The Yucatan Peninsula is the land of the Maya. It is another Mexico's country  within a country. It is the home of wondrous cities, now in ruins, which stand  as monuments to one of history's greatest civilizations.

Not that the Maya belong in the dustbin of history. Theirs is a living race. Most Yucatecans still speak the clipped, rhythmic Mayan language, and their distinctive facial features silently attest to their  ancestral heritage.

A giant land mass jutting out between the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, the Yucatan Peninsula includes the states of Yucatan,  Campeche and Quintana Roo.

The peninsula is actually a limestone shelf, honeycombed with underground rivers, caverns and sinkholes which form giant freshwater  wells, called cenotes in Spanish. It contains vast expanses of green jungle,  undisturbed beaches, clear blue skies.

There are villages peppered with typically Mayan thatched huts, colonial cities such as Merida and Valladolid, fishing villages, and modern resorts such as Cancun and Cozumel. There are magnificently restored archaeological sites and crumbling ruins, many still unexplored, all vestiges of a fascinating ancient civilization