Location: 78 km (48 mi) South of Merida, Yucatan
Open: 8am- 5pm
Uxmal refers to the ruins of a formerly large and culturally
important Mayan city in Mexico. The name Uxmal possibly comes from
"ox-mal", which means "three times" in the Yucatec Maya language.
The ruined city is located in the slightly undulating karst
landscape Puuc (mayathan pu'uk) on the Yucatán Peninsula in the
Mexican state of the same name, about 80 kilometers south of Mérida.
The city experienced its heyday at the end of the Late Classical
period in the 9th and early 10th centuries AD, but was completely
abandoned one to two centuries later. The buildings are surmounted
by the "Pyramid of the Magician" (= "Piramide del Mago"), which,
like most buildings in Uxmal, was repeatedly rebuilt and expanded
during the settlement of the city. The most powerful single building
is the so-called Governor's Palace, located on a high platform.
Today, Uxmal is one of the most visited ruins of the Maya and offers
a good insight into the original appearance of the city through the
restoration of buildings.
According to various colonial-era sources, in
particular state surveys (Relaciones Geográficas) from 1581 and the
Chilam-Balam books, which are based on autochthonous traditions, it was
a Hun Uitzil Chac or an Ah Cuitok Tutul Xiu, both from the Xiu family,
who settled in Uxmal. The date for this is (in the Códice Pérez) a
K'atun 2 Ajaw, which according to the Mayan calendar returns every about
256 years. According to the archaeological findings, at most a period
from 731 to 751 AD is suitable for this. This is linked to the
assumption that the Xiu probably came to Yucatán as immigrants from the
area of the present state of Tabasco. The indication in the Códex Pérez
also contradicts the literally identical statement with another time
indication in the Chilam-Balam text by Tizimín, which is why the dating
may not be considered authentic. Because of these discrepancies, the
age, builders, residents and rulers of the city of Uxmal are still not
reliably identifiable from historical sources.
The only ruler of
Uxmal known from contemporary hieroglyphic inscriptions is Chan Chak
K'ak'nal Ajaw. Under him, the city was magnificently expanded and
brought into the form visible today (after the excavations and
restorations). The inscriptions referring to him date from the short
period between the years 895 and 907. Uxmal had already been an
important city several centuries before.
In the early 10th
century, the construction of large stone buildings was stopped. However,
a considerable number of buildings (called "C-shaped" because of their
floor plan) with walls and roofs made of wood and palm leaves show that
Uxmal was inhabited by a smaller population for some time afterwards.
However, political power and economic conditions were no longer
sufficient for the erection or continuation of the construction of
monumental structures. It is not possible to determine when the last
permanent residents left the city. In Uxmal, the same process took place
as in the entire Puuc area, but with a certain time delay. Later, in
Uxmal (as well as in other places of the Puuc area), occasional visitors
laid offerings in the rubble of collapsing buildings.
According
to the late reports, the Xiu moved the capital of their principality
from Uxmal to Maní, where the family is based to the present day. All
these reports have in common that they were written many centuries after
the end of the city of Uxmal or were brought into the form known today.
In 1536 A.D. (according to the Cronica de Oxkutzcab from 1538), a group
of Xiu pilgrims who wanted to make sacrifices at the Holy Cenote of
Chichén Itzá for the end of a drought period had been killed in their
sleep by the Cocom, which are derived from Chichén Itzá. This could be
seen as retribution for a massacre committed much earlier by the Xiu to
the Cocom in Ich Paa. All these scattered references speak for
long-lasting and rather conflictual relations between Uxmal and Chichén
Itzá.
During an inspection trip by the Spanish Franciscan
Alonso Ponce in 1588, the city had long been in ruins. His secretary,
Ciudad Real, gives a relatively detailed description. The first modern
description comes from Jean Frédéric Maximilien de Waldeck (his
connection with the German noble house of the same name is unconfirmed),
who visited Uxmal in 1835.
Inspired by Waldeck's report, the
North American explorer John Lloyd Stephens, accompanied by Frederick
Catherwood as a draftsman and architect, undertook two extensive
journeys through Central America. On these he also visited Uxmal and
described numerous ruins, which Catherwood illustrated. The reports
written by Stephens made the Central American ruins – and among them in
an important place Uxmal – known to those interested in North America
and Europe. Works of art taken from the buildings by him later perished
in a fire in New York. Stephen's descriptions inspired, among others,
the Frenchman Désiré Charnay to undertake research trips, on which he
took numerous photographs, as well as the Austrian Baron Emmanuel von
Friedrichsthal, who, however, did not publish his report.
Teobert
Maler was also inspired by Stephens. From 1886 he undertook extensive
archaeological research trips on the Yucatan Peninsula. In Uxmal, he
only took numerous, documentarily excellent photos. An architectural
investigation, which also included Uxmal, was undertaken soon after him
by William Herny Holmes. The German scholar Eduard Seler used his
drawings as well as records and photographs provided by the painter in a
book publication about Uxmal. Painter also advised Sylvanus G. Morley
before his visit to Uxmal in 1907, during which he made the first
reliable measurements.
In 1927, as a brief study by Federico
Mariscal shows, no excavations and restorations had yet taken place in
Uxmal, the visit itself was difficult. It was not until 1930 that Frans
Blom undertook very detailed measurements in the Nun's Quadrangle, on
the basis of which a lifelike reproduction was made for the World's Fair
in Chicago in 1933, but this has not been preserved. In this context,
the first precise and somewhat complete mapping of the most important
groups of ruins was carried out by Robert H. Merrill.
The
earliest restorations were undertaken after 1936 on behalf of the
Mexican Ministry of Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública) by José
A. Erosa Peniche, whose documentation became the basis of a detailed
account by Ignacio Marquina. At the same time, but independently, Harry
Pollock studied numerous construction complexes outside the center of
Uxmal. In 1941, Sylvanus Morley carried out minor excavations on the
facades of the main pyramid.
In addition to the measures for the
restoration and stabilization of the buildings by the INAH, which have
been ongoing since the 1940s, only a few research-related investigations
took place: an analysis of the urban complex and the monumental
architecture was carried out by George F. Andrews. In his dissertation,
completed in 1981, Jeff Kowalski published an
architectural-art-historical treatise on the Governor's Palace, which
also includes a comprehensive account of Uxmal's cultural-historical
role. This treatise is supplemented by a study by Alfredo Barrera Rubio
based on the excavations of the northern platform edge of the governor's
complex. Kowalski, who at the beginning of the 21st century can be
considered the undisputed authority for the cultural history of Uxmal,
has also excavated a building that completely fell out of scope in
Uxmal, the round Pyramid.
As part of his wide-ranging
documentation of Mayan inscriptions, Ian Graham has published two
sub-volumes on Uxmal, which contain the first complete mapping of the
city (the southern extent that Graham had included in his mapping was
not published with).
The modern archaeological works in Uxmal
were mainly aimed at making the ruin site accessible to tourism and
stopping the decay of the best-preserved buildings. This task was
completed no later than 1970. Since then, the necessarily more
hypothetical reconstruction of heavily decayed buildings has become
increasingly important. However, most of Uxmal is still covered by dense
forest and is not accessible to visitors. Outside the archaeological
zone, there are other partially uncovered ruins on the grounds of
immediately adjacent hotels. The old city extended far into the
surrounding area: the official definition of the area of Uxmal by the
INAH covers an area of more than 10 square kilometers.
The history of Uxmal is almost unknown. Archaeological
research, despite a great achievement in the field of conservation and
reconstruction, has been only superficial. This is already evident in
the fact that even with minor works on buildings that have been
reconstructed for a long time, which go a little deeper for technical
reasons, older cultural layers are discovered again and again. The most
important path of knowledge so far is still the history of architecture,
more precisely the sequence of building and decoration styles and their
(hypothetical) development. Since buildings of the last stylistic phase,
the "Late Uxmal style", can only be found here, Uxmal is the focal point
of this branch of research. The few hieroglyphic inscriptions have so
far provided little insight into the political and social conditions.
Moreover, they are practically limited only to the period of the turn of
the 9th-10th centuries.
The reports from the colonial period
mention Uxmal regularly, but they are terse in their statements and are
assessed as not very authentic. Códice Pérez, for example, alludes to a
political connection with Chichén Itzá and Mayapán, although here too it
is apparently a later interpolation. Such a political connection, which
is repeatedly mentioned in modern literature under the name "League of
Mayapán", is hardly conceivable for archaeological reasons alone, since
the latter two cities did not exist simultaneously. Nevertheless,
individual similarities in the iconography cannot be denied, such as the
depiction of feathered snakes or Toltec costume elements and armament,
which do not belong to the canon of Mayan depictions. The archaeological
literature also controversially discusses how long Uxmal and Chichén
Itzá overlapped in time and what effects this may have had on the
development of Chichén Itzá. The question is also open as to which
sphere of political power Uxmal may have dominated at the time of his
heyday. Whether the "Sacbé" according to Nohpat and Kabah can be
considered an indication of this is the subject of controversial debate.
Uxmal is located at about 50 meters above sea level, in a slightly
undulating karst landscape, which is bounded in the north and south at a
distance of 10 kilometers by a terrain level that is about 100 to 150
meters higher each. In this basically waterless landscape, deep soils
were formed from the weathering material of the limestone, which are
easily usable for indigenous agriculture. In shallow depressions of
different sizes, especially around Uxmal, sedimentation led to natural
sealing, so that the rainwater flowing off the surface could collect and
survive well into the dry season.
These Aguadas were artificially
expanded by the Maya and provided with well-like water collectors at the
deepest points. The cheap water supply represented an important location
advantage for the city. In the 19th century, the Aguadas were largely
drained to prevent malaria. In addition, numerous cisterns can be found
in Uxmal, as in the entire region. The groundwater table is located at a
depth of about 65 meters and was unattainable with the technical
capabilities of the Maya.
The region of Uxmal is covered by a
mostly deciduous dry forest with maximum tree heights of 15 meters,
which is a secondary vegetation throughout, which is the result of
continuous clearing for the purpose of creating fields in the Milpa
system. The annual precipitation is 900 mm, but with significant
fluctuations, the average annual temperature is 26 °C.
In Uxmal, the center of the old town has been largely restored. The
impression that the visitor receives corresponds to the state of the
city in the 10th century, when the first signs of decay appeared on the
monumental buildings. At that time, the originally white-stuccoed and
completely free areas of the courtyards were already partially covered
with vegetation, between which numerous low buildings made of perishable
material stood (see C-shaped buildings).
However, the trees
planted in the 1980s south of the Nuns' quadrangle and on the platform
of the Governor's Palace give a distorted picture. Most of Uxmal is now
covered by forest and not accessible to visitors. The reasons are, on
the one hand, the danger from the cistern openings scattered everywhere,
on the other hand, the risk of damage to archaeological remains.
In Uxmal there is a small museum in the visitor center. In addition, an
evening light and sound show was set up. In 1996, Uxmal was included in
the UNESCO World Heritage List as a cultural monument.
On March
30, 2015, the memorial was included in the International Register of
Cultural Property under Special Protection of the Hague Convention for
the Protection of Cultural Property in Armed Conflicts.
Overall, the buildings of Uxmal are largely scattered randomly over
the site. They extend to a distance of one to two kilometers from the
center, especially to the south. The simple residential buildings of the
rural population extend far beyond that.
The earliest buildings
are small buildings in early forms of the Puuc style, they are found
concentrated in the North Group. According to some rather random finds,
there are often early constructions under or in the core of later
buildings, or these were demolished at all in ancient times. The
buildings, accessible and restored for tourism, belong to the late
variants of the Puuc style, especially the Late Uxmal style, which is
dated to the late 9th and early 10th centuries. A more exact scientific
dating fails because the inaccuracy of the calibration in particular
(calibration on the basis of tree ring data, but in other regions of the
earth, and their fluctuations due to natural changes) is greater than
the assumed duration of the style phases. Only a few dated inscriptions
give more precise indications (see below). The decisive factor for the
classification into phases of the Puuc style is primarily the design of
the facades and their stone decor, which are therefore presented in more
detail here, together with structural details. From the probable
development of the decorative forms from simpler to more and more
complex, Pollock first developed the style sequence.
Towards the
end of the settlement period of Uxmal, as in the other cities of the
Puuc, a social change occurred, which is expressed in a change in the
use of stone buildings: the wide, multi-divided entrances, which have
occupied almost the entire front of some buildings and thus made them
suitable for representative tasks, but hardly for residential purposes,
were walled up. Only a narrow entrance remained. From this it can be
concluded that the buildings were no longer used in their representative
function, but as apartments. Accordingly, even passageways were
transformed into interiors. Examples of this can be found in the
Vogel-Plaza. In Uxmal, as in the whole region, there are buildings whose
construction has been abandoned (for example, the summit building of the
Casa de la Vieja).
Characteristic of the urban complex of Uxmal are large courtyards, which are bordered on three sides by elevated elongated palace buildings (each with two parallel rows of rooms). The fourth side is occupied either by a raised building or a massive pyramid, on the height of which there was also a small palace-like building. In some cases, the courtyard complexes are also staggered one after the other, as in the complex of the Pigeon House.
There are also many so-called C-shaped buildings in Uxmal. The
designation makes clear the embarrassment of archeology with these
buildings. They have only rear and side walls, the front is open, there
were sometimes stone columns that had been taken from other buildings
and that must have supported the roof, which was made of perishable
material; but mostly the beams were made of wood. Along the back wall
there is always a brick bench of different widths, which is sometimes
interrupted by parts protruding further forward.
The function of
these buildings is unclear. There is little reason to use them as
residential buildings, since they offer neither protection from the
weather nor guarantee privacy due to the elongated shape without a
closed front wall. The only thing that is clear is that wherever they
occur, they belong to the latest phase of settlement. In Uxmal, the
C-shaped buildings are located mainly in the courtyards of the palace
groups. A collection of these buildings has been uncovered between the
platform of the Governor's Palace and the Adivino Pyramid. But there are
also such C-shaped buildings that have side rooms, in one case even with
a brick vault.
C-shaped buildings can be found in a wide area
from the Petén in Guatemala to the northern Yucatán, for example in Ek
Balam and Culubá. They seem to be preforms for the elongated pillared
halls in Chichén Itzá and Mayapán.
Characteristic of Uxmal are the large, almost square squares, which
were framed on all sides by elongated buildings in the classical Puuc
style and a late variant (the Late Uxmal style), which only occurs here.
The courses are oriented north-south. The modern design with numerous
shady trees (planted after 1980) does not reflect the original
situation, which was characterized by large squares with white stucco
flooring.
It is assumed that about 25,000 people lived on the
territory of the city, the core zone of which was surrounded by a low
wall. The total populated area around is estimated at 10 km2. Uxmal was
connected to the south-eastern city of Kabah by a wide, paved sacbé via
the medium-sized city of Nohpat, which has not yet been archaeologically
investigated and is not accessible, but the starting point of this road
is probably not in the center of Uxmal itself, but in a small group of
ruins to the east.
The central buildings of Uxmal (all names are from recent times and have no relation to the actual function of the buildings) are located on an area of 0.5 km2, with a deviation of about 17 ° clockwise from the cardinal directions. The central part of Uxmal was surrounded by a low wall with numerous interruptions, which could not have been a defensive structure. Presumably, a certain district was symbolically delimited with this wall.
The complex includes several buildings on a very large common
platform measuring 185 × 164 meters, which rises between 7 and 14 meters
high above the slightly undulating terrain. Hidden in the body of this
platform is a natural elevation, due to which the building material to
be used has been reduced. The outside of the platform was divided into 6
to 7 steps and was set on a slightly larger but low platform, which
compensated for the unevenness of the terrain.
The corners of the
actual platform consisted of very large, rounded stone blocks. Two
staircases led to the platform from the north: one that aimed directly
at the northern entrance to the Turtle House, and another that reached
the surface of the platform approximately in front of the governor's
Palace. Another staircase existed from the west side behind the
so-called Old "Chenes" temple. It has not yet been clarified whether
there was another staircase immediately to the east of the main pyramid.
The Governor's Palace, a building of 100 meters in length, stands a
little to the west of the center of the described large platform on
another, smaller, long and narrow platform of about 109 meters in
length, to which a 40-meter-wide staircase leads up from the east. The
building is divided into three parts, which were originally connected by
two covered gate buildings, which were later partially walled up and
converted into small rooms.
The 14 rooms of different sizes are
arranged in two parallel rows. The back rooms, as is the rule, are
located a little higher. In addition, there are three rooms at the
outermost corners that do not have this pattern. Two of them are the
only ones that can be entered through an entrance on the narrow side of
the building (the north and south sides). The central room of the main
facade is clearly the most important one here too, because it is
distinguished by three entrances and the facade decor (see below) is
also oriented towards it. All rooms impress with the unusual height of
both the lower wall surface up to the base of the vault, as well as the
vault itself. All doors had two door beams made of Chicozapote wood,
which were replaced by those made of concrete only during the
restoration.
Stephens took out the door beams of the middle
entrance sculpted with hieroglyphs, they were later burned in New York.
The intensive use of this wood, which is very resistant to termites,
makes it clear that at that time there must have been sufficient stocks
of this tree, which today only occurs in areas several hundred
kilometers away, close to times. Similar to the buildings of the nuns'
quadrangle, the outer doorways were framed, as it were, by a slightly
larger superimposed doorway with another wooden beam. The unusually
thick back wall (2.5 to 3 meters) made early explorers search in vain
for hidden treasures there.
On the terrace next to the building
there is a stone figure of two jaguars fused together, which represents
a two-headed jaguar throne and served as a seat for the ruler.
The facade layout adheres to the rules of the late Uxmal style, but is
particularly elaborate here. The base of the building consists of three
elements, two smooth bands framing a band located further inside, which
alternately has smooth surfaces and groups of four low columns. The
lower wall surface is smooth, it is bounded at the top by the central
cornice, which is kept simple and consists of three elements: a smooth
ribbon, which is framed at the top and bottom by oppositely protruding
ribbons of oblique cross section. At the corners, large fully plastic
snake heads protrude from the middle band.
The upper wall surface
bears all the decor of the Governor's Palace. The pictorial program is
very complex and cannot be described in detail here. It consists of a
multiple combination of the following elements: step meanders, that is,
angular spirals with a lateral step row leading to the beginning of the
spiral. These step meanders occur in a left- and right-oriented manner,
each in a mirror image of the other. Between them there are fields with
diamond grid patterns.
The stepped meanders are arranged only
seemingly in two horizontal registers (horizontal rows), in fact their
height is less than half of the upper wall area, so there is still space
above or below them. This place is occupied by a chain of chaak masks,
which are arranged partly horizontally, partly at an angle like a
staircase.
Above the central entrance, apparently later installed
in front of lattice panels, there are eight horizontal smooth stripes
(similar to the east building of the nuns' quadrangle), on which flat
snake heads sit on both ends. On the ribbons, in extension of the snake
heads, slightly behind, there are higher ribbons decorated with mock
hieroglyphs (signs that look like hieroglyphs, but do not correspond to
real signs and therefore, of course, do not reflect any content).
A ninth row is barely recognizable inserted into the horizontal row
of masks at this point, but without the horizontal band, which would
have collided here with the far protruding noses of the masks. In the
center of these ribbons-snakes protrudes a high feather headdress, under
which the figure of a dignitary sitting on a throne almost disappears.
The throne is fitted in a semicircular arch, from which, in turn, snake
heads protrude on both sides.
The upper cornice has a peculiar
design: a narrow ribbon runs over an oblique ribbon, around which an
equally narrow one alternately winds in front and behind. The upper end
is formed by a high, protruding band. The narrow sides of the Governor's
Palace bear the same decor of stepped meanders and lattice squares, the
back side only lattice squares.
The Turtle House, so-called because of its decor in the upper
cornice, is a typical classic building of the Puuc style. It is located
on the large terrace of the Governor's Palace a few meters north of the
palace on a later added part of the large platform. A large staircase
leads up to the turtle house from the north on the platform.
The floor plan of the building is clearly structured: on both narrow
sides and the south side there are two rooms arranged one behind the
other, the outer one has three entrances, the inner one. The inner rooms
are one step higher. On the north side there is only one entrance, which
leads to a single elongated room.
The facades have the usual
structure: a smooth wall surface rises above a simple base cornice made
of a high, slightly shod row of stones up to the height of the door
beams, which were originally made of wood. The central cornice consists
of three elements: a smooth ribbon in the middle and an upward and
downward and outward projecting ribbon. The upper wall surface has
columns, the upper cornice is similar to the central one, with the
protruding bands being higher. The mentioned turtles are sitting on the
middle band. The construction quality is excellent, it reminds of the
governor's Palace in many details. The building was reconstructed in its
collapsed central part around 1968.
On the platform of the Governor's Palace, just like in most building
complexes, there is a so-called C-shaped building. The building next to
the Governor's Palace is the largest known building of this type, it has
not been excavated, but it is still easy to recognize as such, since it
is almost not covered by rubble from a vault (which does not exist
here).
The row of hewn stones at the back (in the picture on
the right) comes from the bench running along the back wall and the low
wall base, on which a wooden wall structure may have been placed. There
is no corresponding rubble on the front: here the building was open, the
supposed roof rested on wooden supports. The location of this C-shaped
building is unusual. Usually they are found in small groups or in pairs
in the interior or middle of courtyards, while the building here rather
frames the platform in front of the governor's Palace. This – together
with the building running at right angles to it, which is described as
in the next section – could indicate a different function or time
position.
Opposite the Governor's Palace on the same large platform there is an elongated non-exposed building, the truncated columns of which, protruding from the rubble, indicate a building similar to the south building of the Bird Plaza. It is believed that it was a portico with three rooms behind it. The upper facade seems to have been decorated with columns and ik elements.
Close to the northern foot of the platform on which the Governor's Palace stands, a small building was excavated and completely reconstructed, which is noticeable by columns made of stone blocks that divide the entrance. At a later date, the side entrances were closed by unclean masonry. In the rubble of the interior there was a vaulted ceiling stone, which is unusually well preserved (in the reconstruction it was replaced by a replica).
Halfway up the large platform of the Governor's Palace there is a
wide landing on which there are two buildings, which were later enclosed
by the platform and partially half-covered. They are therefore to be
classified earlier in time than the erection of the platform and the
turtle house standing on it in the immediate vicinity. The landing can
be reached by a wide staircase from the courtyard in front of the main
pyramid.
The south of the two buildings consists of two rows of
three rooms each in an east-west direction, of which the middle one, of
whose slightly protruding front wall only small remains have been
preserved, had a facade design in the Chenes style.
The northern
building also has two rows of three rooms, the entrances to which are
oriented to the west. According to the remains of the facade preserved
on the back, it is a building in the classical columned style.
The ball playground is located between the platforms of the Nuns'
Quadrangle to the north and the Governor's Palace to the south, it is
oriented approximately north-south. As with all late classic ball
playgrounds, it is formed from two massive blocks of walls, between
which, between low benches, the play alley (34 meters × 10 meters) runs,
in which the actual game took place. The lateral wall blocks, which are
7.4 meters high, mainly served as the reflex wall from which the ball
hitting them was directed back into the play alley. The reflective walls
were accordingly kept smooth.
A stone ring was embedded in the
middle of each side (of which only remnants are preserved in Uxmal). The
goal of the ball game was to hit through the ring with the ball made of
solid rubber, whereby the ball could only be played with the hip. Both
rings were provided with an inscription that has only partially
survived, on which the (reconstructed) dates of January 9, 905
(converted to the Julian calendar) are contained. The side benches had
plastic rattlesnake bodies on their upper edge. On the upper surface of
the two lateral wall blocks there were buildings with three-part
entrances, to which stairs led up from the outside. These buildings are
largely destroyed.
The ruin zone of Uxmal is dominated by the Pyramid of the Sorcerer, a pyramid with a rectangular plan, the corners of which are rounded for a wide area. The body of the pyramid is covered with roughly worked stones, the cladding visible today is to a large extent the result of work to stabilize the structure. At least five construction phases can be distinguished on the pyramid. The traditional designation of the individual components as "temples" says nothing about the actual function.
The oldest component is an originally independent building, which
forms the eastern boundary of the Vogelhof – but the peripheral
development of which did not yet fully exist at that time. The so-called
temple I is a typical building in the classical Puuc style, consisting
of two parallel rows of 5 rooms each, with the rear (eastern) row being
accessible through the rooms of the western row. At each end there was a
transversely running space. The middle entrance later came to lie under
the western staircase and is no longer visible today.
Some of the
rooms were probably filled with rubble stone masonry during the
construction of the last phase of the pyramid for stability reasons. The
doors had door beams made of two wooden beams each, which have only been
preserved in one place. There is a radiocarbon dating of one of the bars
to 740-760 AD (laboratory number Hei 15505, confidence interval 1 Sigma,
corresponds to a 68% probability that the tree's precipitation date
falls within the specified period). At the corners there are inserted
thick corner columns.
The design of the facade consists of a base
of three elements: between two smooth bands, a series of low columns,
alternating with smooth surfaces, runs around the entire building. The
lower wall surface is smooth, made of well-cut facing bricks. Between
the doors and the doors and corners there are three fields with three
columns each, which extend over the entire height of the lower wall. The
column fields of the wall do not correlate with those of the plinth.
The central cornice is unusually strong and variously decorated. It
consists of oversized monolithic elements, the front side of which
protrudes downwards and outwards. The lower edge is decorated with
simple stepped cone-like elements in the form of the "ik" symbol
(similar to a "T" with three bars of the same length), the front side
bears figurative motifs, tendrils, fish, braided ribbons, crossed long
bones and individual short hieroglyphic texts in bas-relief. Above this
lowest element follows a continuous row of cranked columns, above it
another band, reminiscent of flat-lying columns, which have regular
incisions around their circumference.
The upper surface of the
wall is smooth, but has been pierced above the entrances by large Chaac
masks with the characteristic proboscis, placed twice on top of each
other. Above the middle entrance, perfectly preserved under the later
staircase, was the fully sculptural representation of the Reina de Uxmal
(Queen of Uxmal), in fact the partially tattooed face of a priest
emerging from the throat of a stylized snake. This figure was removed
during the restoration work. Above it are two large, perfectly preserved
trunk masks, which have not been visible since the last restorations,
since the passage was closed for stability reasons. The upper cornice is
no longer preserved in its original storage, from the elements found in
the rubble it is possible to think of a similar design to that of the
middle cornice.
The first section of the actual pyramid was built in the second
construction phase. It has its center point a little to the east of the
rear facade of the first building, which partially covered it, and
reached a height of 22 meters. For reasons of stability, its rear rooms
were partially filled with stone masonry. This first pyramid carried on
its platform an east-facing building consisting of a portico supported
by 8 columns (the figure is hypothetical, since the excavation inside
the later pyramid did not reach the ends of the building).
Access
to this building was made from the east side by a wide staircase. At a
later time, the elongated room of the portico was divided into three
rooms by two transverse walls, each enclosing one of the columns, which
thus took the form of entrances, which were supported by 2 columns each.
The facade to the sides of the row of columns is smooth. A ridge of the
roof protruded above the rear wall of the building, but it may also have
belonged to Temple III, and it is visible through an opening in the
floor of temple V created during the excavations.
A small building was later added to the rear wall of this building,
consisting of two rooms in a row and facing west (Temple III), to which
a staircase, recognizable only in traces, led. The rear half of the
front room and the rear were bricked up at a later date to increase the
stability for the temple V above. The temple was completely covered by
later buildings, it can only be reached through a modern tunnel from the
middle of the east staircase.
The facade of this building has a
two-part central cornice and a three-part upper cornice, which
correspond to the usual one in the Puuc style. Stone pegs protrude from
the inwardly inclined upper half of the wall, such as the upper cornice,
for fixing a stucco decoration that has no longer been preserved.
Around and above Temple III and extending it to the front, the
so-called Chenes building was built, to which a staircase leads from the
Vogel Plaza, which goes over the facade of the lowest building and
partially covers it. The entrance to the central room of Temple I was
opened through an arched passage (it is walled up today). For weight
loss, a vault was also erected over the roof of Temple I, which had no
other function. The staircase has a continuous chain of masks of the
rain god Chaac on its edges.
The building surprises with a facade
and an entrance in the style of the Chenes Dragon Mouth entrances, which
are actually native to the Chenes and Río Bec area. The interior is very
high, the base of the vault is over 4 meters high. The entrance was
supported by two wooden beams.
The youngest and highest building with three narrow rooms in the
north-south direction is located immediately above Temple II at the
level of the upper end of the ridge of the roof (which, according to
excavations, is visible through a trapdoor). A new, steeper staircase
was created on the east side, which completely covered Temple II, as
well as two staircases on the west side, passing by the Chenes building
on the side. The building is remarkable because it faces the two main
sides of the pyramid with the two stairs at the same time. The middle
room has its door entrance to the west, the two rooms at the northern
and southern ends have entrances to the east, which initially lead to a
narrow platform, which can be reached via the wide staircase in the
middle.
The facade of the west side stands on a plinth, where two
smooth bands frame a recessed band of columns. The lower wall surface on
both sides of the single entrance consists of two fields with serrated
stones (chimez) set diagonally crosswise, in the middle of each of which
a fully sculptural stone figure was fixed, of which only remains are
preserved. Laterally, the wall surfaces are smooth.
The central
cornice consists of a protruding smooth band, framed by two bands
protruding obliquely outward. The upper wall surface has four
individually standing meanders, in front of which a rectangular peg
protrudes from the wall, which probably carried a figure. The upper
cornice is designed the same as the middle one, only slightly higher.
The facade of the east side bears significantly less ornamentation.
The lower half of the wall is smooth, and from the upper one it is
separated by the usual three-band cornice. Not much can be said about
the upper wall surface because of the severe destruction: extending the
center line of the east staircase, there is a plastic image of a
traditional house with a palm-leaf roof here.
Climbing the
pyramid, which was damaged in a hurricane, is no longer allowed for
reasons of stability. Only the lowest building is accessible to
visitors.
The courtyard is located between the Pyramid of the Sorcerer and the Nuns' Quadrangle. The name comes from the facade decoration of the south-eastern building, which depicts birds. The courtyard is bordered by four buildings. The building to the east was the only one that remained standing. With the exception of a small remnant of the western building, the other three had collapsed completely and were reconstructed from 1988 to 1994.[25] There is a conical altar stone in the middle of the courtyard. The sequence of construction of the structures is reconstructed as follows: on an early platform, the eastern building was erected first, then the northern and southern buildings, and finally the two parts of the western building. Finally, the two middle rooms were placed in front of the facade of the west building.
To the west there is a complex building with an arched passage in the
center (at least it was reconstructed in this way). The northern and
southern halves of the building are designed the same way: three rooms
each with simple entrances. The facade corresponds to the classic Puuc
style. The base consists of a simple row of stones, the lower wall
surfaces are smooth.
The central cornice consists of three
members: a band projecting downwards and outwards, above it an
uninterrupted row of low columns and a third, smooth band. The upper
half of the wall is formed from small columns, which in the middle have
a bond imitated in stone. The upper cornice consists of four elements:
from below a smooth ribbon, a lower-lying ribbon of low columns, again a
smooth ribbon, and above it the usual finish of high, obliquely
upward-protruding stones on the outside.
At a later date, an
extension was put in front of the middle rooms. The annexes have three
entrances, which were originally covered with wooden door beams. In the
rubble of these entrances, 22 small inscription elements were found,
which, however, do not contain readable text, but only
pseudo-hieroglyphs.
The central cornice of the facade, like the
older part of the building, consists of three elements, but they are
decorated differently. The lower, protruding band imitates the ends of
palm leaves, the middle one shows the ’chimez’ pattern, which is
interpreted in different ways and perhaps represents the rattles of
rattlesnakes. The third element merges into the upper wall surface,
which depicts the rows of palm leaves of the traditional roofing.
Several stone birds are set on these, which have given the name to the
building and the courtyard.
The upper cornice, which is similar
to that of the older building, forms the end towards the top, except
that the top row of stones again shows a palm leaf relief. At the
corners, a stony, wide-open reptile's throat protrudes from the row of
columns. The side entrances to the projecting room, but also some
others, have been made narrower in later times, apparently in order to
make the buildings, which originally served rather representative
purposes, more usable for residential purposes. The facade design in the
area of the arched passage is unknown and was not accessible even from
elements in the rubble, which justifies doubts about the reconstruction.
The north building consists of two rows of rooms located in a row
parallel to the facade. Three entrances each led to the two side rooms.
Later, the side of these entrances were bricked up. The middle entrance
has three columns. The reconstruction of the facade is hypothetical and
is based on the usual design of facades, taking into account the
elements found in the rubble.
The southern building is formed by
a long portico supported by 13 columns, behind which there are three
rooms in the same direction. In the portico there is a brick seating
platform near the passage to the middle rear room. The reconstruction of
the facade is hypothetical. Numerous stone spigots were recovered from
the rubble of the completely collapsed building, so that the assumption
is justified that the upper wall surface was smooth and the stone
spigots protruded from it (but hardly so indiscriminately distributed
and protruding as far as in the reconstruction), which were supposed to
give support to a deep decor of plastic stucco.
To the east of
the courtyard is the elongated lower building of the Temple I of the
Sorcerer's Pyramid, which is described in the section on the pyramid.
The building is located south of the Vogelplaza and consists of an elongated portico supported on its west side by 11 columns. The building had completely collapsed and was completely reconstructed. Therefore, no reliable statements can be made about its facade and other details.
The four palace buildings of the nunnery quadrangle, which have been completely reconstructed today, are located around a recessed, rectangular courtyard. The main access is from the south, where the badly destroyed ball playground is located outside the quadrangle, via a wide staircase and a gate passage through the southern building. The architecture of the nun's quadrangle best represents the late Uxmal variant of the Puuc style. Two painted vaulted cornerstones from the complex of the Nun's Quadrangle bear data for the years 906 and 907 and thus form the last reliably readable data preserved in the entire Puuc region.
The south building is located at the level of the inner courtyard. It
consists of two identical, mirror-like elongated buildings (80 meters),
the main part of which has two rows of four rooms each, open to the
courtyard and the outside (north and south). The buildings are connected
by an archway, which provides access to the courtyard from the large
south staircase. This is the only monumental and representative access
to the entire complex. At the outer ends of the two sub-buildings there
are two small, two-room buildings slightly set back, which are only
accessible from the courtyard and were built later.
The upper
half of the wall shows two interrelated motifs: on the inward-facing
facade, above each of the entrances, there is a depiction of a hut with
a palm-leaf roof with masks of the rain god, from which smoke or clouds
rise. The areas between the huts are decorated with latticework and
smooth surfaces with groups of three columns with a central binding.
The facade of the outside has largely fallen off, from the remains
preserved near the west corner it can be seen that it was designed
similarly to the facade of the inside. The middle and upper cornice are
structurally the same: two sloping bands frame a smooth, protruding one.
The upper cornice is significantly higher.
The eastern and western buildings are elevated by several flights of
stairs opposite the courtyard. The building has 14 interiors, which are
laid out in a complex layout. In principle, these are two identically
designed parallel rows of 7 rooms, but only 5 entrances to the outside
(or to the front rooms) correspond to them, because one side room
departs from the front and rear middle rooms on each side. The two
central rooms are larger than all the others.
The back and the
narrow sides are kept relatively simple: above a completely smooth lower
wall surface, the upper wall surfaces show an alternation of also smooth
surfaces and fields with a grid pattern. Quadruple cascades of Chaac
masks can be seen at the corners. The front side shows a dilemma:
because of the large central space with its side chambers, the distance
between the central entrance and the side entrances is very large. In
order not to transfer this imbalance to the facade decoration, the upper
wall surface was divided into seven sections of approximately the same
length: six, of which the outer two correspond to the entrances, and two
above the smooth wall part on both sides of the middle entrance show an
identical motif of parallel double-headed snakes (increasing in length
from bottom to top), from the middle of which an owl face with a large
feather decoration protrudes at the top, which is mostly missing today.
Three masks of the Chaac are arranged one above the other above the
middle entrance. There the upper cornice is interrupted and replaced by
three parallel snakes, very similar to those above the other entrances.
The base consists of three elements, the middle one with alternating
groups of four low columns and smooth surfaces is framed by two smooth
bands. The central cornice consists of four elements, a ribbon of a
continuous sequence of low columns, framed by two smooth ribbons, and
above it an obliquely protruding ribbon. The upper cornice is almost
identical, with the uppermost band being heavily overhung. Stone
rosettes sit at intervals in front of the column band.
The building to the west of the courtyard has seven entrances, each
leading into a room and out of it into a room behind it. In this
respect, the floor plan is the least demanding of the nuns' quadrangle.
The entrances have a characteristic of the late Uxmal style: around the
actual entrance there is an entrance larger in height and width on the
outside, which forms a frame, as it were.
The facade facing the
courtyard is the most complex of the nuns' quadrangle. It has the most
complex picture program of the nun's quadrangle in the upper wall
surface (the lower one is smooth). Above the middle entrance there is a
throne with an oversized feather canopy. On the throne sits a very small
figure of a dignitary, apparently of advanced age. The background is
formed by precious feathers. From this central image, two snake bodies,
which are intertwined again and again, are pulled out, which are studded
with feathers and represent the idea of the quetzalcoatl or
quetzalcoatl. Kukulkan seems to indicate. They frame and structure the
remaining facade.
The same motif can be found above the adjacent
entrances, but obviously with less significance. Then follow the ends to
cascades of masks of the Chaac and finally the motifs of the house with
palm leaf roof and Chaac mask, which are already known from the south
building. At the corners, the usual chaac masks stacked on top of each
other. In the fields between the entrances, backgrounds with grid
patterns and chimez motifs alternate, in front of which human and animal
figures stand out fully plastically. The most striking features near the
second entrance from the north are a head and a rattled end of the huge
snakes. A human face looks out from the opened snake's mouth. It is
believed that these snakes were later added to the already completed
facade.
The tripartite cornices are simple, without any special
decorative elements, except for rosettes protruding at intervals from
the middle band of the upper frieze. The back of the building has been
largely destroyed and has not yet been reconstructed. She showed
alternating grid patterns and step meanders in two registers.
The north building stands on a particularly high platform, which is
kept very wide in front of the main facade facing south. A 30-meter-wide
staircase leads to it in the middle from the courtyard, which is
bordered on both sides by a building that stands on the level of the
courtyard. These buildings are identically designed but of different
sizes: they consist of two rooms, the front of which is open to the
courtyard through a portico. The difference is in the number of brick
piers of the portico: four for the western building, only two for the
eastern one.
Only the facade of the western building has been
preserved: a smooth wall surface follows above a tripartite base with a
retracted middle band, in which columns alternate with smooth surfaces.
The piers are equipped with a base and a capital, and like them are
decorated in relief. The central cornice is four-membered, with an
oblique band at the bottom, two smooth bands and again an opposite
oblique band at the top. In the upper wall area, the areas with a
crossed grid of chimez stones dominate, into which smaller fields with a
meander-like motif are inserted above each of the partial entrances. The
corners wear simple chaac masks. The upper wall area is relatively low,
because the height of the building was limited by the level of the
platform in front of the actual north building. The upper cornice is
tripartite with smooth bands bent at the top and bottom, with rosettes
protruding from the middle band at intervals.
The actual north
building consists of two rows of eleven rooms, with the back row being
accessible only through the front rooms. There are also two rooms
located one behind the other on the two narrow sides, so that the total
number of rooms is 26 with 13 external entrances. The north facade has
no entrances. The central entrance of the south facade is wider than all
the others. As with the east and west buildings, the entrances here are
also designed in the described frame shape.
The building has a
more complex history of origin than the others of the Nuns' Quadrangle:
the oldest building did not have the four side rooms. The older building
had a different facade to this one, but it was demolished and nothing is
known about its decorative content (on the north facade, during the
reconstruction work, a small area of the view to the lower wall surface
and the middle cornice of the older facade was left open). Subsequently,
the lateral rooms were added in a further construction phase. Finally,
the entire building was sheathed with a new facade. In this form, the
north building is the youngest of the nuns' quadrangle.
The
picture program combines motifs from the facades of the other parts of
the nun's quadrangle. The base consists of a band with alternating
smooth parts and groups of three columns, framed by two smooth bands.
The lower wall surface is smooth everywhere. The central cornice is also
kept simple, consisting of three elements, the middle of which is a
smooth ribbon, which is accompanied by sloped ribbons at the top and
bottom. An outstanding and structuring element are the high cascades of
Chaac masks, which, together with the similarly designed corner
cascades, considerably exceed the roof surface. Their original number is
uncertain, as the facade was only partially sufficiently well preserved.
Above some of the entrances there are representations of traditional
Mayan houses, the first of which form various double-headed snakes. A
comparison with the smoke clouds of the hearth fire, which emerge from
the house representations of the southern building, suggests a symbolic
equation. In front of one of these houses is the fully plastic
representation of two jaguars, whose tails are intertwined, a motif that
can be found similarly in other places in Uxmal. Between the cascades
and the houses, diagonally placed Chimez stones alternate in two
registers around central rhombuses with large-scale meandering steps. In
these fields there are prominent figures from the facade surface, such
as the (incomplete) of a bound prisoner and that of an owl with a human
face. A high, quadruple cascade of Chaac masks is installed above every
second entrance. The design of the facades on the narrow sides of the
north building is not known, apart from the corner cascades.
The
back of the building is kept simpler. In regular succession, smooth
surfaces alternate with those with an oblique grid. In all smooth
surfaces, stone pedestals protruded from the wall above the central
cornice, on which in one case a part of a male figure with a bared
genitals has been preserved. At the height of the head of these figures,
the facade has an exactly worked round hole, into which – as is assumed
for various similarly designed monuments of the wider region – a skull
of a killed person was inserted instead of the head made of stone.[26]
The upper cornice of the whole building consists in principle of three
links: two smooth bands framing a continuous row of low columns. The
obliquely projecting band, which is usually located above it, is so much
elevated here that it is actually necessary to speak of a separate wall
surface, especially since the oblique position is hardly formed anymore.
The two elongated buildings, known as the Annex, run parallel to the
east building of the Nuns' quadrangle and a little to the east of it.
They are two identical buildings, originally separated by a narrow
passage, which (similar to the Governor's Palace) was later closed and
covered with a vault. The similarity of the two buildings obscures the
architectural history: first the southern building was erected, then the
northern one followed, in connection with its construction, the
connecting arch to the southern building was built, which was later made
impassable by a transverse wall and transformed into a semi-open
interior, similar to the two connecting arches at the Governor's Palace.
The two buildings are designed identically, they consist of two
unusually long rooms. The front of the rooms was to be entered through
three entrances, which were separated by wall panes, a simple entrance
leads to the rear. The quality of the construction is extremely high,
which can also be seen in the very large span of the vaults. It is 4.1
meters in the rear room of the northern building, and even 4.35 meters
in the southern one, which is probably the largest span of a room in the
entire Mayan area.
Also noteworthy is the construction of the
outer walls of the southern building, which consists not of a core of
bulk masonry and non-load-bearing facing bricks, as usual, but of
massive stone blocks extending over the entire width of the wall, which
are almost set in the runner's union. The characteristic facing stones
are missing, as are the door jambs made of several stone blocks. It
seems to have been an experiment here, which can only be found (but less
qualitatively executed) in building 6 of the Nordgruppe, but was not
followed up otherwise.
The wall surfaces are smooth, numerous cones or bases for decorative elements made of stone or stucco stand out from the upper half of the wall of the southern building, which is partially preserved only on the back, of which no traces have been preserved. The three friezes each had three elements. The central frieze shows a protruding smooth band and two oblique bands above and below it. The upper frieze is designed the same but higher.
From the peculiar masonry, which also occurs in a building of the Northern Group, it can be concluded that the two buildings were erected almost simultaneously. For the Northern group, it is believed that it originated early in the history of Uxmal. The annex building should be dated similarly early, because the passage only made sense as long as the Monjas complex did not exist yet. Since the construction of the Monjuas complex meant that the passage only led to the high rear platform wall of the Monjas east building, it could be bricked up without any disadvantage. The interior painting, which is preserved in small remnants in the corners, also speaks in favor of an early period setting. It consists of a deep red painting of the wall surfaces of the vault and the lower parts of the wall, with a horizontal band of large black hieroglyphic signs on a light background running under the base of the vault. This is a hallmark of proto-Puuc and early Puuc buildings, but where this band is preferably found on the outer wall. The highly fragmentary preservation completely excludes a reading.
The largest pyramid of Uxmal in terms of its volume, near the back of
the Governor's Palace, is an isolated standing structure with an
approximately square floor plan of 80 meters in side length. It was
originally built as a pyramid with a building on the upper platform, to
which a wide staircase led up on the north side. This building had five
rooms in the back row of rooms and three in front of it. Access to the
three middle rooms of the back row was through the rooms in front via
the trunk of an oversized Chaac mask. The rooms were already filled with
rubble masonry in ancient times for reasons of stability, only the
central front room was cleared of rubble during the excavation. There
was only one room on the other three sides.
The facade was richly
decorated. On the north side, the entire lower wall surface was designed
with three rows of meandering steps, which are separated by narrow
representations of intertwined snakes. Depictions of parrots in
bas-relief are arranged between the individual meandering steps. Nothing
has been preserved from the upper half of the wall. The corners of this
building are formed by three chaac masks stacked on top of each other.
The facades of the other sides are known only from small-scale
exploration excavations of 1941. There, this time in the upper half of
the wall, large stepped meanders with a pattern of diagonally placed
crosses alternate. The lower half of the wall is unadorned there. The
central cornice consists of a smooth central band, and above and below
it are sloping, outwardly sloping stone slabs. In a later phase, the
pyramid was raised to the level of the building roof, covering the
facades of all four sides and filling all the rooms. This and other
indications indicate that a large building was planned on the new
surface, but it did not come to fruition.
The first excavations
were carried out in 1941. The grand staircase and the northern facade
were exposed and reconstructed around 1969. During conservation measures
in connection with the renovation of the facilities for the light and
sound show, an older facade was discovered on the north side in 2009,
which is attributed to the early classical period. This older facade was
closed again for reasons of stability.
This complex of several large buildings is the westernmost of the
center of Uxmal. It is very badly destroyed, extensive reconstruction
works carried out since 2000 on the northernmost (deepest) part give an
approximate impression of the former appearance. According to the
quality and type of stone processing, the complex is likely to belong to
a relatively early phase in the construction history of Uxmal and has
undergone several conversions.
It is divided into four large
courtyards, which are located in front of the "South Pyramid" in the
north. The northernmost courtyard is formed by three long buildings,
only the north side of the courtyard is undeveloped except for a low
platform. The two buildings on the east and west sides of the courtyard
are badly destroyed, they had two rows of rooms opening to the two
sides. Only the southern building, which was also largely destroyed,
consists of a single row of rooms and leans with its back wall on the
terrace adjoining to the south. This terrace was reached from the
courtyard by a staircase that spanned the facade of the building in the
center, but left a passage to the middle room free.
The free
space formed by the terrace is relatively narrow and is not limited by
long buildings on its sides, rather there is a direct transition to the
terrace at the foot of the main pyramid on the east side. To the south,
this terrace adjoins another one, on which the pigeon house is located.
The so-called "pigeon house", due to the large number of slit-shaped
openings in the roof ridge, consists of two parallel rows of rooms, but
they are not completely symmetrical: the south side has fewer rooms than
the north side. In the center there is an arched passage that connects
to the next (southern) courtyard.
The well-preserved roof ridge,
which consists of two horizontal registers, rests on the thicker back
wall of the two rows of rooms, i.e. at the same time the middle wall of
the building. The lower register consists of a smooth wall surface,
which is pierced by upright rectangular "windows". The upper register is
divided into triangular, gable-like sectors, which probably had seven
rows of low "windows". The function of all these windows is to reduce
wind resistance.
In the center of each of these pediments, in the
lowest "window" row, there is a smooth surface with a protruding peg, on
which there was a figure, but it has not been preserved anywhere. Also
over the remaining area of the ridge of the roof are distributed cones
for fixing figures or ornaments made of stucco. No statements can be
made about the facades of the building, since the front walls of both
sides have not been preserved.
To the south of the pigeon house there is another courtyard. In
addition to the pigeon house to the north, it had buildings on its west
and south sides, of which only small traces are visible, while it was
bordered by the main pyramid to the east. The building on the west side
of the courtyard had a simple facade, which showed columns in the
cornices and the upper wall surface. The south building originally had
two rows of rooms on both sides and a passage in the middle, so its
layout largely corresponded to the pigeon house. In contrast, a roof
ridge does not appear to have been present. At a later stage, the
passage from the south was blocked by a terrace, which reached up to the
height of the roof of the building. The rooms, which were no longer
accessible as a result, were filled with rubble and a staircase was
built over the passage, which led to the terrace.
On this terrace
stands the South Pyramid, which dominates the entire complex. A long
staircase led up to the platform at its top. The temple building, of
which two remains of vaulted rooms have been preserved, was, like the
pyramid itself, relatively narrow, it had three rooms in a row and
another, much narrower behind the central room, a floor plan that refers
to the Chenes region located far to the south. The walls are relatively
thick and partly covered with unusually large stones. The wall of the
front reached higher than the roof level and probably formed a roof
ridge. On the south side of the pyramid there was a series of rooms,
which can be recognized only in traces. The entire complex has not yet
been excavated or archaeologically studied.
It is one of the court complexes typical for Uxmal. The buildings bordering it on three sides stood on high platforms. The southern building was probably interrupted in the middle by an arched passage, to which a staircase led up from the south. Opposite this entrance is the pyramid, which is significantly higher than the other platforms, had a staircase on the south side and on the surface of which there was a building consisting of one room.
Only a part of the buildings on the west side of the courtyard have
been preserved. In the middle there is an elongated building with
originally three entrances from the courtyard. In front of the larger
central entrance there is a wide entrance platform. The entrances lead
into a long, not further divided room. The two side entrances were
closed with masonry made of secondary stones, but of low structural
quality. In addition, there is an entrance on the south side, a rather
rare element in the architecture of the region. Originally, the
entrances had wooden door beams, this was replaced in modern times with
concrete door beams.
The facade of the building shows the
characteristics of the early Puuc architecture: the central cornice
above the doors consists of two elements, a band with a profile
projecting obliquely downwards and a smooth band above it. The upper
cornice also consists of a smooth band and above it the high end stones
projecting upwards. This cornice is interrupted above the central
entrance and the corners. There are stone cones sticking out of the
facade, the larger-than-life figures (made of stucco?) are likely to
have held. On the roof there is a still partially preserved ridge of the
roof, a narrow wall with breakthroughs, which was probably covered with
stucco figures.
The two side buildings were less than half the
size of the middle one and also had three entrances. The northern of
these buildings has completely collapsed, from the southern one the back
wall stands. The surviving components show that the two lateral
buildings had the same facade design as the central building.
In the courtyard there are three (probably originally four) low
platforms, which carry on the outer walls decor with crossed long bones
and skulls, as well as shields. The iconography is likely to indicate
battles of the rulers of Uxmal, which were celebrated in these
monuments.
Three of the platforms have long bands with
hieroglyphic inscriptions above the described decoration, but their
dates cannot be classified. In a piece of text, in connection with the
mention of a "star war", a name sign can be found that refers to the
region of Xcalumkin.
A low, round pyramid was excavated in the western part of Uxmal in the 1990s. Actually, it is a round building located on a stepped round platform of about 18 meters in diameter and almost 2.5 meters in height, also with an entrance from the north, to which an only poorly preserved staircase leads up. The building had an outer wall of a maximum height of 1 meter, on which a wall and roof structure made of perishable material must have stood. Intense burn marks show that the building was destroyed by fire. Later, as on many other ruins of the Puuc area, precious offerings were laid down in the rubble of the building. The comparison with similar constructions in other places and the construction method show that the round pyramid was built very late in the history of Uxmal, and that it is related to the numerous C-shaped buildings, one of which was directly attached to it.
About 80 meters southeast of the platform of the Governor's Palace is
the complex, which has not yet been further uncovered and reconstructed,
consisting of a pyramid and several buildings. The pyramid, which once
had a staircase on its western side, had a platform on its top with a
presumably larger building, which may have consisted of two rows of
three rooms each. A more precise statement on this is impossible,
because so far no excavations have taken place and because at least the
central and southern part of the building has not got beyond low walls
and has never been completed.
Halfway up the pyramid on its
northwest flank stands the actual "Old Woman's House", which belongs to
the early Puuc style and is therefore one of the oldest surviving
buildings. It seems that this building stands on its own smaller
pyramid, which is older than the large one behind it. The building, the
northern half of which collapsed, had two rooms in a row, which could be
entered through an entrance to the west. The outer and inner doors were
covered with wooden beams. Noteworthy is the still partially preserved
roof ridge, which has numerous protruding pegs on the front side (to the
west) for fixing stucco figures. Presumably, a second roof surface was
constructed for the roof ridge, which is about 14 cm above the first
one. It is not to be decided whether this was a technically related work
step or whether the roof ridge was put on only later.
Immediately to the north of the Old Woman's Pyramid, on the same low terrace, there is a largely destroyed building consisting of three rooms. On the quarry stone core attached to its rear side there is a second floor with a single room, to which a staircase leads from the west, spanning the facade of the ground floor. From the passage below the stairs along the facade, the entrance leads to the middle room. The wooden beam spanning the entrance is still preserved in place.
This building is located about 450 meters south of the Governor's
Palace, the access leads over a forest path that starts at the "House of
the Old Woman". The path crosses several heavily crumbled, small groups
of buildings. The phallus temple, so named after the gargoyles executed
in the phallus form in the upper cornice, is located on the southern
edge of a large, stepped platform.
No consolidations have taken
place so far. The building may have originally consisted of five rooms
facing north, towards the center of Uxmal. Behind the middle room there
is another room, a building plan that is characteristic of the Chenes
region. Only a part of the back wall is preserved, including that of the
additional room.
The facade of the rear wall has smooth wall
surfaces, the middle and the upper cornice are kept identically, and
have a smooth middle band, above and below, bands directed obliquely
outward. The eponymous phallus is embedded in the upper band of the
upper cornice, which was able to drain water from the roof surface
through a gutter made on the upper side.
Chimez Temple (Chanchimez)
The temple, so named after a detail of
its decoration, is located exactly 400 meters south-southwest of the
governor's Palace, already outside the wall belt in dense forest. No
excavation work or consolidations have taken place on the building so
far. The building is located on the southern edge of a large platform,
which probably had an elongated building on the north side with a
passage in the middle, which was accessed from the center of Uxmal by a
wide staircase.
It is a not quite symmetrical building with a
total of 10 rooms, which is arranged around a solid block of stone
material on three sides. The main page with 6 rooms is directed to the
north, to the center of Uxmal, three rooms to the west and two to the
east. One of the rooms of the front side has no entrance from the
outside, but through the room located next to it on the side.
A
staircase leads over the facade to the roof level, on which there is a
building with a long column portico and three rooms behind it, which is
largely destroyed. Under the stairs, an arched passage leading along the
facade gives access to the middle room of the ground floor. The entrance
door has a well-preserved door beam made of Chicozapote wood, which is
still in operation.
The facade of the ground floor is partially
preserved and can be completely reconstructed. The base consists of
three elements, the high middle of which shows an uninterrupted braided
ribbon motif. The stones of the upper band are also in relief. The lower
wall surface shows large stepped meanders, between which vertical rows
of squares standing on the top run. The central cornice has three bands,
of which the lower one projects obliquely downwards and outwards, and
the slightly recessed central one consists of alternately obliquely set
toothed stones, which are called chimez (centipedes) because of their
shape.
The upper band is smooth. The upper wall surface consists
of columns that have the educational motif twice. The upper cornice
consists of four elements: a band projecting obliquely downward and
outward, which is formed here by two rows of stones, a recessed row of
low columns, a repetition of the lower element, but consisting only of
one row of stones, and the end stones projecting obliquely outward and
upward.
Of the heavily destroyed upper floor, only the base
cornice is known, the middle element of which is formed by low columns
standing in groups of three. On the central wall of the building on the
upper floor there was a ridge of the roof. The back of the complex was
not used. The building is preceded by a large terrace to the north,
which compensates for the slightly rising terrain to the south.
Northern Group (Grupo Norte)
The northern group is located 200 meters
north-northwest of the Nuns' quadrangle on elevated terrain. It is
easily recognizable from the main road passing by Uxmal. More than a
dozen mostly heavily destroyed buildings are arranged around at least
three courtyards. According to the construction method and floor plans,
it is one of the oldest surviving parts of Uxmal. So far, no excavations
and consolidations have been carried out in the Northern Group. The
group is currently not officially open to visitors.
Amazing for the size and obvious significance of Uxmal is the small
number of preserved inscriptions containing a clearly expressed date.
These were built exclusively under the rule of the only known ruler of
Uxmal, Chaak, just like the majority of the grandiose buildings. In
Uxmal, no data are preserved in the absolutely precise long count, the
data are expressed either as a calendar round, or as the end of a period
of the long count, but without denoting it completely and thus
unambiguously.
The ability to read or write hieroglyphic
inscriptions correctly, apparently, was already significantly limited in
this region and at that time. This explains the execution of a series of
pseudo-hieroglyphs in Uxmal in the bird's quadrangle (as well as in
other places outside Uxmal), which (to the also mostly non-literate
viewers in ancient times) should give the impression of an inscription,
but are clearly not legible.
About half a dozen other steles, all
of which are assembled on the stele platform (west of the Nuns'
quadrangle), which is not open to the public, as well as a few other
monuments, more or less clearly bear dates in the Ajaw style, which
refer to the name of a K'atun (calendar cycle of about 20 years
duration). They fall in the period from 810 to 928. The steles are
eroded to such an extent that the mostly short non-calendar texts are no
longer legible, the other monuments bear only the one sign that is
interpreted as a calendar indication. Vaulted ceiling stones are not
sculpted, but painted, whereby the painting on a thin stucco background
is often exfoliated.