The 100-km road the Maya built — and the bikes riding it today

The Maya built a road 100 kilometres long through the jungle — without wheels, without iron, without draft animals. It runs from Cobá to Yaxuná, and it is the longest road the Maya ever built.

Sacbe means "white road" in Yucatec Maya, and the name is literal. The Maya levelled the ground, laid a raised roadway of limestone blocks, and plastered it with white stucco — so the road shone pale in the moonlight. The Cobá–Yaxuná sacbe averages about 10 metres wide and rises up to 2.4 metres over marshy ground. Cobá alone had more than 45 of these roads, linking temples, plazas and whole cities — but this one, 100 km (62 miles) west to Yaxuná, was the greatest of them all. It was built in the Late Classic period, around AD 600–800, after Cobá conquered Yaxuná.

And here is the extraordinary part: the Maya did all of this on foot. There is no evidence of wheeled transport for moving people and goods — this highway carried traders, messengers and armies walking. At Cobá today you can still see a raised stretch of the Yaxuná sacbe crossing the footpath.

Today, wheels have finally arrived — on the jungle paths of Cobá, visitors ride bicycles and pedicabs between the ruins, the same way we did. Watch the video: a pedicab rolling down a shaded path where, 1,400 years ago, Maya travellers walked the white road.

If you go

Cobá is huge, so rent a bike or take a pedicab — your legs will thank you. And when you ride, remember: you are travelling a road network older than most countries.

Would you walk 100 km on a road built 1,400 years ago — or take the bike?