2012

This is indeed the best way to see the souvenir vendors, since they can't approach and annoy you.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 2:00 PM on August 24, 2012

Palenque must not be up yet. Other than Monte Alban (and Mitla), it's the only major site I have been to. Very much looking forward to seeing it and comparing it with my memory.
posted by Danf at 2:03 PM on August 24, 2012

I friggin love street view. It is definitely one of Google's most valuable contributions to the world. Historians will mine this shit for centuries.

Related: Google maps Nunavut hamlet by tricycle
posted by Popular Ethics at 2:05 PM on August 24, 2012 [3 favorites]

Related: Google maps Nunavut hamlet by tricycle

Man, I was really hoping to see an adult riding a child-sized tricycle outfitted with all kinds of electronics. Oh well.
posted by kmz at 2:07 PM on August 24, 2012

I can only handle street view for a while before I get mentally tired. It's not great for linear travel. The best of this type was posted here, Webwandern, I watched the entire 4 or 5 hours and enjoyed it. It's basically just a guy with a steadycam walking a trail with audio. Really well done. Shows what is possible in the future, imagine a 360 degree steadycam video tour. Streetview will seem like CGI graphics in comparison.
posted by stbalbach at 2:18 PM on August 24, 2012

Related: Google maps Nunavut hamlet by tricycle

I like how our Prime Minister needs to wear a jersey to remember which team he's on.
posted by furtive at 2:25 PM on August 24, 2012 [2 favorites]

Palenque must not be up yet

Palenque is linked in the Daniel Hernandez piece.
posted by Fnarf at 2:44 PM on August 24, 2012

If anyone's going to Tulum, could you get me a baseball hat that says Tulum on it? My husband is permanently distraught from losing his.
posted by theredpen at 3:35 PM on August 24, 2012

Oddly enough, that Sacred Cenote linked in the FPP is exactly, like literally the exact spot on the ground, where I bought my one (and only) souvenir of an incredibly memorable trip to the Yucatan in the mid-1990s. It's a wooden carved Mayan idol about the size of a watermelon, and I carried that thing in my backpack for another 2 weeks through Mexico and Belize.

It's still on my mantle today. I freaking love that thing, and think about the Cenote and the young man I bought it from often.

I like these google maps offerings very much. In no way the same as being there, but very nice.
posted by mcstayinskool at 3:38 PM on August 24, 2012

this is fantastic. Tulum and Coba are just like I remembered 'em.
posted by xbonesgt at 3:42 PM on August 24, 2012

Google Street View is providing the rails for revisiting all my happy memories!

Sometimes when I'm really bored and nostalgic I go on Google walks...to my old school, the grocery store I liked, up Telegraph Street or where my parents used to work and next door to where I used to take dance lessons. The mundane is cool, but going back to bigger memories that don't even have streets in them is *really* cool.
posted by iamkimiam at 4:02 PM on August 24, 2012 [4 favorites]

Very cool, although in reality you can climb many of the periods and that gives you great views, especially at Monte Alban.
posted by smackfu at 4:04 PM on August 24, 2012

(pyramids, dammit)
posted by smackfu at 4:05 PM on August 24, 2012

Help! I'm lost in the Chichen Itza rug maze!
posted by incandissonance at 4:40 PM on August 24, 2012

this is just awesome! i've been to those sites in Mexico and would like to go back for a visit via streetview. Google kicks ass!
posted by cusack01 at 4:54 PM on August 24, 2012

Cool. I've been to Chichen Itza; the only other site I've been to in Mexico is Uxmal, which is gorgeous but doesn't have a streetview yet.

I am an archaeology PhD dropout, and in my former program working with Google maps and cultural heritage was a major focus of many people in the department, grad students and professors. Work with Google/maps is a very interesting way to incorporate technology into archaeology.
posted by peacrow at 5:00 PM on August 24, 2012

When are we going to get the Google version of Fantastic Voyage, where you can explore the wonders of the human anatomy in a microscopic virtual submarine?
posted by George_Spiggott at 5:11 PM on August 24, 2012

If you're in the neighborhood of Chichen Itza, stop and check out Ek Balam. It's a much smaller site, but there are a lot fewer tourists, and as the street view shows, you can climb the pyramid there.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 5:34 PM on August 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

Back in 1999, my brother and I stopped in at Ek Balam based off an entry in our guidebook. It was great. At the time, they were still reconstructing some the main temple, but what they had done was big enough that when we saw it, my brother said it looked like something out of a Conan movie. And because it was such a relatively unknown site, we were the only tourists there, just us and the workmen.

Judging by the pictures, it gets more tourists these days, but I second CheeseDigestsAll's recommendation.
posted by fings at 7:10 PM on August 24, 2012

I like how our Prime Minister needs to wear a jersey to remember which team he's on

Wearing Canada-branded clothing is one of the more irritating things Canadians do.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:18 PM on August 24, 2012 [1 favorite]

If somebody from the Google team is reading this, do Ankor Wat next!
posted by DreamerFi at 12:54 AM on August 25, 2012 [1 favorite]