Why go
Start with the setting before studying individual temples. The cliff protected the seaward edge, while gateways in the wall controlled access from inland. Tulum was active during the Late Postclassic period, when coastal movement linked it to inland centers such as Cobá. Those connections explain why a fortified settlement faced outward to the water.
The full story
Tulum was a Maya coastal city whose surviving buildings mostly belong to the Late Postclassic period, around the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Its position joined a natural barrier with a built one: the Caribbean cliff guarded the east, and a substantial wall enclosed the other sides. The walled precinct held many of the buildings visitors see today, but the settlement extended beyond it. The arrangement makes more sense as a functioning community and port than as an isolated cluster of temples. Seaborne goods could arrive along the coast, then continue toward inland places including Cobá. The site was still occupied when Spaniards reached the region in the early sixteenth century and was abandoned later that century. Its present name refers to the wall; the earlier name Zama, often translated as “City of Dawn,” has been proposed but is not certain. From the cliff path, the east-facing position gives that possible name a physical meaning without making it a settled fact.