MYSTERY has always surrounded the Mayan culture. No-one seems to know why this amazingly sophisticated civilisation — which created massive stone pyramids in the middle of the jungle and calculated both the solar year and the lunar month — suddenly disappeared.

Mexico has one of the world’s greatest collections of Mayan remains and the so-called Ruta Maya, a rich trail of Meso-American cities, continues south to Guatemala. We began our trip in Oaxaca, a colonial town high in the Sierra Madre mountains.

On an artificially flattened mountain outside Oaxaca are the ruins of Monte Albán (White Mountain). It isn’t known how the Mayans levelled an entire mountain top, but Monte Albán was first occupied between 800 and 400 BC (the middle pre-classical era) and, at its peak, had over 25,000 inhabitants. It is believed there are more than 170 tombs in Oaxaca as well as the remains of a ball court, temples, an observatory and a pyramid.

The site has yielded some of Mexico’s most important archaeological artefacts — many of which are now on display in the capital city’s museums. However, if you’re really interested in Mayan culture, it’s essential to take a guide as few of Monte Albán’s ruins have any labelling or explanations. Ruins and artefacts aside, it’s worth visiting Monte Albán solely for the fantastic 360 degree view — particularly spectacular at sunset when the entire valley is bathed in rose-golden light.

From Oaxaca to Palenque an overnight bus traverses the tortuous mountain roads until, eventually, the vegetation and climate begin to change — the wooded slopes and fresh mountain air giving way to a virulent mass of twisting vines and oppressive humidity. Palenque itself is a damp uninspiring town, but its ruins — particularly beautiful in the early morning when mists swirl around the base of the ancient stones — are some of the most spectacularly persevered in Mexico. Completely surrounded by jungle, only a handful of Palenque’s 500 buildings has been excavated.

At midday, we were joined by busloads of tourists swarming ant-like over the pyramids. Because of their angle the pyramids don’t look so tall from below, but, upon reaching the top, it’s a dizzying sight. Getting down is worse — the Mayans must have had very small feet as each stone step is tiny.

We explored the amazing “Temple of The Inscriptions” which contains hieroglyphics recounting Palenque’s history as well as the tomb of the city’s king, Pacal the Great, dating from 615AD.

Wandering off the marked paths, we crossed a wobbly suspension bridge to discover further unrestored ruins and tombs in various stages of reclamation by the jungle.

Monkeys played in the canopy above and we swam in a beautiful natural pool, later discovering it was known as the Queen’s Bath. Apparently this pool was the spot at which the Mayan Queen would bathe each evening.

Yet another overnight bus ride took us to Chichén Itzá — probably Mexico’s most famous archaeological site — where, for the first time, we encountered mass tourism and groups of camera-bedecked Japanese and Americans on day trips from Mérida.

Settled sometime between 550 and 900 AD, Chichén Itzá contains time temples by which the Mayans display their astounding knowledge of the astronomical calendar. The most famous of these buildings is El Castillo, a Mayan calendar set in stone, with 365 stairs representing the days of the year. Around March 21 and September 21 each year, the light and shadow on the staircase amazingly mimics a serpent slithering down the stairs.

There is also a ball court, where losing players’ hearts were ripped out and sacrificed to the innocuous-looking figure of Chac Mool, the rain god. The Mayans also practiSed human sacrifice at Chichén Itzá, throwing bodies into the sacred well to see if the gods would respond with a message.

Taking a break from the ruins, we shopped in Mérida for the famous Yucatán hammocks which come in all sizes. An afternoon was spent leisurely exploring a city that was the centre of Mayan civilisation until coming under Spanish rule in the late 1600s.

Just off the main plaza is Montejo House, open to the public and owned by a family descending from the first Spanish to settle in Mérida. On the house’s façade is a poignant piece of symbolism — a carving depicting Spanish soldiers triumphantly resting their feet on the conquered Mayans’ heads.

From Mérida the Ruta Maya veers south-east towards the coast. We stayed in a ramshackle cabaña in Playa del Carmen, a small laid-back town with a fantastic silver beach from which the island of Cozumel, once a place of pilgrimage, is visible. The Mayans would paddle their canoes to worship Ixchal, the Goddess of the Moon, but Cozumel is now an expensive diving resort best avoided without unlimited funds.

Transport around the coast is pretty scarce, but jeeps are available for hire. A day trip from Playa took us to the jungle ruins of Cobá. On the way we were pulled over at a permanent roadblock — the proximity of the Belizean border makes it a prime smuggling point — by machine gun-toting babyfaced soldiers who interrogated us about the whereabouts of our husbands.

Apart from this, the only life we saw along the lonely potholed road was a huge iguana scurrying across the road and a gang of vultures feeding on the remains of a wild dog. Hunched over the carcass, we drove around the birds as they stubbornly refused to abandon their precious meal.

At Cobá, huge parrots screeched in the trees above. This ruin extended over an incredible 50km and once had a population estimated at 40,000, making it one of the biggest Mayan cities.

You’d never guess it, though, as the atmosphere at Cobá — where it’s estimated that just five per cent of the city’s 6500 buildings have been excavated — is silent and thick. The site was the most deserted we had visited and is believed to have been abandoned about 900AD. We climbed the 42m Great Pyramid, one of the highest monuments in the Yucatán, and gazed down on an emerald jungle that seemed to stretch forever, broken only by a series of small placid lakes.

Tulum is one of the latest Mayan settlements, dating from the late classical period (900-1200AD). We set out on another trip along a tortilla-flat ribbon of road known as the Cancún-Tulum Corridor. Tulum is the only Mayan ruin with fortified towers and is further unique for being the only city built on the coast. It perches atop a low granite cliff above the azure Caribbean and, in some places, its fortified walls are seven metres thick. It’s believed the city was abandoned shortly after the Spanish arrived.

The “Temple of The Frescoes”, built around 1450, has a carved figure of the diving god as well as murals depicting the three realms of the Mayans — the underworld of the deceased, the middle world of the living and the heaven of the creator and rain gods.

El Castillo watchtower is the tallest building at Tulum and boasts a great panoramic view of the ruins with their Caribbean backdrop. Gazing out to sea from El Castillo, I wondered if the Mayans realised as they watched the first Spanish ships arriving that it was the beginning of the end of their own civilisation?