Xlapak – Yucatan – Mexico

Xlapak

Xlapak

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Xlapak – Yucatan

Location

This site is situated 38 km south-east of Uxmal on the old ‘via ruinas’ Campeche road; after Kabah, where it meets the Puuc route state road, turn left. The Maya word Xlapak means ‘old walls’.

Site description

Xlapak is distinguished by the symmetry and exquisite decoration of the facades of the ancient residences. Although only three of the buildings have been restored, a visit to this site offers the chance to enjoy the classic architecture in a natural setting with beautifully tended vegetation in a small valley at the heart of the Yucatec mountains. The main groups are associated with caves and chultunes, and it is more than likely that this aspect impacted to a certain degree on the pattern of the ancient settlement. The construction and decorative characteristics of the residences suggest that the site experienced its peak between AD 600 and 1000.

The principal construction is the small palace, as the caretakers call it. In the 1960s the archaeologist Cesar Saenz, from the INAH, excavated and restored the building. It is a single-storey structure with an ornate frieze decorated with stacks of masks of Chac, the rain and water god, and stepped frets. The main buildings of another two architectural groups have also been consolidated, although further excavation and restoration are required to shed more light on their characteristics.

The building in group 2 is distinguished by a frieze with colonnettes and a row of dentilated stones known as chimez (‘centipede’ in Maya), typical of the Classic Puuc style.

Josep Ligorred i Perramon

From: ‘The Maya: an architectural and landscape guide’, produced jointly by the Junta de Andulacia and the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, 2010, pp 378-379.

Xlapak

Xlapak

1. Small Palace; 2. Group 2; 3. Group 3.

How to get there:

Not easy if you don’t have your own transport. There are no buses or colectivos that run along this road. Although the three sites (Labna, Xlapak and Sayil) are all within a 15km stretch of the road unless you hire a taxi from Santa Elena (expensive) you have to depend upon your wits, imagination and good luck.

GPS:

20d 10′ 26″ N

89d 36′ 22″ W

Entrance:

M$70

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Uxmal – Yucatan – Mexico

Uxmal

Uxmal

More on the Maya

Uxmal – Yucatan

Location

In Yucatec Maya, the name of this site means ‘three times built’ (from ox, three, and mal, the times a task or act is repeated) or ‘place of the abundant harvests’ (from ux, to harvest). One of the most powerful and beautiful cities in the Maya area, Uxmal is situated in a fertile valley in the north-west of the Yucatan Peninsula, in the Puuc region, Yucatan state, 78 km from the city of Merida. It is reached by federal road 261. The area comprises a low mountain range, which runs for nearly 140 km barely surpassing 300 m above sea level at certain points and lends its name to the region. This is an area of small valleys with sloping land that facilitates the movement of soil; as a result, farming has always been very important. So much so that in the 16th century the region produced two harvests a year and is nowadays known as the ‘granary of the Yucatan’. The large quantity of contemporaneous sites near Uxmal is evidence of the fertility of the land since pre-Hispanic times.

However, the area lacks surface water; due to the permeability of the soil, the rivers run underground and the Maya had to seek water in caves and then store it in two types of constructions: the natural aguadas, which they covered with several coatings, and the bottle-shaped cisterns, known in Maya as chultunes (of which there are over 100 in Uxmal), which collect water in the paved area around the mouth. During the rainy season they held considerable quantities of water, guaranteeing a continual supply.

Pre-Hispanic history

The studies conducted to date suggest that the city was very large. Between AD 800 and 1000, Uxmal had a population in excess of 20,000 and covered a surface area of approximately 12 sq km. Most of the inhabitants lived in houses, possibly made of masonry, which provided them with a roof over their heads and a bench for sleeping on. The interior spaces were dark and poorly ventilated as the only source of air and light was the opening that served as the entrance. Daily life was conducted outdoors. The women prepared food in kitchens made of perishable materials which were situated near the houses. Clothes were woven in the interior courtyard and the pottery was dried in the sun before being fired. The men also performed their tasks outdoors: they worked the hard stone tools and utensils in an area near the dwellings, and they also quartered, dried and salted animals near the home, as well as weaving ropes, baskets, nets and mats. Although most families had their own dwelling, we know that there were family groups who shared a set of houses. In other Maya sites in the Yucatan Peninsula that existed at the same time as Uxmal there is archaeological evidence of multifamily residences being occupied by over 500 people. Uxmal was a walled, cosmopolitan city where travellers and merchants came to exchange goods and ideas.

The inhabitants included priests who knew about the complex cycles of the Maya calendar and the stars, who could read and write, experts who planned, calculated and coordinated hydraulic, civic and religious works, artists who designed harmonious architectural groups, stone facades with thousands of mosaics, stelae that were adorned with the portraits of the city rulers and narrated the important events in their lives. There is much evidence of Uxmal’s relations with the other Maya and Mesoamerican cities of the day, the use of a numerical, calendric and writing system, the presence of precincts covered by a system known as the ‘corbel vault’, and the stelae that decorate the plazas and are closely related to the buildings are three elements commonly found in the great Maya sites of the classical world. Temples on top of pyramidal platforms, buildings lining ball courts, structures surmounting high platforms and the quadrangular layout of the precincts are just some of the characteristics of the great urban centres in ancient Mexico. Today, we can still see examples of decorative sculpture from the powerful Teotihuacan, in its day the largest city in Latin America. The sophistication and opulence of the ancient Maya are evident in the extraordinary architecture at Uxmal, serving as an age-old testimony of the city’s former glory. The political, religious and administrative part of Uxmal that we know today occupies a surface area of barely 1 km from north to south and 600 m from east to west. It contains a dozen consolidated buildings which are nowadays open to the public, having gained UNESCO World Heritage status in 1996.

Site description

In the mid-17th century a Franciscan historian, Diego Lopez de Cogolludo, described Uxmal in his Historia de Yucatan and assigned European-style religious or civic functions to certain buildings. For example, the Governor’s Palace and the Nunnery Quadrangle are names that are totally alien to the Maya world and the men who built them, but nowadays they are widely known as such. Other names are derived from the oral tradition that the English traveller John L. Stephens picked up from the Maya inhabitants in the area at the beginning of the 19th century: the Pyramid of the Magician and House of the Old Woman are names that appear in the legend of the dwarf of Uxmal and have been identified as such for over a century by the people who live near Uxmal. Time and vegetation have gradually hidden Uxmal. Few buildings are still standing and await the patient, meticulous work of archaeologists. If one were to make a visual tour of the ancient city from the highest point at the site, it would begin at the Pyramid of the Magician and then continue west to the large courtyard known as the Nunnery quadrangle. Visible to the south is the Ball court and a platform surmounted by two structures: the House of the turtles and the Governor’s palace. A group of buildings only partially visible lies to south-west: The Great pyramid and the House of the pigeons. The North Group, North Building, Cemetery and West Building, as well as the House of the old woman in the south-east, all resemble mounds. The general orientation of the principal buildings is north-north-west and according to the archaeo-astronomical studies undertaken there are significant visual relations between them, as well as with neighbouring sites.

At Uxmal, as in other parts of ancient Mexico, the public architecture is defined by large open spaces delimited by constructions in which the interior area is virtually non-existent; this is an architecture of exterior spaces, in which the population would gather for periodic activities and ceremonies. The ancient architects at Uxmal skilfully combined the needs of the people with the technical devices developed by their ancestors centuries earlier: they covered large bays with Maya vaults and constructed handsome buildings designed to be observed from the outside. For example, at its base the Pyramid of the Magician measures 70×50 m; it stands approximately 27 m high and is surmounted by a temple which can be accessed by either the east or west stairway; meanwhile, the interior space, which consists of a single 20×3 m bay, is divided into three 6.5×3 m chambers. In this structure, which contains at least five construction phases, the main facade faces west and the stairway, flanked by stacks of masks placed at an angle of 45°, leads to a temple whose interior barely measures 4×4 m and consists of two rooms.

Prayers to the celestial gods

Although each precinct has its own appearance and their functions vary, they are all decorated with masks of a long-nosed Maya deity, probably Chaac, the rain god. Although this theory has traditionally been accepted, in recent years there have been suggestions that the masks might also represent the powerful lord of the sky. Based on different sources of information, we can now confirm that the gods Itzamna and Chaac share a series of similar elements in their representations and certain functions within the Maya pantheon. The masks at Uxmal have round eyes with blazing eyebrows that recall those of serpents, open mouths revealing curved, possibly feline teeth, and a large curved nose, possibly derived from the tapir (not from the elephant as this species does not exist in Latin America), which adopt varying positions. The masks are complemented by ear ornaments that recall those that were worn by the great Maya lords. At Uxmal the frieze decoration makes reference to the sky (the latticework), to the power that comes from the sky (the two-headed serpents), to fertility and to rain (the masks) and to lightning (the stepped frets). Combined in different ways on different buildings, these elements constitute ongoing praise for the Maya divinities of the heavens, as well as elegant ornamentation for the facades.

A powerful dynasty

Although the history of the various Maya cities can be gleaned through the hieroglyphic inscriptions on stelae, altars, lintels, stairways, carved bones, ceramics and other artefacts, at Uxmal there are just two stelae and other painted texts from the Nunnery Quadrangle that have enabled us to identify the two governors who gave the city part of the appearance we see today: the lords Chac Uinal Kan and Lady Bone, parents of the powerful Lord Chac, who commissioned the construction of the Nunnery Quadrangle and the Governor’s Palace, jewels of Maya architecture.

An image of the Maya world

One of the characteristics of the architecture of this city is the elongated structures with bays arranged in quadrangles accessed via a monumental arch. The best preserved is the Nunnery Quadrangle: a plaza in the shape of an irregular quadrilateral delimited on all four sides by buildings with double facades, interior and exterior. The central courtyard measures 45×65 m and is surrounded by four benches, each at a different height, from which the buildings rise. These are identified by the name of the direction in which they are situated: South Building, East Building, North Building and West Building. Stairways of varying heights link the plaza to the buildings; this elaborate design is evidence of the complex rituals that were performed there. When these structures are viewed from the south of the city, it is nearly possible to see all four main facades thanks to the unique orientation of each building. It is as if the ancient Maya architects had taken into account not only functional, ritual, symbolic and aesthetic functions, but also the view the observer in the plaza would have, from either the arch or entrance, or from the platform further south that stands nearly 20 m high. They clearly attempted to give prominence to the North Building, not only because of its decoration but also its unique features and situation some 7 m above the level of the courtyard. Its harmonious façade with its extraordinary combination of planes and voids, bare walls and decorated friezes, is one of the most exquisite in Maya art. It has 11 quadrangular doorways whose frames contrast with the thickness of the wall, producing a sensation of lightness and interplays of light and shadow at different times of the day. The frieze is decorated with latticework, frets, Maya huts and stacks of masks that surpass the level of the roof, producing a complex culmination of volumes and spaces. Recent studies suggest that this complex symbolically represents the quadrangular conception of the Maya world, in which each side is associated with a cardinal point and has different meanings. If this interpretation is correct, the Nunnery Quadrangle at Uxmal was developed as a miniature image of the cosmos and must have been used for a variety of rituals.

A masterly design

Of all the buildings in the Mesoamerican world, perhaps the most beautiful and most harmonious in terms of its proportions, a crowning achievement of Maya architecture, is the Governor’s Palace at Uxmal. Situated on a three-tiered artificial platform, it is an elongated construction comprising three buildings: one in the middle and two at the sides, connected by small recessed volumes that permitted access from one to the other. These passageways, subsequently walled up, are possibly the highest corbel vaults known (over 6 m high) and being slightly convex lend overall elegance and harmony, as well as continuity with the three main architectural constructions. The facade displays the same decorative characteristics as other buildings at Uxmal, skilfully combining bare walls, decorated friezes and openings. The frieze is decorated with frets and masks of the sky deity (who appears here with the Maya sign for ‘star’), which are harmoniously distributed on a panel of stone mosaic latticework. Sculpted above the central opening are eight two-headed serpents which form an inverted triangle; above this, seated on a horseshoe throne, is the now incomplete figure of the great Lord Chac, the governor of Uxmal. The lintels that sealed the openings were made of wood and thanks to the description of an English traveller from the first half of the 19th century we know that they were very beautiful. They may well have represented the members of the city’s ruling dynasty.

The abandoned city

Uxmal was abandoned by the Maya in the 11th century, and it was only then that other major cities such as Chichén Itzá and Mayapan acquired a prominent place in the life of the Yucatan Peninsula. However, both the Maya chronicles from the colonial period, known as the Books of Chilam Balam, and the texts of the Spanish conquerors contain numerous mentions of Uxmal. Later on, in the 19th century, tireless travellers ‘discovered’ it for the western world, visiting it, describing it, painting it and photographing it. In the 20th century it was studied by Mayanists from different disciplines: archaeologists, epigraphers, archaeo-astronomers and art historians. Thousands of visitors from all over the world come to Uxmal every year, so although the ancient city was abandoned nearly a thousand years ago, thanks to its former power and magnificence its glory lives on today.

Laura Elena Sotelo Santos

From: ‘The Maya: an architectural and landscape guide’, produced jointly by the Junta de Andulacia and the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, 2010, pp356-363.

Uxmal

Uxmal

  1. Pyramid of the Magician; 2. Nunnery Quadrangle; 3. Ball Court; 4. House of the Turtles; 5. Govenor’s Palace; 6. Great Pyramid; 7. South Temple; 8. House of Pigeons; 9. House of the Old Woman; 10. West Group; 11. Cemetery Group;  12. Colomns Group; 13. Terrace of the Monuments; 14. North-west Group; 15. North Group.

Further Information:

Uxmal – Rand McNally

Uxmal – Rough Guide

Getting there:

Uxmal is located alongside the road that joins Hopelchén and Muna, also passing the major site of Kabah. Regular buses run along this route but the timings can be crucial if you wish to visit the two sites on the same day. There is a written timetable displayed in the Sur ‘bus station’ in Hopelchén. It takes about an hour for the bus (which starts in Merida) to arrive in Muna.

GPS:

20d 21′ 54″ N

89d 46′ 30″ W

Entrance:

M$90

More on the Maya

Kabah – Yucatan – Mexico

Kabah

Kabah

More on the Maya

Kabah – Yucatan

Location

This is rated as a second-class city in the Atlas arqueologico del estado de Yucatan, although the authors state that the overall mass of formal structures appears to be greater at Kabah than at the neighbouring first-class city of Uxmal. In the archaeological literature, Uxmal is regarded as the capital of the regional political system on which other cities such as Kabah depended. Kabah stands out among the great urban centres in the north-western Puuc mountains due to its strategic location at the southern tip of the axis formed by the cities of Uxmal and Nohpat, with which it shared close kinship ties.

It is situated 120 km from Merida on the old ‘via ruinas’ Campeche road, 22 km from Uxmal, the most important archaeological centre in the Puuc region, and just 6 km from the town of Santa Elena, the ancient Nohcacab. Kabah lies at the south end of a sacbe that links it to Nohpat and Uxmal, and very probably to Oxkintok further north; situated to the south-east of Kabah are the cities of Sayil, Xlapak and Labna, and other minor sites such as Chetulich and Mulchic, the latter famous for its battle-scene mural painted in the mid-9th century and currently on display at the Canton de Merida Museum-Palace.

Kabah is located in a hilly area and it is common to find the residential groups of the settlement in these natural elevations; mainly, however, the city is covered by semi-evergreen seasonal forest. There is no surface water but the permeability of the soil has given rise to underground rivers, which meant that the ancient inhabitants must have had to go to deep caves to obtain water; they would also have stored rainwater in the natural depressions and in chultunes or cisterns, built in the shape of an inverted funnel, which collected water in the plazas.

By virtue of a state decree in 1993, Kabah became a protected natural area: in addition to safeguarding the historical and cultural merits of the site, this status ensures protection of the ecological conditions and promotes the social development of the town of Santa Elena.

Site description

Kabah contains material evidence and works of architecture that clearly demonstrate the degree of complexity, in terms of social organisation, achieved by the Maya in the Puuc region. The most outstanding buildings at the site are the Codz Pop (also known as the Palace of Masks), the plazas of the Palace and the Temple of columns to the east, the Mirador and manos rojas groups to the west, and the Early group, the Great pyramid and its plaza, and the Arch providing access to the monumental area at the centre of the site; all of these display an extraordinary understanding of aesthetics in their architectural design as well as incorporating aspects typical of the different styles in the northern lowlands during the Classic era. Three large groups form the core area at Kabah. The Palace plaza is characteristic of the Puuc architecture developed between the 7th and 10th centuries AD, from the Early Puuc style of the Temple of the sun to the intermediate style visible in the vast Teocalli and finally the Palace, whose classical walls and friezes decorated with colonnettes and tiny drums define it as a prototype of Puuc architecture. But it is the palatial sanctuary of the codz pop that genuinely characterises Kabah. The most outstanding aspects of this building are its facades: the west facade, which has over 250 masks of Chac and is covered with carved, mosaic-like stones from the bottom of the walls to the cornice; and the east facade, nowadays partly restored, whose walls are decorated with extended mats, seven warriors or heroes on the frieze of the three central rooms, and exquisitely sculpted jambstones flanking the main entrance, which display the latest date in the north of the peninsula (AD 987), scenes of a ritual dance and the capture and death of an important figure. Situated some 600 m from the Mirador, the Codz Pop is a monumental single-storey construction with a variable two bays and an architectural plan in the shape of the letter T or IK.

The building measures 54 m on its west facade, 24.5 m in depth and 46 m on its east side. The west wing is composed of two longitudinal bays, each of which contains five rooms. The east wing has just one bay and contains nine rooms; in the north and south wings there are an additional four chambers distributed between three simple bays on each side. The access is either via the south-west corner of the group, which during the latter days of the city’s occupation was sealed by another structure, or via the Teocalli stairways.

Further west, the Codz Pop platform displays a steep stairway that climbs to the esplanade or plaza where the hieroglyphic altar and chultun are located, the latter opposite the steps leading to the mask facade. George Andrews defines the Codz Pop as belonging to the Mosaic style, based on the west or mask facade, the only one visible when he made his evaluation. Due to both its construction and decorative characteristics, the Codz Pop is a highly unique building and an example of a new variety of the Mosaic style, which implies the development of an autochthonous sculptural form in the Puuc region during the latter years of the Terminal Classic. In terms of their theme, the motifs on the frieze may bear some relation to Temple V or the Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal: both the conglomeration of Chacs and the sculpted bundle figures are unique elements in this architectural style, which we might call Late Puuc. As the finishing touch to its aesthetics, incomparable with anything else in Maya architecture, the Codz Pop is crowned by a slender tripartite roof comb in which the middle section displays enormous stepped frets; standing over 2 m high, it establishes a dialogue with the roof comb of the Palace in the adjacent plaza. At dawn, the shafts of light filtering through the pilasters and frets of these roof combs are a common sight, cutting through the morning mist beyond the platforms on which these two emblematic constructions stand.

Another notable feature of this site is the hieroglyphic altar in the west plaza of the Codz Pop, which constitutes one of the longest inscriptions in the northern lowlands and whose blocks, currently in disarray, await decipherment to shed further light on the rulers and the history of the site and region. Finally, mention must be made of the chultunes, one in the Palace plaza and the other opposite the mask facade of the Codz Pop; the latter is one of the largest in the Puuc region and to this day it guarantees the supply of water to the site. Situated south of the Codz Pop there is also an aguada or natural depression.

Importance and relations

Kabah, ‘the hand that carves’ or ‘the one below’ (kabal), is distinguished by its strategic location, long occupation sequence and the quality of the carved stones that embellish and lend such great significance to its constructions. At Kabah it is possible to observe an architectural and sculptural development that contains examples of most of the Puuc styles, demonstrating the dynamic evolution of these Yucatec Maya groups. There is also a fringe area with groups of buildings that range from large levelled sections with vaulted structures and spaces such as plazas, to simple platforms with the remains of what must have been dwellings made of perishable materials. Like most Puuc sites, Kabah is a scattered settlement, a layout dictated by the ecological and topographical characteristics of the small valley in which it is situated.

The earliest evidence of the settlement dates back to the Middle Preclassic (600-300 BC), a period about which little is known in this region but which nevertheless laid the foundations for what, towards the Terminal Classic (AD 950-1050), would become Kabah. When you contemplate the ancient city, climb up and down the stairways in front of the palaces, sneak a look inside the endless vaulted rooms with benches, or examine the reliefs on the facades of the constructions, which resemble monumental sculptures rather than buildings, it is easy to imagine the complex daily life of the ancient inhabitants and the process of abstraction they manifested in designing their spaces.

Josep Ligorred i Perramon

From: ‘The Maya: an architectural and landscape guide’, produced jointly by the Junta de Andulacia and the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico, 2010, pp372-374.

Kabah

Kabah

  1. Palace; 2. Teocalli; 3. Codz Pop; 4. Quadrangle; 5. Great Pyramid; 6. Arch; 7. Sacbe; 8. Early Group; 9. Manos Rojos Group; 10. Mirador Group.

Getting there:

Kabah is located alongside the road that joins Hopelchén and Muna, also passing the major site of Uxmal. Regular buses run along this route but the timings can be crucial if you wish to visit the two sites on the same day. There is a written timetable displayed in the Sur ‘bus station’ in Hopelchén.

GPS:

20d 15′ 13″ N

89d 39′ 19″ W

Entrance:

M$75

More on the Maya