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'''Uxmal''' ([[Yucatec Maya]]: ''Óoxmáal'' {{IPA-myn|óˑʃmáˑl|}}) is |
'''Uxmal''' ([[Yucatec Maya]]: ''Óoxmáal'' {{IPA-myn|óˑʃmáˑl|}}) is an ancient Mayan city of the classical period. Today is one of the most important archaeological sites of Mayan culture, along with those of [[Chichen Itza]] and [[Tikal]]. It is located in the called [[Puuc|Puuc region]] and is the city most representative of this architectural style. |
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It is located 62 km south of [[Mérida, Yucatán|Mérida]], capital of [[Yucatán]] state in [[Mexico]]. Its buildings are noted for their size and decoration. Among them, as well as to other cities in the area, there are built few roads called [[sacbe]]s. |
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Uxmal is pronounced {{IPA-en|uːʃˈmɑːl|}} {{respell|oosh|MAHL|'}} in English.<ref>Lonely Planet, "Introducing Uxmal", http://www.lonelyplanet.com/mexico/yucatan-peninsula/uxmal (accessed 28 Oct 2009)</ref> The place name is Pre-Columbian and it is usually assumed to be an archaic [[Maya language]] phrase meaning "Built Three Times", although some scholars{{Which?|date=April 2009}} of the Maya language dispute this derivation. The currently used names for many of the structures were given by the Spanish. These names are not only not native, but they also do not specify the actual purposes of the buildings. |
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Its buildings are typical of the Puuc style, with smooth low walls that open on ornate friezes based on representations of typical Mayan huts, which are represented by columns (representing the reeds with which were built the walls of the huts) and trapezoidal shapes (representing the thatched roofs), entwined snakes and, in many cases two-headed snakes, masks of the rain god, [[Chaac]] with its big noses that represent the rays of the storms, and feathered serpents with open fangs leaving from the same human beings. Also seen in some cities influences of [[Nahua peoples|Nahua]] origin and the follow of the cult of [[Quetzalcoatl]] and [[Tlaloc]] that were integrated with the original bases of the Puuc tradition. |
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Uxmal holds some of the most complex and beautiful examples of the regional [[Puuc]]-style architecture, and its magnificent pyramids and structures make it a popular tourist destination. |
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The buildings take advantage of the terrain to gain height and acquire important volumes, include the [[Pyramid of the Magician]], with five levels, and the Governor's Palace which covers an area of more than 1.200m². |
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== Ancient history == |
== Ancient history == |
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Revision as of 22:03, 19 January 2012
| UNESCO World Heritage Site | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Criteria | Cultural: i, ii, iii |
| Reference | 791 |
| Inscription | 1996 (20th Session) |
Uxmal (Yucatec Maya: Óoxmáal [óˑʃmáˑl]) is an ancient Mayan city of the classical period. Today is one of the most important archaeological sites of Mayan culture, along with those of Chichen Itza and Tikal. It is located in the called Puuc region and is the city most representative of this architectural style.
It is located 62 km south of Mérida, capital of Yucatán state in Mexico. Its buildings are noted for their size and decoration. Among them, as well as to other cities in the area, there are built few roads called sacbes.
Its buildings are typical of the Puuc style, with smooth low walls that open on ornate friezes based on representations of typical Mayan huts, which are represented by columns (representing the reeds with which were built the walls of the huts) and trapezoidal shapes (representing the thatched roofs), entwined snakes and, in many cases two-headed snakes, masks of the rain god, Chaac with its big noses that represent the rays of the storms, and feathered serpents with open fangs leaving from the same human beings. Also seen in some cities influences of Nahua origin and the follow of the cult of Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc that were integrated with the original bases of the Puuc tradition.
The buildings take advantage of the terrain to gain height and acquire important volumes, include the Pyramid of the Magician, with five levels, and the Governor's Palace which covers an area of more than 1.200m².
Ancient history
While much work has been done at the popular tourist destination of Uxmal to consolidate and restore buildings, little in the way of serious archeological excavation and research has been done;[citation needed] therefore, the city's dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population (about 15,000 people) is at present only a very rough guess subject to change upon better data.[citation needed] Most of the city's major construction took place while Uxmal was the capital of a Late Classic Mayan state around 850-925 AD, though after about 1000 AD, Toltec invaders took over and most building ceased by 1100 AD.[citation needed]
Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 A.D. by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family, was the most powerful site in western Yucatán, and for a while in alliance with Chichen Itza dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200 no new major construction seems to have been made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmal's ally Chichen Itza and the shift of power in Yucatán to Mayapan. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined.
Uxmal was dominant from 875 to 900 CE. The site appears to have been the capital of a regional state in the Puuc region from 850-950 CE. The Maya dynasty expanded their dominion over their neighbors. This prominence didn't last long. Population dispersed around 1000 CE.
After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán (in which the Xiu allied themselves with the Spanish), early colonial documents suggest that Uxmal was still an inhabited place of some importance into the 1550s, but no Spanish town was built here and Uxmal was soon after largely abandoned.
Description of the site
Even before the restoration work Uxmal was in better condition than many other Maya sites thanks to being unusually well built.[citation needed] Much was built with well-cut stones set into a core of concrete not relying on plaster to hold the building together.[citation needed] The Maya architecture here is considered matched only by that of Palenque in elegance and beauty.[citation needed] The Puuc style of Maya architecture predominates. Thanks to its good state of preservation, it is one of the few Maya cities where the casual visitor can get a good idea of how the entire ceremonial center looked in ancient times.
Some of the more noteworthy buildings include:
- The Governor's Palace, a long low building atop a huge platform, with the longest façades in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.
- The Adivino (a.k.a. the Pyramid of the Magician or the Pyramid of the Dwarf), is a stepped pyramid structure, unusual among Maya structures in that its layers' outlines are oval or elliptical in shape, instead of the more common rectilinear plan. It was a common practice in Mesoamerica to build new temple pyramids atop older ones, but here a newer pyramid was built centered slightly to the east of the older pyramid, so that on the west side the temple atop the old pyramid is preserved, with the newer temple above it. In addition, the western staricase of the pyramid is situated so that it faces the setting sun on the summer solstice. The structure features in one of the best-known tales of Yucatec Maya folklore, "el enano del Uxmal" (the dwarf of Uxmal), which is also the basis for the structure's common name. Multiple versions of this tale are recorded, and the story was further popularised after one of these was recounted by John Lloyd Stephens in his influential 1841 book, Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. In the version told to Stephens in 1840, the pyramid was magically built overnight during a series of challenges issued to a dwarf by the gobernador (ruler or king) of Uxmal, as part of a competing trial of strength and magic against the king orchestrated by the dwarf's mother (a bruja, or witch).[1]
- The Nunnery Quadrangle (a nickname given to it by the Spanish; it was a government palace) is the finest of Uxmal's several fine quadrangles of long buildings with elaborately carved façades on both the inside and outside faces.
- A large Ballcourt for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame, which an inscription there informs us was dedicated in 901 by the ruler Chan Chak K'ak'nal Ajaw, also known as Lord Chac before the decipherment of his corresponding name glyphs.
A number of other temple-pyramids, quadrangles, and other monuments, some of significant size, and in varying states of preservation, are also at Uxmal. These include North Long Building, House of the Birds, House of the Turtles, Grand Pyramid, House of the Doves, and South Temple.
The majority of hieroglyphic inscriptions were on a series of stone stelae unusually grouped together on a single platform. The stelae depict the ancient rulers of the city, and they show signs that they were deliberately broken and toppled in antiquity; some were re-erected and repaired.[citation needed] A further suggestion of possible war or battle is found in the remains of a wall which encircled most of the central ceremonial center.
A large raised stone pedestrian causeway links Uxmal with the site of Kabah, some 18 km to the south. Archaeological research at the small island site of Uaymil, located to the west on the Gulf coast, may have served as a port for Uxmal and provided the site access to the circum-peninsular trade network.
Modern history of the ruins
The site, located not far from Mérida beside a road to Campeche, has attracted many visitors since the time of Mexico's independence. The first detailed account of the ruins was published by Jean Frederic Waldeck in 1838. John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood made two extended visits to Uxmal in the early 1840s, with architect/draftsman Catherwood reportedly making so many plans and drawings that they could be used to construct a duplicate of the ancient city (unfortunately most of the drawings are lost).)[citation needed] Désiré Charnay took a series of photographs of Uxmal in 1860. Some three years later Empress Carlota of Mexico visited Uxmal; in preparation for her visit local authorities had some statues and architectural elements depicting phallic themes removed from the ancient façades.[citation needed]
Sylvanus G. Morley made a map of the site in 1909 which included some previously overlooked buildings. The Mexican government's first project to consolidate some of the structures from risk of collapse or further decay came in 1927. In 1930 Frans Blom led a Tulane University expedition to the site which included making plaster casts of the façades of the "Nunnery Quadrangle"; using these casts a replica of the Quadrangle was constructed and displayed at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. Unfortunately, the plaster replicas of the architecture were destroyed following the fair, but some of the plaster casts of Uxmal's monuments are still kept at Tulane's Middle American Research Institute. In 1936 a further Mexican government repair and consolidation program was begun under José Erosa Peniche.
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited on 27 February 1975 for the inauguration of the site's sound & light show; when the presentation reached the point where the sound system played the Maya prayer to Chaac, a sudden torrential downpour fell upon the gathered dignitaries (including Gaspar Antonio Xiu, descendant of noble Mayan Lineage, the Xiu), despite the fact that it was the middle of the dry season.[2]
Three hotels and a small museum have been built within walking distance of the ancient city.[citation needed]
See also
Notes
- ^ Stephens (1841, vol. II pp.423–425)
- ^ http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:gK1H10TdJgcJ:luzysonidouxmal.com/notas/local.pdf+inaguracion+uxmal+reina+de+inglaterra&hl=es&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh7RU3RQjpLJn06t5DjFyhGpVI8R-2rl9FMkBv8t0ZEQWanj3zqEeNUXAJGTqYLIXWHp2Oi6eQzANzIsLcmt6gInZ6j9l9Z69KxwNXcEEyC2I_kU23kCKTn769cuU9Puativ5vW&sig=AHIEtbSNHoeil7XKZCypCO4GCUS4cKldFA
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (April 2009) |
References
- Dunning, Nicholas P. (2006). "Long twilight or new dawn? Transformation of Maya civilization in the Puuc region". In Nikolai Grube (ed.) (ed.). Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest. Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant eds.). Cologne, Germany: Könemann. pp. 323–337. ISBN 978-3-8331-1957-6. OCLC 71165439.
{{cite book}}:|editor=has generic name (help); templatestyles stripmarker in|author=at position 1 (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Schele, Linda (1992). A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya (pbk reprint ed.). New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-688-11204-8. OCLC 145324300.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); templatestyles stripmarker in|author=at position 1 (help); templatestyles stripmarker in|coauthors=at position 5 (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - Stephens, John L. (1841). Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan. Vol. in 2 vols. Frederick Catherwood (illus.). New York: Harper & Brothers. OCLC 863468.
{{cite book}}: templatestyles stripmarker in|author=at position 1 (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
External links
- Uxmal on mayaruins.com Map of the site's central portion and various photographs.
- Architecture, Restoration, and Imaging of the Maya Cities of Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, and Labna, documentation project by Prof. Charles Rhyne, Reed College
- animated 3D-reconstruction on Uxmal-3D.com
- Uxmal – The Mayan Kingdom – A well researched photographic eBook on Uxmal and the Maya
