Yucatan Real Estate - Mayan Culture, Ancient And Living

By Author: Mitch Keenan
Total Articles: 503
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Most buyers who search Merida MLS listing are at least somewhat intrigued by the area's rich history. Merida is a colonial city, with beautiful old churches and fascinating architecture. In the broader market of Mexico Real Estate, many foreigners are also interested in the close proximity to the ancient civilizations in the area. Yucatan Real Estate, especially, offers new residents a large number of ancient Mayan pyramid sites, giving real estate buyers the magical experience of discovering many aspects of this intriguing ancient culture.
In fact, this culture has recently recently been presented to the world in a photographic work by the renowned photographer and documentary producer Phillip Hofstetter. His newly published book is about the Mayan presence in the Yucatan peninsula, reflecting more than two decades of work devoted to this culture.

But his work is not dedicated solely to the ancient civilization. Most new real estate buyers in Merida will be surprised at first to ...
... learn that there are over half a million Mayans living in that city. Walking through the streets, residents can hear the language, and encounter and interact with a real, living culture. In "Maya Yucatan: An Artist's Journey" Hofstetter recounts his artistic interest in the Mayan culture, which is defined not on the basis of numerous archaeological expeditions in which he has participated as a photographer and filmmaker, but rather on everyday encounters with this living culture.

His book is both an art book, with 105 beautiful color photographs and black and white, and also a diary, a travel guide, an album of letters and a study text. This miscellaneous character of the book is what stands out among the many archaeological studies and art books devoted to the presence Maya in Yucatan. The tone of the narrative is informal and relaxed, inviting readers to share his amazement after 20 years of visits to Yucatan.

"I had hoped that my personal observations and many years of travel in the Mayan world would take me out of my culture-albeit for just a moment and carry me to a true and authentic knowledge of their ancient culture," he writes, adding that "that was a fantasy." In the first chapter, Hofstetter details his first trips to the Mayan ruins where he finds not only the material that became his artistic passion but also his creative voice.

After close involvement with the many archaeological works of the Yucatan Peninsula over the past 20 years, he realized how little he knew of the existence of a contemporary Mayan culture in the peninsula. Thus, in his book Hofstetter does not limit his reflections and photographs to Mayan archaeology, but also offers photos of the vestiges of the colonial era, and images of ritual ceremonies which are still celebrated on the peninsula. In his images, Hofstetter stresses Mayan-Catholic blending that persists in both rituals and beliefs and in architecture, reminding us that in cities like Merida and Izamal conquerors large indigenous structures dismantled for building materials for its government palaces and churches.

While the book is an incredible work that will change the way buyers see MLS listings for the area, adding a sense of something mysterious, those who choose to buy real estate and live in Merida or the nearby oceanfront communities of Yucatan, will be able to experience the culture to which he refers first hand, both in visits to Mayan ruins, and in day to day interaction with the current Mayan culture.