Twenty kilometres south of the important site of Uxmal, is a 2740 acre national preserve which contains the ruins of another Mayan site, Kabah.
Tourists should not be misled by the size of the preserve however. While Kabah was the second largest Mayan city in the area, after Uxmal, very few of the structures of the city have been uncovered by archaeological explorations.
The buildings that are on view can be visited in under an hour.
Although there is evidence of Mayans occupying the site from around 300 B.C., most of the buildings there date from between the 7th and 10th centuries. Kabah was connected to the dominant city of Uxmal by an 11 mile long raised causeway. The causeway was 16 feet wide and had monumental arches at each end. Not much is known about Kabah, but the existence of this causeway suggests it was of great importance to Uxmal.
As with other Mayan sites, Kabah was abandoned centuries before the Spanish conquest and no one is sure why.
Tourist amenities consist of one souvenir kiosk.
In the rickety washrooms, you turn a metal dial on a pipe to get the toilet to flush.
The remains of a weather worn statue lean sadly against one wall of the washrooms.
I guess this passes for the site museum.
Piles of rubble are visible through the encroaching jungle. My guide informed me that one such place, where you could just discern the remains of walls, had just recently been excavated. Archaeologists have decided this structure was originally the kitchen for the palace.
So why visit Kabah?
The attraction here is a unique building, the “Palace of the Masks”.
Whereas most Mayan buildings of whatever period have plain walls, some portion of which will be decorated with friezes and sculptures, one wall of this structure is completely covered with massive numbers of one element – masks of the rain god Chaac.
It is unique in Mayan architecture.
It is reached via some fairly impressive stairs.
The building was also called “Codz Poop” which means ‘rolled matting’ (not North Atlantic fish excrement). This seems to have been a reference to the rolled up long snouts of the masks, some 250 in all. Most of those snouts have been broken off.
This mask, though fallen from the facade, retains most of its features.
The wall of masks of the rain god is a sort of shouted message to the god for water, in an area where sources of water other than rain, are very scarce. There are no cenotes here.
I found that from a distance, the masks are not really discernible. It is not until you get quite close that you can make out the two ringed eyes and the remains of the elephant-like snouts.
This Chaac mask, from the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City, shows what an intact mask would have looked like.
My guide said some of the snouts faced up, and some faced down. If they were facing up, it was a signal rain was needed. However, since the masks were made of stone, the snouts were hardly manoeuvrable depending on weather conditions, so I tend to doubt this statement.
From the top of the Temple, you got a nice view of the site.
The small pyramid that stands to the side of the Temple has been pretty much destroyed.
The Altar of Glyphs contains glyphs on four sides. They appear to have been added after the altar was built, as some take up more than one stone. Their message has not been deciphered, since so much of it is missing or destroyed.
Stray stones with glyphs sit, waiting to be put back into their proper place.
Kabah had an interesting reservoir system for preserving water. As the loud insistent messages to the rain god make clear, here as at Ek Balam conditions are very arid.
We finished at a temple with a lattice work frieze and statues of warriors.
Carvings inside the entrance door showed long vanished Mayans engaged in either battle or a dance. The jury seems still to be out on that.
By contrast, Uxmal is a much more well understood and a good deal more of the site has been excavated and restored than at Kabah.
Uxmal is considered to be one of the most important Mayan sites, ranking right up there with Palenque, Chichen Itza and Tikal. It was connected by roads to those places.
I have no idea why I had never heard of Uxmal.
It reached its height during the Classic period (around 700 to 900 A.D.) By about 1000 A.D., Toltec invaders had taken over. Most construction had ceased by 1100 A.D., and although there may have still been some inhabitants here when the Spanish conquered the Yucatan, the city seems to have been largely abandoned.
Personally what convinces me that this place had lost all importance by the time the Spanish arrived is the simple fact that they didn’t feel it was necessary to pull down the buildings and construct their own churches from the stones on top of the ruins.
The visitors’ centre is well developed.
You go through there to a short steep path through the jungle. The first building you see is also one of the most impressive, even from the back (eastern side).
The Pyramid of the Magician is about 114 feet tall (higher than both El Castillo at Chichen Itza and the Acropolis at Ek Balam). What makes it unusual is its ovoid appearance and its elliptical base. It is smooth sided and those sides are rounded and very steeply sloped. Very different to the strictly straight lines and angles I saw at El Castillo in Chichen Itza and in Teotihuacan.
The building was completed in several phases (Uxmal means thrice built). The earliest construction has been carbon dated to about 560 A.D. As with many other sites, one pyramid was built over another, repeatedly. In this case however, one of the newer pyramids was built slightly offset to an older one. The result is that the older temple is still preserved on the west side of the structure, with the newer temple above it. There are five temples in total, reached by the two different staircases, sometimes requiring entry into the actual structure.
The temple on the east side was made to look like a thatched roof, echoing domestic architecture. At the front, or western side, the temple entrance at the top takes the form of a mask of the rain god Chaac. Chaac’s mouth is the door.
There’s a little Chaac in the steps below. You can’t have too many Chaacs.
The west side is positioned to face the setting sun at the summer solstice.
Unlike the names of the other structures here, which are those given to them by the Spanish, the Temple of the Magician appears to have been the name given to the building by the Mayans. There is a very ancient and widely known myth associated with the construction, which tells of how the pyramid was constructed in one night, with the use of magic, by a dwarf aided by his mother, who was a witch. Or possibly it was done by a god. Your choice.
The usual steep narrow steps are no longer open to be climbed by tourists. I remarked to my guide on how difficult the ascent would have been.
He said that there is an old story which insists that the courage to tackle the ascent was one of the criteria used for selecting priests.
The steps on the west side of the pyramid were decorated with more masks of Chaac.
This structure, as was commonly the case with Mayan ceremonial buildings, has a number of incredibly complex mathematical based features. For example, when you clap your hands at a certain point, exactly seven echoes result. Seven is a significant number, associated among other things, with death and the jaguar.
We viewed a number of other very well preserved structures, such as the House of the Birds.
The House of Turtles has, of course, turtles. I have read that they represent the shell of the earth. I have also read that they were sacred because of their association with water.
The “Great Pyramid” dominated one end of the complex. It is slightly taller than the Magician’s Pyramid, and you could climb it.
I declined, even though because of the way it was situated, you could have started the climb about half way up.
I have found no information about this elegant little pillared building.
One of the most beautiful sites was a quadrangle formed by several beautiful long limestone buildings, which the Spanish termed The Nunnery.
The arched entry provided another dramatic photo op.
In the doorway leading into this quadrangle is a single print of a red hand, perhaps a signature of one of the masons.
The largest building in The Nunnery complex has 13 doorways, a significant number to the Maya, as there are 13 levels to the Mayan heavens. From the platform on which this building sits, you got a good view of the building opposite.
That one has 9 doorways, representing the nine levels of the underworld. It is also noticeably lower than the other buildings; presumably another visual reference to the Underworld.
It is thought that this complex of buildings functioned as a sort of university where priests were trained, along with the sons of the elite, who would learn about mathematics, calendars, astronomy, architecture and other subjects of interest to the Maya.
Everywhere you looked there were beautifully carved facades, each different from the rest.
The serpents were a particular favourite of mine.
Our old friend Chaac was present of course.
A throne (or seat) graced the quadrangle in front of the largest building.
The Ballcourt here, although not as stunning as the one at Chichen Itza, was quite impressive.
The so-called Governor’s Palace is built on a huge platform and has one of the longest facades in ancient Mesoamerica.
That facade is beautifully decorated with serpents, stone lattices, geometric swirls meant to represent the wind, and of course, Chaac. It also has more than 350 Mayan emblems for the planet Venus.
Pointed arches that seemed to lead nowhere were a feature on this building.
It had some of the finest stonework I saw in Mesoamserican structures.
They used concrete here rather than plaster, and it seems to have made a difference. I do have to say though that at least in respect of stonework, the Mayas did not achieve the mastery displayed by the Incas in Peru. The Inca used no mortar of any kind to fit irregularly shaped stones so closely together you can’t get a piece of paper between the cracks.
The Inca sometimes accomplished this incredibly fine work using massive stones which would not have been out of place at Stonehenge. Here are John and I at Sacsayhuaman near Cusco in Peru:
But I digress.
On a small platform facing the Governor’s Palace is a double headed jaguar throne.
It could have been used as an astronomical platform for watching the setting of Venus (recall the Temple of Venus at Chichen Itza).
Between the throne and the and palace is a stone cylinder.
My guide pronounced this a phallic symbol, but I have also seen it called a ‘pillory shrine’.
After our day of touring, I was very happy to stop at the Hacienda San Pedro Ochil for a late lunch.
This beautiful place started life as a cattle ranch. That accounts for the long deep water trough, fed by ceramic pipes.
According to my guide, there used to be cattle races conducted here. At a certain point, the hacienda was converted to the production of sisal.
The remains of the industrial equipment today look quite picturesque.
The smokestack lurks shyly among the trees.
The narrow gauge tracks still snake around the property.
A little engine that looks like it is put together from scraps, hauls tourists around on weekends.
The site also has a small Museo des Artes Populares.
It was a lovely place to dine. I decided to try Yucatan specialities. I started with polcan, which is shredded chicken wrapped in a corn meal batter and fried.
They were about one number below diamonds on the Mohs’ mineral hardness scale.
I had to hold them with my fingers while I tried to get a knife through them. My guide told me this was the way they were supposed to be. I guess I have to take his word for it, as I won’t be trying them again.
I was tempted to have the chicken pibil again; I had enjoyed it very much in Valladolid. But Poc Chuc is an even more famous Ucatan dish. I felt obligated to eat it at least once before leaving the area.
This is thinly slice pork marinated in citrus and then grilled. It was okay but rather dry. I much preferred the chicken pibil.
I came home with no souvenirs, although I was tempted by this awesome snake jewelry in one of the gift shops at Uxmal.
That’s okay. I could leave Mexico, satisfied that I had fulfilled my longtime ambition to visit with the Maya.