Uxmal

Uxmal is a pre-Hispanic archaeological site in Yucatán, Mexico. The site was an important Mayan city through the Late Classic. Its apogee was around 7th to 10th century.

The site has several fine examples of Mayan architecture, including the Nunnery, with elaborate stone mosaic friezes; the Governor's Palace, with some 20,000 carved stone elements and the Pyramid of the Magician. The Maya abandoned Uxmal shortly after 950. Uxmal is pronounced “oosh-mawl,” Uxmal

"We took another road, and, emerging suddenly from the woods, to my astonishment came at once upon a large open field strewed with mounds of ruins, and vast buildings on terraces, and pyramidal structures, grand and in good preservation, richly ornamented, without a bush to obstruct the view, and in picturesque effect almost equal to the ruins of Thebes... The place of which I am now speaking was beyond all doubt once a large, populous, and highly civilized city. Who built it, why is was located away from water or any of those natural advantages which have determined the sites of cities whose histories are known, what led to its abandonment and destruction, no man can tell." John Lloyd Stephens, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas & Yucatán, (1843).

The site is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

See also[edit]

• Calakmul
• Chichen Itza
• Jaina
• Edzna

External links[edit]

• Photos