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Home > Uxmal

Uxmal is pronounced "Oosh-mahl". The place name is Pre-Columbian and it is usually assumed to be an archaic Maya language phrase meaning "Built Three Times", although some scholars of the Maya language dispute this derivation.

1 Ancient History

While much work has been done at the popular tourist destination of Uxmal to consolidate and restore buildings, little in the way of serious archeological excavation and research has been done here, therefore the city's dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population (about 25,000 people) is at present only a very rough guess subject to change upon better data. Most of the architecture visible today was built between about 700 and 1100.

Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family, was the most powerful site in western Yucatan, and for a while in alliance with Chichen Itza dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200 no new major construction seems to have been made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmal's ally Chichen Itza and the shift of power in Yucatan to Mayapan. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined.

After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán (in which the Xiu allied themselves with the Spanish), early colonial documents suggest that Uxmal was still an inhabited place of some importance into the 1550s, but no Spanish town was built here and Uxmal was soon after largely abandoned.

2 Description of the site

Even before the restoration work Uxmal was in better condition than many other Maya sites thanks to being unusually well built. Much was built with well cut stones not relying on plaster to hold the building together. The Maya architecture here is considered matched only by that of PalenquePalenque is a Maya archeological site not far from the Usumacinta River in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, about 130 km. south of Ciudad del Carmen. It is a medium sized site, much smaller than such huge sites as Tikal or Copan, but it contains some of the in elegance and beauty. The PuucChunhuhub, Campeche, as drawn by Frederick Catherwood, 1841 Puuc is a style of Pre-Columbian architecture of the Maya civilization. The name comes from the Maya language term for the range of hills in the south-east of the state of Yucatan and northern Ca style of Maya architecture predominates. Thanks to its good state of preservation, it is one of the few Maya cities where the casual visitor can get a good idea of how the entire ceremonial center looked in ancient times.

Some of the more noteworthy buildings include:

• The Governor's Palace, a long low building atop a huge platform, with the longest fascades in Pre-Columbian MesoamericaMesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south through the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the European.
• The Adivino or "Pyramid of the Magician", a fine pyramidThis is about the polyhedron. For information on the pyramids of Egypt, see Egyptian pyramids. Geometric shape ''formed by connecting a polygonal base A pyramid is a geometric shape formed by connecting a polygonal base and a point called the apex, by tri templeThe word temple has different meanings in the fields of architecture, religion, geography, anatomy, and education. Religion A temple is a structure reserved for religious worship or sacrifice. Some religions use this generic term: Buddhism ( Shaolin) Temp unusual in several ways. The layers of the step pyramid are oval, rather than the usual rectangular or square shape. It was a common practice in Mesoamerica to build new temple pyramids atop older ones, but here a newer pyramid was built centered slightly to the east of the older pyramid, so that on the west side the temple atop the old pyramid is preserved, with the newer temple above it.
• The Nunnery Quadrangle (a nickname given to it by the Spanish; it was a government palace) is the finest of Uxmal's several fine quadrangles of long buildings with elaborately carved fascades on both the inside and outside faces
• A large Ballcourt for playing the Mesoamerican ballgameGreat Ball Court at Chichen Itz The Ball Court. A Ball Court Goal, Chichen. Ball court marker From the Maya site of Chinkultic Dated to 591 The Mesoamerican ballgame was a sport with ritual associations played for over 3000 years by the peoples of Mesoame, which an inscription there informs us was dedicated in 901 by Chan Chak K'ak'nal-Ahau.

A number of others temple-pyramids, quadrangles, and other monuments, some of significant size, and in varying states of preservation, are also at Uxmal.

The majority of heiroglyphic inscriptions were on a series of stone stelae unusually grouped together on a single platform. The stelae depict the ancient rulers of the city, and they show signs that they were deliberately broken and toppled in antiquity; some were re-erected and repaired.

A further suggestion of possible war or battle is found in the remains of a wall which encircled most of the central ceremonial center.

A large raised stone pedestrian causeway links Uxmal with the site of KabahKabah (also spelled Kabaah Kabah Kahbah and Kaba is a ruined city of the Maya civilization in the south-east of the state of Yucatan, Mexico. The site is located at 20 14. 6 north, 89 39. Kabah is to the south of Uxmal, and is connected to that city by a, some 18 km to the south.

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UxmalUxmal is a large Pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of Yucatan, Mexico. It is 78 km south of Merida (110 km from Merida on Highway 261 to Campeche), 15 km south-southeast of the town of Muna. Uxmal is pronounced "Oosh-mahl".