Uxmal is a large city précolombienne of the Maya Civilization. Uxmal is located in the Mexican State Yucatán, to 78 km in the south of Mérida, and to 15 km in the south-east of Muna.
The name of Uxmal (to pronounce " Ouchmal") comes from a yucatèque Maya word which would mean “three times” rebuilt. It would have been founded towards 990, then abandoned towards 1200 with the profit of Mayapan.
The architecture of Uxmal is characteristic of the style Puuc, characterized by frontages at the very stripped lower level and the higher level more worked.
The principal buildings of the site are:
- the Pyramid of the Soothsayer,
- the Quadrilateral of the Nuns,
- the Palate of the Governor,
- the House of the Tortoises dedicated to the god of the rain Chac.
Ancient history
Whereas many efforts was devoted bound for the tourists Uxmal to consolidate and restore the buildings, few things were carried out to carry out serious archaeological excavations and research. Consequently, the dates of occupation of the city and the estimate of the population (approximately 25.000 people) are very approximate and likely to evolve/move with better information. The majority of the visible monuments today were built between 700 and 1100.
The chroniclers Maya say that Uxmal was founded towards 500 by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. During Uxmal generations was controlled by the Xiu family, and was the most powerful city of the west of Yucatan, and during its alliance with Chichen Itza dominated all the north of the Maya country. Starting from 1200, no building of importance seems to be built in Uxmal, perhaps because of the fall of its allied Chichen Itza and of the displacement of the capacity towards Mayapan. Xiu transported their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined.
After the Spanish conquest of Yucatan (during which Xiu were combined with the Spaniards), the first documents establish by the conquerors suggest that Uxmal, towards 1550, was always a center of certain importance, but no Spanish city was founded there and Uxmal was soon abandoned.
Description of the site
Even before work of restoration, Uxmal was in a better state of conservation than the majority of the Maya sites, thanks to the unusual quality of its construction. The majority of the buildings were built with carefully cut stones, thus avoiding the use of the plaster. Maya architecture equalizes here that of Palenque in elegance and beauty. The architectural style Puuc prevails. Thanks to its state of conservation, it is one of the rare cities Maya where a tourist can have an good idea of it what an ancient ceremonial center in its totality could resemble. The most significant buildings are:
- the palate of the Governor , a long building built on an enormous platform with the longest frontages of the world précolombien.
- the Pyramid of the Soothsayer or Pyramid of the Magician, a temple in the shape of unusual pyramid: the levels of the pyramids are oval rather than rectangular or square as it is generally the case. It was current in Central America to build the temples pyramids the ones on the others, but here the new pyramid was built slightly in the east of old, which made it possible to preserve the western part of the top of the old pyramid.
- the Quadrilatère of the Nuns (a nickname given by the Spaniards for what was in fact a palate of the government) is the most completed buildings of Uxmal with its long buildings decorated inside as outside very elaborate sculptures.
- large a play of ball (or winds into a ball), with an inscription going back its inauguration to 901, by Chan Chak K' ak' nal-Ahau.
Many other buildings, some of important size, strew the site with Uxmal, in various states of conservation.
The majority of the hieroglyphic inscriptions are on steles gathered in an unusual way on only one platform. The steles depict the former leaders of the city; some having been restored and having been rectified, that would prove that they were voluntarily reversed and broken in old times.
Another index of a war or a battle was found in the remainders of a wall which encircled most of the central ceremonial center.
A large roadway hones some for pedestrians connects Uxmal to the site of Kabah, to 18 km in the south.
Modern history of the ruins
The first detailed account of the ruins was published by Jean Frederic Waldeck in 1838. John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood made two prolonged visits with Uxmal with the beginning of the year 1840, bringing back so much plans and diagrams which they could have been employed to build a reproduction of the ancient city (unfortunately the majority of the diagrams were lost).
Désiré Charnay took a series of photographs of Uxmal in 1860, following what the empress Carlota of Mexico decided to visit Uxmal, and the local authorities removed ancient frontages some statues and architectural elements comprising of the phallic topics.
Sylvanus G. Morley charted the site in 1909, by including some buildings previously ignored.
The first project of the Mexican government of safeguarding of the site goes back to 1927. The restorations started in 1936 under the orders of Jose Erosa Peniche.
In 1930, Frans Blom carried out a forwarding for the Université Tulane making it possible to work out a reproduction of the Quadrilateral of the Nuns which will be built and shown with the world fair of Chicago in 1933.
Anecdote: At the time of the visit of the Queen Elizabeth II of the the United Kingdom, on February 27th 1975, right in the middle of a Maya ceremony with Chac, a torrential flood suddenly fell, in dry high season.
Two hotels and a small museum were built beside the ruins of the ancient city.
See too
Related articles
- Civilizations précolombiennes
- Maya Civilization
- Other Maya sites
- Other sites Maya Puuc
- People
- Archeologists
External bonds
- Maya civilization
- history of the Mayas
- Uxmal: Mythical archeological site since mists of time, this city enchant us by his great architectural unit
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