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Travelers Guide to Yucatán

UXMAL

In the middle of the only group of mountains in the Yucatán, Peninsula in an area where there are no rivers or cenotes-natural wells that abound in other parts of the Peninsula - the difficulty in finding a water supply is the reason why, even today, there exists no settlement. In spite of this, there flourished, more than a millennium, ago, one of the most refined cultures of the Mayan world.         

The races architecture in Lábna, Sayil, Kabah, Uxmal and other cities that form what is know today as the Pucc Route, prove that the ancient Mayan reached, in arts as well as sciences, a unique splendor.

Uxmal (thrice built) was one of the political capitals of the northern Peninsula. Its importance is reflected in the amount energy that the society invested in the construction of the magnificent works that make up this site. 

The ruins tell us that Uxmal was founded in 800.B.C., came to its glory in the o Late Classic period (A.D. 600-900) and began its decline around A.D. 1200. those were two millenniums in which Uxmal dominated the rough environment, storing water from the depths of the caves or collecting it from the rain and storing it in chultunes (cisterns).

Because of its peculiar architectural tradition, Uxmal is one of the more majestic representations of Mayan art. Its original style and its construction techniques are very distinct from the other ceremonial centers and and cities of the south and its open spacesgive it a feeling of amplitude which is absent in other sites of the region. In the center of the city, surrounded by an elliptical wall, monumental buildings were erected. 

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Some still bear the names derived from popular legends or from false attributes of the first explorers: the House of the Fortuneteller or of the Dwarf, the Governor's palace, the Nunnery, The Turret... They display a harmonious combination of curiously smooth walls with upper friezes in which baroque geometric patterns repeat figures of the towheaded snake, columns, fine relief's done with precision and elegance... and, stacked up in the corners or protruding in successions from the facades, the images of the god Chaac implore insistently, for water from the clouds.

            In Uxmal, as in of the Puuc zone, Chaac is represented by impressive geometric masks made of stone with serpent's features and a long nose; they are accompanied by diverse symbols like scrolls, flowers, or other abstractions. The evenly spaced fretwork's, representing lightning an expression of the destructive power of the deity, also is present on the facades and in other corners.

The fact that these people depended so much on the capricious rains explains why the majority of the architectural spaces is filled with the carved faces of rain the god. For the builders of Uxmal, water was one of the basic sacred elements, give of life for excellence. Chaac was perhaps, the most venerated god of the ancients, and continues to be by present- day Maya.

The wise disposition of the decorations that one may admire on the buildings of Uxmal is translated into an impressive and complicated mosaic of abstract symbols that combine perfectly together. Only the aesthetic and technical genius of a people exceptionally gifted in artistic creation could produce a variety of such distinctive buildings with so few motifs.

 The archaeological zone of Uxmal is located 78 km./45min. from Merida. It  is open to the public every day from 8 AM. To 5 PM. There are light and sound shows in English ( 9-9:45 PM) and Spanish (8-8:45).

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