Photo: Calakmul at Noon

You drive for hours and see only trucks with lumber pulled out of the Peten, the jungle nearby. And in the middle of the jungle, without a hill in sight, is Calakmul, sixty four clicks off the highway with nary a cold drink on the way. They've just dug this Mayan ruin out of the dust and debris of a thousand years, so the place feels wet and fresh, newborn. We headed for the top of this temple, where gruesome violence and sacrifice were practiced to mollify the gods of Sun and rain. Didn't work: Calakmul was abandoned.