Area P: State of Yucatán - South

Uxmal is the major site on the "Puuc trail", a series of Puuc cities including Kabah, Sayil, Labná and Xlapac, that are often toured together in one day packages leaving from Merida. Although you see a lot of sites, the time offered at Uxmal is not really enough, so the advice here would be to get a public bus, or to hire a car. At the archaeological zone, there are full services including a museum, cafeteria and shops.

History

Culture: Puuc Maya

What was to become the most magnificent city of the Puuc region had humble beginnings. The first ceremonial temples were erected in Uxmal at the turn of the Early Classic, when the Yucatán was controlled by Dzibilchaltun, although by 250, the regional capital had shifted to Oxkintok, the first great Puuc city. Uxmal steadily grew, its architectural styles progressing from proto-Puuc, an intermediary stage developed from the Chenes style, until by 600 the characteristic mosaics and fine stone friezes was well established.

Overshadowed by neighbouring cities such as Kabah and Sayil for many years, it was not until just before 900, reckon some archaeologists, that Uxmal finally grew to become the dominant power in the region. This change in affairs was brought about along with a rapid construction of Uxmal's most monumental buildings at the turn of the tenth century, overseen by a brilliant ruler, one Lord Chak. 

After then, there is some doubt about how long this peak of empire lasted before a swift decline; the estimates range from fifty to another hundred years. What is certain is that by 1200 and the end of the Early Post-Classic, all Puuc cities, including Uxmal, had been deserted. This abandonment coincided with the subsequent rise of Chichén Itzá, but perhaps the biggest question of all is exactly how closely these two events did coincide or were connected. The authorities are still very much divided on the issue. Maybe the best that can be said is that centres like Uxmal were already on the wane and the fresh challenge of Chichén Itzá provided the final nail in the Puuc coffin.

For more about other Puuc Maya cities, see Cultural History.

Tour  (Scroll down to follow complete tour, or click on feature below and use your BACK key to return to the map)

The main features of Uxmal are clustered together, so it is not too tiring to walk around.

The site entrance leads directly to the Pyramid of the Magician, Uxmal's most distinct structure, although we may want to walk around the building's side to its west face to view it best. It stands upon a unique oval base and rises to 40 metres in height. The main stairway, bordered by friezes,  leads to interior chambers atop and these temples are lined with interesting decorations, but unfortunately, the pyramid was unclimbable at the time of writing. The building was built in several stages, as its series of tiers shows, and was extended and restructured from between the eighth to the eleventh centuries. The structure's other title is the Pyramid of the Dwarf, from a story about a magical dwarf hatched from an egg by an old woman. The ruler of Uxmal challenged him to build a pyramid in one day, which he did, and subsequently became the ruler himself. Like most such myths, this probably told of a real contest for power.

    Pyramid of the Magician

In front of this west face of the Pyramid of the Magician lies a small plaza known as the Quadrangle of the Birds. It is noted for the classic Puuc-style columned buildings and arch that surround it, including, of course, the reconstructed bird frieze.

Quadrangle of the Birds   

Behind the plaza, we come in to the Nunnery Quadrangle, a stunningly impressive courtyard surrounded by four key buildings decorated with the very best of Puuc friezes and motifs. The court is a slightly irregular parallelogram, apparently in line with Venus. In fact, the whole complex has been reckoned to be a cosmological model; the lower, South Building representing the Underworld, the higher East and West representing the Earth, and the impressively set North Building as the Upper World. These buildings were built together during Lord Chak's reign, and so show the last major piece of construction at Uxmal. The complex was so named, incidentally, because the Spanish imagined that the rooms could have housed Mayan priestesses.

Nunnery Quadrangle

Among the amazing stone friezes are double-headed serpents and other animals.

    Detail of East Building Freize

We leave the Nunnery by an arch through the South Building and come into the Central Plaza which is a large, flat area separating the two main groups of buildings at Uxmal. Before us is the Ball Court, not one of the best preserved in Mexico, but at 34 metres in length, is large enough. Because we may suppose this plaza had a more public function, the court was well placed to entertain the crowds.

Ball Court   

To the left, is a long, roofed building with columns, unnamed but here entitled the Temple of the Columns.

We will take a little diversion to the west and follow a path that leads out of the Central Plaza, through vegetation to the few remains of a smaller, ruined complex known as the Cemetery Group. It now appears as some temples lining a plaza: the best preserved possessing a low roof comb. The most interesting features lay in the centre: four altars decorated with skull and crossbone-like motifs. It was dedicated to a Lady Kul who lived near the peak of Uxmal's empire.

    Cemetery Group: Altar and Temple

We will return to the Central Plaza and now head south in the direction of the other building group. To the right, we see a huge flight of steps through the trees, belonging to the Great Pyramid. Erected earlier than some of the other monuments we have seen, its style is simpler and the majority lies in ruins - only the front part is presentable. There was originally a temple on top.

Great Pyramid   

From the summit of the Great Pyramid, we can look to the west and see a series of ruined coutyards, known collectively as the Pigeon House Group. This area can be explored, but it is very overgrown and makes difficult progress. Rising from the rubble we see a line of triangular roof combs that were once thought to have been pigeon houses.

    "Pigeon Houses"

To the south of this plaza lays the shape of the South Pyramid, in almost complete ruin, but the remains of a temple at its summit are still in evidence. Clearly this whole area of Uxmal is in need of excavation and restoration.

South Pyramid   

Descending the Great Pyramid once more, we make our way around to the east side of the platform that we find ourselves upon. Firstly, on the north face, we pass a heavily constructed and plainer building known as the House of the Turtles. Along the cornice of the building are turtles motifs, associated with rain.

Panorama with the House of the Turtles

Behind this stands the impressive House of the Governor, one of the major constructions at Uxmal. It is a 100-metre long palace-style building, one of the largest ever built by the Maya, and stands upon a sloping platform, climbable by a stairway rising from a small plaza to the east.  Consisting of one central building and two smaller side annexes connected by a vaulted arch, it is exceptional for its complicated and beautiful exterifrieze, composed of more than fifteen thousand individual pieces of stone.. The patterns mirror those in the Nunnery and also include repeated Chac masks.

    House of the Governor

The small plaza to the east of the House of the Governor possesses a fallen column and a stepped altar with a double-headed jaguar throne set on top.

Jaguar Throne Altar   

This concludes the tour of the major features offered by Uxmal, although for the more adventurous, there do lay other ruined structures amongst the undergrowth surrounding the main area. These include the North Group, coincidentally to the north, the Stela Platform, and the House of the Old Woman, a ruined pyramid to the south.

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