The Olmec civilization is often referred to as the “Mother Culture” of Mesoamerica.

Known for their colossal stone heads, intricate art, and advanced agricultural techniques, the Olmecs laid the foundations for many other Mesoamerican cultures, writing systems, calendar concepts, and religious practices.

• Area of Settlement: Gulf Coast (present-day Veracruz and Tabasco).
• Dates: Approx. 1500 BCE – 400 BCE.

Important Places:

• San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán: Early Olmec ceremonial center.
• La Venta: Known for its colossal heads and ceremonial pyramids.
• Tres Zapotes: Site of the last major Olmec phase.

The Zapotecs were one of the first civilizations in Mesoamerica to develop a system of writing and a calendar. They are also known for their advanced agricultural practices and their influence on neighboring cultures.

The Zapotecs flourished for centuries in the Oaxaca Valley.

• Area of Settlement: Oaxaca Valley.
• Dates: Approx. 700 BCE – 1521 CE.

Important Places:

• Monte Albán: A large ceremonial and political center.
• Mitla: Known for intricate mosaics and religious significance.

The Maya civilization is known for its advanced knowledge of astronomy, mathematics, and architecture. They developed a complex calendar system and one of the earliest forms of writing in the Americas.

Their cities were centers of religion, trade, and governance.

• Area of Settlement: Yucatán Peninsula, Chiapas, Tabasco, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras.
• Dates: Approx. 2000 BCE – 1500 CE.

Important Places:

• Chichén Itzá: A major city with the iconic El Castillo pyramid.
• Uxmal: Known for the Pyramid of the Magician.
• Palenque: Famous for its architecture and inscriptions.
• Tulum: A coastal city with well-preserved walls and temples.
• Calakmul: One of the largest ancient Maya cities.

Teotihuacan was one of the largest cities in the ancient world and a major cultural and economic center. It is known for its massive pyramids, sophisticated urban design, and influence on other Mesoamerican civilizations.

• Area of Settlement: Central Mexico (present-day State of Mexico).
• Dates: Approx. 100 BCE – 750 CE.

Important Places:

• Teotihuacan: The city with the Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, and Avenue of the Dead.

The Toltecs were known for their militaristic culture and artistic achievements.

The Toltecs were skilled builders and left behind impressive monuments, such as the Atlantean statues in Tula. The Toltec civilization significantly influenced the Aztecs, who regarded them as cultural predecessors.

• Area of Settlement: Central Mexico (Hidalgo and surrounding areas).
• Dates: Approx. 900 CE – 1150 CE.

Important Places:

• Tula (Tollan): Known for its Atlantean stone statues.

The Mixtecs were known for their craftsmanship, particularly in gold, ceramics, and manuscripts. They also developed intricate political systems and were influential in southern Mexico, especially in Oaxaca.

• Area of Settlement: Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Puebla.
• Dates: Approx. 1000 CE – 1521 CE.

Important Places:

• Yagul: A Mixtec ceremonial center.
• Tilantongo: An important political and cultural site.

The Tarascans, or Purépecha, were a powerful civilization. Known for their resistance to Aztec expansion, the Tarascans developed unique architectural styles and advanced metalworking techniques, particularly in copper.

• Area of Settlement: Michoacán and surrounding areas.
• Dates: Approx. 1300 CE – 1521 CE.

Important Places:

• Tzintzuntzan: The Purépecha capital, known for its circular pyramids called Yácatas.

The Aztecs were one of the most powerful civilizations in Mesoamerica. They built an empire, with advanced systems of agriculture, governance, and trade. Known for their religious rituals, they left a lasting legacy in Mexican culture.

• Area of Settlement: Central Mexico (present-day Mexico City and surrounding areas).
• Dates: Approx. 1325 CE – 1521 CE.

Important Places:

• Tenochtitlán: Capital city, located on an island in Lake Texcoco.
• Tlatelolco: Known for its large marketplace.
• Cholula: Important religious site with the Great Pyramid of Cholula.

The Huastecs were known for their unique art and music, as well as their distinctive architectural styles. The Huastecs were skilled agriculturists and maintained vibrant trade networks along the Gulf Coast.

• Area of Settlement: Northeastern Mexico (Tamaulipas, Veracruz, San Luis Potosí).
• Dates: Approx. 1500 BCE – 1500 CE.

Important Places:

• Tamtoc: A ceremonial and political center.

The Totonacs were known for their agricultural innovations, particularly vanilla cultivation, and their monumental architecture. They were skilled engineers, as evidenced by the impressive structures at El Tajín.

• Area of Settlement: Veracruz and parts of Puebla.
• Dates: Approx. 800 CE – 1521 CE.

Important Places:

• El Tajín: Known for its Pyramid of the Niches.

In the lush landscape of Mesoamerica, the ancient Mayan civilization flourished, drawing inspiration from the achievements of their predecessors while carving out the architectural marvels that defined their era.

Maya architects were keenly aware of the grandeur of earlier Mesoamerican cultures like the Olmec and Teotihuacan, whose monumental constructions set the stage for the Maya architectural innovations.

The Maya adapted and refined their craft, utilizing local materials with skillful precision.

Limestone from Palenque (Chiapas, Mexico) and Tikal (Guatemala), sandstone from Quiriguá (Guatemala), and volcanic tuff from Copán (Honduras) were hewn with stone tools, demonstrating the ancient Mayans’ mastery.

A defining feature of Maya construction was their use of lime cement, a precursor to modern concrete, which allowed for ambitious architectural feats. Buildings were constructed with intricate details – exterior surfaces coated with stucco and adorned with elaborate carvings and sculptures, breathing life into the stone.

In the Puuc region, a distinctive architectural style emerged, characterized by thin ashlar slabs veneering rubble cores, creating visually striking façades. This unique approach showcased the Maya’s artistic flair and engineering skills.

Maya structures were not only practical but also aesthetic marvels. The Governor’s Palace at Uxmal, with its outward-slanting walls, defied convention, creating a dramatic and innovative architectural statement.

Color played a vital role in ancient Maya design. The vibrant colors carried significant cultural and symbolic meanings. Vibrant exteriors of buildings conveyed important cultural narratives and spiritual beliefs.

Vibrant hues like red (blood, life, and power), yellow (maize), green (jade stone, fertility, vegetation, and the afterlife), and blue (water and the sky) adorn exteriors, transforming buildings into vivid canvases.

The Maya’s deep understanding of celestial movements and the natural world was evident in their architecture. Buildings were meticulously oriented to capture solar light and align with celestial phenomena.

From the earliest monumental structures in the Petén region to the sophisticated pyramids adorned with masks and sculptures, Maya architecture evolved with purpose.

Each structure was a testament to the Maya’s profound worldview, commemorating important periods. Ancient Mayan architecture remains a testament to a civilization whose legacy endures in stone and imagination.

In the ancient realm of the Maya, urban planning was not merely practical but imbued with spiritual significance, reflecting a deep understanding of cosmic order and earthly harmony.

Maya cities were masterpieces of deliberate design, their monuments and buildings arranged in radial patterns around expansive plazas. This layout symbolized the ancient Maya worldview, with structures positioned to align with celestial events and solar phenomena. Buildings were oriented along precise north-south axes, harnessing the power of light and shadow to mark significant moments in the cosmic calendar.

Topography played a crucial role in shaping Maya architecture. At sites like Palenque, where natural rock elevations dictated construction, the landscape became part of the sacred complex.

The ancient Mayan civilization architects skillfully integrated these natural features into their designs, creating harmonious relationships between the built environment and the surrounding terrain.

The Maya’s reverence for the natural world extended to the placement of their buildings. Structures were strategically positioned to take advantage of breathtaking vistas, with panoramic views deliberately incorporated into their design.

At Copán’s ball court, buildings were oriented to emulate specific sightlines, connecting the physical realm with the spiritual.

Raised causeways, adorned with stucco and meticulously maintained, served not only as practical pathways but as ceremonial routes linking sacred sites within the city. These causeways were conduits of movement and meaning, connecting the disparate elements of Maya urban centers into cohesive sacred landscapes.

Maya urban planning was a manifestation of their intricate cosmology, a tapestry of light, landscape, and sacred geometry woven into the fabric of their cities. Each structure was a testament to the Maya’s profound connection to the cosmos, reflecting a civilization that saw architecture as more than construction; it was a reflection of divine order and human aspiration.

The towering Mayan pyramids, rising majestically above the verdant canopy, stand as enduring symbols of ancient American ingenuity and spirituality.

These monumental structures, like Tikal’s Temple IV, reaching heights of up to 65 meters, were not merely architectural marvels but focal points of Maya religious and political life. They served as both temples and tombs, housing the remains of rulers, consorts, sacrificial victims, and treasures meant to accompany them into the afterlife.

Mayan pyramids were not static monuments; they evolved and periodically expanded to reflect the ambitions and legacy of successive rulers. Excavations have revealed nested structures within, each layer preserving traces of its original colored stucco decoration – an archaeological testament to centuries of cultural and architectural evolution.

At sites like Palenque, the Temple of the Inscriptions exemplifies the quintessential Maya temple structure—a steep, single stairway ascending multiple levels to a grand platform crowned by chambers of ritual significance.

Symbolism was woven into every facet of Maya architecture; the nine exterior levels of Palenque’s pyramid mirrored the nine levels of the underworld, while the 13-level descent to King Pakal’s tomb represented the celestial realms.

Maya architectural innovations in pyramid design were not uncommon. Uxmal’s Pyramid of the Magician, with its rounded corners and unique oval shape from above, defied convention, embodying the Maya’s creative approach to sacred architecture.

Yet, despite these variations, Maya pyramids shared common features – sloping grooves, inset horizontal elements, and rounded corners – evoking the sacred landscape elements the Maya revered, resembling mountains that bridged the earthly and celestial realms.

Each Maya pyramid was more than a physical structure; it was a testament to a civilization that saw the divine reflected in the natural world. The grandeur and symbolism of these monumental edifices continue to captivate and inspire, inviting us to ponder the ancient Maya civilization’s spiritual depths and cultural achievements.

The grandeur of Maya architecture extended beyond temples and pyramids to encompass vast palaces and administrative centers, where innovative engineering techniques and symbolic design merged seamlessly.

At the heart of Maya architectural innovation were corbel vault roofs – elaborate structures constructed with overlapping stones, capped by a single stone at the apex. While seemingly precarious, these roofs were reinforced with wooden beams, showcasing the Maya’s mastery of materials and engineering.

Palenque, in particular, refined this technique, employing parallel corbel vaulted corridors to support intricate exterior roof comb structures, creating a mesmerizing stone lattice effect that adorned their grand buildings.

The interior of Maya pyramids, such as the burial chamber of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal in Palenque’s Temple of the Inscriptions, also boasted corbel vault roofs, demonstrating the versatility of this architectural style beyond administrative spaces.

Innovations in roof design continued with structures like Uxmal’s Nunnery Quadrangle, where boot-shaped stones reinforced vaults, ensuring structural integrity while embodying Maya cosmology.

This complex served as more than a royal residence; it was a visual representation of the cosmos, with buildings adorned with portals symbolizing the levels of heaven, earth, and the underworld—testaments to the Maya’s profound spiritual worldview.

Maya palaces were not only functional but also symbolic. The Palace at Palenque, with its unique three-story tower and elaborate colonnades, exemplified Maya architectural sophistication.

Doors, often post-and-lintel style and adorned with ruler reliefs or carved representations, served as portals to sacred spaces. Some, like those at Copán and Uxmal, were crafted to resemble the mouths of fierce monsters, symbolic of sacred caves – the mythical gateways to another world.

Luxury elements were not spared in Maya palaces. Palenque’s grand residence featured amenities like washbasins and steam rooms, underscoring the opulence associated with Maya elite life.

Maya architecture, with its blend of practicality and symbolism, reflected a civilization deeply attuned to the natural and supernatural realms. Each structure was a testament to the Maya’s ingenuity, spiritual depth, and artistic vision, leaving behind a legacy that continues to intrigue and inspire generations.

The ancient Mesoamerican ballgame held deep religious and cultural significance for the Maya. The ball game itself was a ritualized sport where two teams competed to bounce a rubber ball through a narrow stone hoop without using their hands or feet.

The ballgame carried profound symbolic weight, often associated with cosmological concepts and religious rituals.

Maya ball courts varied in design and location, each with its unique features. Copán’s ball court, constructed around 800 CE, stands as a testament to Maya architectural sophistication, with elegant sloping sides that frame distant vistas.

Uxmal’s ballcourt deviates from the norm, featuring vertical sides, while Tikal boasts a rare triple-court configuration, hinting at the diverse expressions of Maya culture across different regions.

The placement of ball courts within Mayan city-states was deliberate, often situated between north and south – a representation of the heavenly and underworld realms in Maya cosmology.

This positioning underscored the ballgame’s symbolic role within the sacred complex of the city, serving not only as a venue for physical competition but as a conduit between the human and divine.

The outcome of the ballgame held profound consequences.

For the Maya, victory was more than a measure of athletic prowess; it carried religious implications. Losers of the ballgame were sometimes sacrificed to appease the gods – an offering believed to ensure fertility, prosperity, and cosmic balance.

The Maya ballgame was a microcosm of their society – a fusion of sport, spirituality, and sacrifice. It embodied the interconnectedness of the human and supernatural realms, illustrating the depth of Maya cultural expression and the enduring legacy of their ancient traditions.

The architectural legacy of the ancient Maya influenced subsequent cultures and even modern architectural movements. The Mayan architectural styles left an indelible mark on later Mesoamerican architecture.

Prominent centers like Xochicalco, Chichén Itzá, Mitla, and Tenochtitlán showcase this continuity, with structures reflecting Maya design principles and motifs. Chichén Itzá, for example, features the iconic stepped pyramids reminiscent of classic Maya architecture, suggesting a cultural exchange and adaptation of architectural techniques across civilizations.

The impact of Maya architecture extended beyond Mesoamerica and into the modern era. In the 20th century, renowned architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright and Robert Stacy-Judd drew inspiration from Maya architectural elements in their designs.

Wright’s fascination with geometric forms and organic integration with the landscape echoes Maya principles of harmony between nature and built structures. Stacy-Judd, in particular, incorporated Maya motifs into his architectural projects, creating a bridge between ancient tradition and contemporary innovation.

The enduring influence of Maya architecture speaks to its timeless appeal and universal aesthetic.

By blending tradition with innovation, Maya architectural motifs continue to resonate across cultures and epochs, demonstrating the enduring legacy of one of the world’s most fascinating ancient civilizations.

This is a list of museums where Mayan pottery artifacts are showcased:

• The National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City
• Palacio Cantón Regional Museum in Mérida
• Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City
• Museum of Pre-Hispanic Art Rufino Tamayo in Oaxaca
• Cantón Palace Museum in Mérida
• Regional Museum of Anthropology in Villahermosa
• Regional Museum of Chiapas in Tuxtla Gutiérrez
• Regional Museum of Yucatán in Mérida
• City Museum of Mérida “Olimpo” in Mérida

These museums offer visitors a chance to explore the rich cultural heritage of the ancient Maya civilization. Check the museum’s current exhibits and schedules for the most up-to-date information before planning a visit.

The evidence is inconclusive concerning a founding date for Xel-Ha, but it was occupied by the 1st Century and active during Classic and Postclassic times, with most of the buildings being rebuilt in the Late Postclassic.

It was probably not fully abandoned until the 19th Century.

A stela with an Early Classic date of 9.6.10.0.0 (AD 564) from Xel-Ha was discovered in 1841 by Stephens and Catherwood.

Xelha was one of several key ports of the Maya city of Coba; others included Tancah and Tulum. It was likely used as a point of intercultural exchange between the Maya and other sea-navigating peoples between the 7th and 12th centuries, and eventually was a beacon to which European colonial navigators were drawn.

The location of Xelha was used as a base by Spanish forces, during the ultimately unsuccessful first expedition (1527–28) led by the conquistador Francisco de Montejo (the Elder).

Montejo, who had obtained a charter from the Spanish Crown in 1526 to pacify the Yucatán Peninsula, crossed over from the island of Cozumel to make landfall at Xelha’s lagoons, a short distance from a local Maya village. He set about establishing what was intended to be the first Spanish settlement on the peninsula, which he named “Salamanca de Xelha” after his birthplace in western Spain, Salamanca. However, the supplies he had brought soon proved inadequate to the task of sustaining the venture. Despite attempts to commandeer and raid neighboring Maya settlements for food, his fledgling settlement lost some fifty men within the first two months to disease and privation. In an action reminiscent of Hernán Cortés, Montejo ordered the scuttling of his ships in the face of growing discontent, forcing them to remain.

Eventually Montejo’s forces stabilised sufficiently for him to mount explorations from his temporary encampment, heading out with some 125 men north towards Ecab near Cape Catoche. The sortie returned several months later after losing half of his men in a battle against the Maya near Ake, and to disease. The 65 conquistadores who had been left behind at Salamanca de Xelha fared no better with many being massacred in Maya raids, leaving Montejo with only about a third of his original complement.

The fortuitous arrival at that point of another of his ships from Santo Domingo with provisions and reinforcements prevented further disaster, and an expedition was sent out to the south towards the Maya township of Chetumal. This also failed to gain any foothold, and within eighteen months of Montejo’s first landfall in Yucatán, the encampment at Salamanca de Xelha and the eastern coast were abandoned.

From Tulum (town), Playa del Carmen or Cancun by bus and taxi.

Xcaret means “small inlet” in Mayan. Its name comes from its situation next to a small inlet that in the past served as a strategic location for navigation and commerce for the Maya.

The original name of the site was p’ole’, from the root p’ol which means “merchandise” or “deal of merchants”, which gives an idea of the economic relevance of the site.

Xcaret has many reserves that are open to the public. According to the research by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), the first buildings of the site can be dated to 200 to 600 A.D., but the majority of them are from the period from 1200 to 1550 A.D.

The constructions of the Late Post-Classical period are situated along the coast; some of them in strategic positions for surveillance.

The site had a wall, but unlike the one in Tulum that was open towards the ocean, the wall at Xcaret defended the site from assaults coming from the sea. The wall may also have served to divide the solid ground of the interior from the swampy ground closer to the coast.

Xcaret was inhabited at the time of the first stage of the Spanish incursion of Alonso Dávila and Francisco de Montejo into the eastern coast of the Yucatán Peninsula (1527 to 1529).

In 1548, Juan Núñez was put in charge of Xcaret. At this time, a Spanish chapel was built. This implies that Xcaret remained an important settlement. The thatched roof of the chapel has disintegrated, but the walls remain standing.
The INAH divides the architectural formations into several different groups.

Some documents suggest that Xcaret was one of the most active and economically significant Maya ports on the East Coast. These documents make mention of marriages between the P’ole rulers and the people of Cozumel.

These marriages were likely for political advances; they imply that Xcaret was politically important.

During archaeological explorations led by archaeologist María José, 135 human remains were found in the chapel.

In another case, DNA found on site was analyzed, and results showed that “the distribution of mtDNA lineages in the Xcaret population contrasts sharply with that found in ancient Maya from Copán, which lack lineages A and B.

On the other hand, our results resemble more closely the frequencies of mtDNA lineages found in contemporary Maya from the Yucatán Peninsula and in other Native American contemporary populations of Mesoamerican origin.”

These findings suggest that the people of Xcaret are more closely related to contemporary Maya peoples than ancient peoples.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

SNational Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
Police (Emergency): 060
Civil Protection: +52(55)5683-2222
Anonymous Complaint: 089

Setravi (Transport Mobility): +52(55)5209-9913
Road Emergency: 074

Cruz Roja: 065 o +52(55)5557-5757
Firefighters: 068 o +52(55)5768-3700

The archaeological site was occupied in a continuous way between the middle classic period and the postclassic period. In this last period there was a war with Chichén Itzá, which is appreciated by the construction of walls of protection, and the population decreased considerably.

During the classic period was built the paved road (sacbé) to Cobá, 101 km away. It stands out in the deposit the North Acropolis, formed by a long platform with three pyramidal structures. This is the longest “sacbe” ever found.

In the classic terminal, some buildings were decorated in the Puuc style, such as the House of the War Council (Popol Nah), where was celebrated the so-called “ritual of completion” during the conquest and destruction of this place by Chichen Itza. During the ritual, termination deposits were placed blocking corridors, rooms and other access routes; these contain valuables and human remains.

The INAH has discovered structures and graves of settlers of the 5th century.

A modern town of Yaxuná located about 2 km from the ruins. The town is just 600 inhabitants, and they still practice shifting cultivation.

There is a beautiful cenote named Lol-Ha. Next to the cenote there is a small citadel, Xcán Ha.

In the Late Classic (ca. 600–800), the city-state of Coba conquered Yaxuna and built a 100 km Sacbe, or raised road, to connect the two cities. This was the longest the Maya ever built. Internally, new roads running east to west were constructed.

In the Terminal Classic (800–1100), the state of Chichén Itzá to the north began a war with the Coba state, and Yaxuna constructed a city wall, but Chichén Itzá appears to have conquered the city by around 950. Sacked and ritually destroyed, the city never recovered.

By the Postclassic (1100–1697), the population was much reduced, with new construction limited to minor additions to older architecture.

By local bus from Valladolid to Chichen Itza, 45 min, $2-$4.
And then bus from Chichen Itza to Yaxuna, 30 min, $4-$5.

Also is possible take a bus from Mérida to Chichen Itza and then continue by another bus to Yaxuna.
By bus from Mérida to Chichen Itza takes from 2:00 to 2:30 hours and will cost $9-$14.

By taxi or by car will also late from 2:30 to 3:00 hours

Or reserve a tour with transfer from Valladolid or Mérida local tour agency.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

SNational Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
Police (Emergency): 060
Civil Protection: +52(55)5683-2222
Anonymous Complaint: 089

Setravi (Transport Mobility): +52(55)5209-9913
Road Emergency: 074

Cruz Roja: 065 o +52(55)5557-5757
Firefighters: 068 o +52(55)5768-3700

A striking recent discovery is the fact that Acanceh seems to have always been the name of this place, as proven by an ancient hieroglyphic text found in the town and only recently read by epigraphers.

The word “Acanceh” means “Lament (groan) of the Deer” in the Yucatec Maya language.

The history of Acanceh is not well known.

There are no known stelae or other glyphic inscriptions that can help identify its rulers or associations with other city-states. What is known of its time frame has been deduced from the examination of pottery fragments, burials, and architectural styles.

Archaeologists and researchers have made associations with the central Mexican highlands (Tikal and Dzibilchaltun). Being so near to Merida, ancient T’Ho, it is hard not to imagine a relationship with that site as well.

Acanceh, unlike most others, was never fully abandoned as it is mentioned in several 16th and 17th-century sources.

The site of Acanceh was never fully abandoned, as it has been uninterruptedly occupied since the Preclassic until the present. Acanceh was founded sometime between 300 and 500, during the Early Classic period. The city was founded by the Itza people.

The first mention of Acanceh from an archaeological perspective was made by the French explorer-photographer Desiré Charnay in 1888, who spoke of structures built with finely carved blocks, not unlike other Maya buildings in the area.

Adela Breton visited the site in 1908 and painted a full-size color copy of the famous frieze at the Palace of the Stuccoes.

Teobert Maler also visited in 1908 and took several photos of the frieze which have been of great value in helping to understand the composition and nature of the frieze which has since dramatically deteriorated.

There followed Edward Seler 1911, T.A. Willard 1928, Miguel Fernandez 1933, George Brainerd 1958, and Andrews IV 1965, among others.

The first archaeological work to have ever taken place in this old town was done by Austrian explorer-photographer Teobert Maler, who reported a mound of loose stone in the town’s main square, underneath which he found remains of a once-vaulted chamber as well as stucco masks.

Nevertheless, Maler did not consolidate the building. It is important to mention that Maler also photographed the unusual and fascinating stucco reliefs for which the Palace of the Stuccos, the second major structure in Acanceh, is named.

By 1933, a Mexican scholar noted that the decoration reported by Maler was all but gone. Nevertheless, through the use of what remained and Maler’s photographs, he was able to draw a reconstruction of the building before consolidating it.

It turned out that the building was of a typical early (Late Preclassic to Early Classic) Petén configuration known as a radial pyramid: one that is square and has staircases oriented towards all four cardinal directions.

The loose stone, however, points to the fact that there once was a later construction covering the early building visitors see today. INAH began consolidations and restorations in 1996 which continue to the present time.

Very recently, Acanceh was the focus of a major archaeological effort, conducted by Beatriz Quintal.

Quintal’s project uncovered a great deal of the hitherto unexcavated Palace of the Stuccos, brought to light a previously ignored but substantial pyramidal building in the town, and found four spectacular giant stucco masks on the main temple’s eastern, western, and northern façades.

Judging from the style of the large masks, the building may have well been built in the Late Preclassic, marking Acanceh as an important urban center as early as some 2,000 years ago.

Quintal’s project also included a general survey of the ancient town, which determined the existence of a minimum of 160 structures spread over an area of more than two square kilometers.

This ancient Maya city covered more than 4 square kilometers and had about 400 buildings. Three of these buildings have been restored and are open to the public, although recent excavations have uncovered more structures.

Archaeologists date the ruins of Acanceh to 300 CE and the dawn of the Classic Era. At this stage in Maya history, the great cities were much farther south in Guatemala and the Chiapas region of Mexico.

There’s a reason to suspect that Acanceh wasn’t even founded by the Maya – its oldest carvings are evocative of Teotihuacan, a powerful empire from northern Mexico.

In a rare juxtaposition of the pre- and post-Columbian religions, Acanceh’s central pyramid is found right across from the town cathedral.

The main pyramid of Acanceh

The main pyramid fronts on the north side of the plaza in the center of the modern town.

Mayan structures in populated towns were almost always demolished by Spaniards so that their stones could be used as material for the new churches, but Acanceh’s pyramid was allowed to survive.

It was first unearthed and explored by Teobert Maler in 1908.

The base measures about 30 meters square, and the height has been calculated at about 11 meters. It has rounded, inset corners, apron moldings, and recessed stairways.

An early sub-structure exhibiting large sun-god masks of K’inich Ahau has been uncovered near the top of the pyramid. Two masks flank each of the four main stairways and were originally painted red.

Though vandalized, they are still very impressive and resemble very closely those found at the site of Kohunlich 272 km to the south, and at Izamal just to the north.

On the east side of the substructure a smaller, inset stairway leads up to an inner chamber. A burial was discovered under the chamber floor which held the remains of a male and female, presumably of noble lineage.

What is striking here is that there is a fair amount of original smooth stucco remaining on the pyramid surface, especially the inner stairway, which helps to show how these structures looked in their finished state when actually in use.

The sub-structure has been dated to the Late Pre-Classic (300 B.C.-200 A.D.).
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The upper portion of the pyramid was once protected by a thatch roof. Unfortunately during a town celebration a few years back fireworks set the thatch ablaze resulting in damage to some of the stucco decorations.

These were restored, and a metal roof was installed in its place.

Four-tiered pyramidal structure

Behind the main pyramid is a four-tiered pyramidal structure, Structure 1B.

Structure 1B is just to the northeast of the main pyramid with which it forms a courtyard. It is smaller, about 4.5 meters in height, and has centrally positioned south and north-facing stairways. A ruined masonry chamber crowns the summit.

A third pyramid that surrounded the plaza was reported on by Desire Charnay in 188 but was dismantled to build the local train station. No drawings or information on this structure survives.

Acropolis

The other significant structural complex to be seen is the Acropolis. This is a massive platform supporting the remains of numerous buildings. It measures roughly 50 meters square with a height of 8 meters.

Early reports mention structures with interior chambers that once depicted now lost painted murals.

Palace of the Stuccoes

The most significant structure is the Palace of the Stuccoes. This building, containing four vaulted rooms, was unearthed in 1906 by residents quarrying the site for building materials.

This practice, unfortunately, has been going on for centuries, and many sites have been severely disturbed while others destroyed and their history lost.

Contained on the upper north-facing facade of this structure is a magnificent stucco frieze, both in style and theme.

It exhibits a fabulous display of intricately molded stuccoed deities, animals, and birds, either in natural or anthropomorphic form, and all once brightly colored. It measures about 2 meters in height by 415 meters in length.

At the time of its discovery, there were 20 figures identified with an additional one thought destroyed. It was divided into two rows, painted in brilliant colors, and in near-perfect condition.

Through neglect and vandalism, it is now a pale shadow of its former self with many of the figures obliterated.

The frieze was first reported on by Adela Briton in 1908. Her colored paintings, and the photos taken by Teobert Maler later that year, are the best-known resources for interpretation.

The frieze is flanked by two large anthropomorphic birds whose wings contain flaked limestone chips embedded into the stucco to simulate feathers.

A series of 21 (possibly more) cartouches are divided in a staggered fashion into two registers.

The upper register shows mostly birds and animals that either fly or live in treetops, while the lower register exhibits terrestrial animals. Two individuals interspace the scene which has both an upper and lower border.

The upper border displays Central Mexican water/rain symbols, while the lower border may exhibit astronomical symbols. On the lower register, a squirrel that is depicted is very similar to one seen on the beautiful frieze located at Balam Ku.

One can only imagine how incredible this may have looked in its entirety if the frieze continued around the structure as some have suggested.

The frieze has baffled archaeologists as to just what it may represent. Some believe it could have astronomical connotations relating to the Zodiac. Others think that the figures may represent spirit companions, or that it is a depiction related to the Underworld.

A small structural group has recently received some attention. Structure 6 has been deemed an underground observatory, and dates to the Early Classic Period (200-600 A.D.).

The semi-circular structure is set within a raised platform base, though the observatory chamber itself does not penetrate below ground level. During the equinox, the Sun enters through an opening in the stone roof and displays no shadow to those gathered below.

The Parroquia de Nuestra Senora de la Natividad dates to the 16th Century and is currently painted a brilliant yellow.

The contrast of the yellow, along with the day’s deep blue sky, made for some beautiful pictures.

The interior of the church is quite austere, as is typical in the smaller Yucatecan churches.

This is a very simple chapel accessed by a series of steps. Inside there are a few pews and a framed picture of the Virgin of Guadalupe. The chapel dates to the 16th century.

Archaeologists working at the Mayan site of Acanceh in the Yucatan have unearthed a building that was used as an observatory by ancient priests during the Early Classic period (CE 300-600).

One of the oldest observatories found to date, the semi-circular structure is aligned with the sun and Venus, a planet of immense symbolism for the Maya.

The archaeologists discovered that when Venus reaches its maximum brilliance in the north every 584 days the building’s alignment marks the planet’s location with light and shadows on the southern wall.

It also records the moment when the sun reaches its zenith and shadows disappear for a short time.

During the spring and autumn equinoxes in March and September, the setting sun is visible through the two doorways of the observatory and the rays also hit the Pyramid of the Masks, the largest and most important building in Acanceh.

Five masks on the Pyramid façade portray Kinich Ahau, the sun god, reinforcing the temple’s symbolism.

The easiest and cheapest way is to take a second-class bus from the Merida bus station.
You can also take a “collectivo” from Mérida to Acanceh.
Or just take a taxi from Merida to Acanceh (0:30 min).

The architecture of the ruins is from the Early Classical period (250–550 CE).

Aké is bounded by two concentric walls, one defines the core of the settlement with an area of 4 sq km, while the other protects the core housing. The core is large and square surrounded by tall buildings measuring about 25 sq m.

A great sacbé (white road) of 32 km in length connects the central group of buildings of this site to the archaeological site of Izamal. This fact underscores the importance of Aké as a hub for regional interactions and trade.

Part of this sacbé was covered later by the wall that surrounds this Mayan city and its residential area, to protect it from invasions. As you walk within the area you will see a large esplanade called the Great Plaza, where the most important buildings are.

The Pilastras Structure is located in the North, and you will see a stele in the south-center of the Great Plaza.

Structure One, also called the Palace, with rows of stone columns atop a step-pyramid platform, is the site’s most impressive feature. While most Maya pyramids are built steeply with many narrow steps, Structure One is a gradual climb of huge, flat stone slabs.

This megalithic architectural style is an Early Classic diagnostic, and may also be seen at the sites of Izamal and Ek Balam.

Dating back to the 19th century, the hacienda’s sprawling grounds served as a hub of henequen production, showcasing the economic importance of the industry in the region during that era.

Henequen is a fibrous agave plant that was cultivated extensively for its durable fibers that were transformed into ropes, textiles, and various industrial products. Henequen played a pivotal role in the economy of Yucatán.

The main house of Hacienda San Lorenzo de Aké reveals its historical layers through its architecture.

With three distinct construction periods – wooden beams, iron elements, and masonry – the main house stands as a physical timeline, reflecting the changing architectural styles and materials employed over time.

This evolution provides a glimpse into the progression of construction techniques and the adaptation to new materials.

As a henequen plantation, the hacienda is a window into the social and economic dynamics of the past. The lives of workers, the management of resources, and the relationships between different classes of society are etched into its walls.

Today, Hacienda San Lorenzo de Aké stands as a living testament to history, offering visitors a chance to step back in time. Visitors can wander through its corridors, envisioning the hustle and bustle of its industrial days.

The Aké chapel

The Aké chapel stands on a Mayan pyramid and two more hills are also located on the land. In this chapel, the tradition of the Black Christ is celebrated every Holy Saturday, which is more than 137 years old.

Every Glory Saturday of Holy Week, Catholics visit the Aké chapel to take the Holy Christ to Cacalchén on a pilgrimage. More than two thousand people from the town of Cacalchén go to look for the Black Christ to honor him with prayers.

It is said that years ago the town of Cacalchén was filled with death and disease and people prayed to the Black Christ to free them from these evils. This is how this tradition was born.

Aké is located 32 km from Mérida, on Highway 80 to Tixkokob, deviation to the right in km 25.

The easiest and most cheap way to get there is by bus or by un “colectivo” from Mérida.

Balamka’anche’ in Yucatec Maya. The name translates to “the cave of the sacred jaguar throne”. According to another version, the name of the cave is related to the Mayan leaders, not the animal jaguar.

Other name variations are Balancanche, Balaamcanche, Balaancanche, Balankanche, and Balancanchyn.

Balancanché was known to the Mayans as early as the pre-classical period, 3,000 years ago. The cave was a source of water and because of this, was the object of worship to the god of rain, Chaac.

For the first time, Balancanché was visited by Edward Thompson and Alfred Tozzer in 1905. A.S. Pearse and a team of biologists explored the cave in 1932 and 1936. E. Wyllys Andrews IV also explored the cave in the 1930s.

Edwin Shook and R.E. Smith explored the cave in 1954 and dug several trenches to recover potsherds and other artifacts. Shook determined that the cave had been inhabited over a long period, at least from the Preclassic to the post-conquest era.

On 15 September 1959, José Humberto Gómez, a local guide, discovered a false wall in the cave. Behind it was a Maya sanctuary consisting of the “Altar of the Jaguar” and the “Altar of Pristine Waters”.

José Humberto Gómez found an extended network of caves with significant quantities of undisturbed archaeological remains, including pottery and stone-carved censers, stone implements, and jewelry.

The cave ended at a small lake.

The sanctuary has been studied and described by Ramon Pavon Abreu. It turned out that the sanctuary was built in honor of the god Tlaloc, and walled in about 842 AD during the Classic Maya collapse.

INAH converted the cave into an underground museum, and the all objects after being cataloged were returned to their original places so visitors could see them in situ, almost the same way they were left there.

• From Valladolid by bus, “colectivo” or local agency tour.
• Getting there in a taxi from Valladolid will take around 0:45 min.

The site is located in the karst limestone hills of the Puuc region of the northern Yucatan Peninsula.

Sayil is located 7 km south of the contemporary Puuc archaeological site of Kabah, 5 km from Xlapak, and 5 km from Labna. It was built in a shallow valley among low, steep hills.

The Puuc region that includes the site of Sayil possesses well-defined wet and dry seasons and is characterized by a near absence of surface water due to the porous limestone bedrock.

Sayil first was settled circa AD 800, in the Late Classic Period, possibly by small Chontal warrior groups.

The city reached its greatest extent c. 900, when it covered an area of approximately 5 km² and had a population of perhaps 10,000 in the city itself with an additional 5,000–7,000 living in the surrounding area.

At the height of the city’s occupation, the population reached the limits of the agricultural carrying capacity of the land, with crops grown in gardens and fields among the residential complexes and irrigated from artificial cisterns built to store water from the seasonal rains, and more distant fields in neighboring valleys, probably were cultivated.

Additional agricultural produce probably was supplied from nearby satellite sites.

Sayil began to decline c. 950 and the city was abandoned by c, AD 1000, a pattern of rapid growth and decline that probably was typical of the Puuc region.

Archaeologists have surveyed 2.4 km² of the site, revealing an average structural density of 220 structures/km². Population estimates have been produced based on a count of structures, giving a result of 8,000–10,000 spread over an area of approximately 3.5 km².

Population estimates based on a count of subterranean storage chambers known as chultuns produce a figure of 5,000–10,000. Both estimates refer to the maximum population in the Terminal Classic.

Political, economic, social, and religious leadership at Sayil appears to have been distinct and relatively decentralized.

Economic rank has been analyzed based on an architectural scale, while political leadership was determined based on the distribution of so-called altars, and tall cylindrical stone features with elite associations.

The distribution of religious leadership was determined by the distribution of ceramic incense vessels and social leadership by the presence of rare ceramics obtained via intercommunity social alliances.

Smaller sites around Sayil, such as Sodzil, Xcavil de Yaxche, and Xkanabi, may have been tributary communities.

Sayil and other Puuc sites are thought to occupy an important place in the transition from Classic Period Maya culture to Postclassic society, experiencing a brief cultural florescence during the Terminal Classic, shortly after the Classic Maya collapse had depopulated the Maya lowlands.

The brief occupational history of the site has raised the possibility that Sayil developed from an earlier settlement known as Chac II, a small archaeological site in the same valley that was occupied as early as the fifth century AD.

Radiocarbon and obsidian hydration dating place Sayil relatively early in the Terminal Classic.

Ceramic remains recovered from the Palace indicate trade with the Petén region of Guatemala during the Late Classic, and the Guatemalan origin of obsidian artifacts suggest that Classic-period trade routes were dominant when the monumental architecture at Sayil was built.

Although Sayil’s origins lie in the Late Classic, the Terminal Classic saw the period of most rapid expansion.

Various C-shaped structures around the Mirador Complex and the structure of the terrace of the Great Palace are evidence of continued occupation after the abandonment of the monumental structures of the site core and there was a brief period of continued occupation in the residential parts of Sayil.

The primary phase of occupation at the site appears to have been 800 to 950 AD (Late to Terminal Classic) with some kind of reoccupation after the abandonment of the city.

The site first was brought to the attention of the outside world by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, who explored the site in 1841 and published an illustrated description in their 1843 book Incidents of Travel in Yucatán.

Archaeological investigations

The Mexican Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia carried out restoration work at Sayil in the first half of the twentieth century.

Archaeologists have mapped 3.5 km² of the site’s urban core. Jeremy Sabloff of the University of Pennsylvania and Gair Tourtellot carried out archaeological investigations that included architectural and topographic mapping, household-scale excavation, and intensive surface collections at Sayil from 1983 to 1988 when they were affiliated with the University of New Mexico.

The site features abundant and widely distributed surface artifacts and to study the organization of the community, from 1990–1992, Michael P. Smyth and Christopher D. Dore conducted a systemic large-scale surface collection of artifacts at a 25-meter interval across the entire site area.

Nearly 30,000 ceramic fragments were recovered (representing 99% of all artifacts recovered) and 155 lithic artifacts, of which 90% were chert with the remainder being basalt, obsidian, and limestone.

The obsidian artifacts recovered from Sayil derive largely from the El Chayal source in what now is southwest Guatemala, a distant site in Mesoamerica situated in the volcanic highlands on the Pacific coast that conducted extensive trade of the material throughout Central America.

Site description

The site is laid out along a sacbe, or causeway, running from north to south. The Great Palace stands at the northern end of the causeway, it is the largest and most well-known building at Sayil.

The Great Palace has an 85-meter-long facade and is built upon a two-terraced platform, giving the impression of three stories. Various rooms are arranged around the four sides of each terrace.

The uppermost terrace supports a long structure with a single range of rooms.

The palace was built in various phases through an unknown period in the Terminal Classic; wings were added and platforms were designed, which were filled with stones and mortar to increase stability.

The palace has a central stairway on the south side, giving access to the upper levels of the building.

The first and second levels of the Great Palace contain substructures that were demolished to build the surviving building. The first level overlies a substructure that dates to the Late Classic.

The causeway runs south from the Great Palace to a complex located 350 m to the south, which consists of a group of structures with multiple rooms. The building known as El Mirador is located in this complex.

It is a badly damaged temple pyramid with a prominent crest, it faces southward. It consists of a half-collapsed two-room building on top of a substructure. There is a phallic sculpture of an unknown date near the Mirador Complex.

From the Mirador Complex, another causeway runs 200 m southeast, then turns south to continue to a major group containing a ballcourt and several palaces, some 2 km south of the main palace.

Close to the halfway point of this section of the causeway, there is a small platform upon which were found the remains of eight stelae and seven plain altars. This stela platform represents a type of structure common among major sites of the eastern Puuc region.

The remains of various other structures lie on both sides of the causeway system, with the majority located to the west.

Structure 3B1 is notable for an interior doorway decorated by a band of hieroglyphs. Structure 4B1 has a central doorway with two carved columns supporting carved capitals and three sculptured lintels.

Puuc-style columns are a recurring motif at the site.

Another palace group stands on a hilltop to the north of the causeway system, overlooking the site core. Domestic architecture at the site consisted of over 300 perishable structures built upon underlying masonry foundations, some of which have been excavated.

The site is managed by Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH) and is open to visitors.

Chac II

Chac II is a small site located about 2 km from the Great Palace, in the northwestern corner of the Sayil Valley.

In the Terminal Classic, Chac II was a part of the greater Sayil urban area.

However, Chac II predates the Terminal Classic occupation of Sayil with various dating methods (including radiocarbon, obsidian hydration, ceramic, and architectural dating) demonstrating that Chac II thrived in the Early to Middle Classic and participated in a trade network linked to the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the distant Valley of Mexico.

Chac II probably did not lose its dominance of the Sayil Valley until toward the end of the Late Classic and it is possible that Sayil was founded by the Chaac II elite, becoming a massive urban expansion of the earlier site.

Monuments

Several monuments have been dated by Tatiana Proskouriakoff based on their sculptural style, with Stela 6 dated to circa AD 810 and both Stela 3 and Stela 5 dated to a little later in the ninth century.

The stelae of Sayil are Classic in style, depicting individual nobles who probably were rulers of the site, however, power in Sayil was likely to have been shared to some degree.

The site core is located in the flat valley bottom, while in the surrounding hills, the remains of perishable structures have been found.

The main feature of Group 1 is the Palace, which consists of nine rooms with decorated facades.

Another palace is located in Group 2, it is decorated with columns.

The architecture is an example of the ostentatious style of the Classic or Fluorescent Puuc, in common with the nearby sites of Sayil, Labna, Kabah, and Uxmal. Typical of this style is the highly decorated upper portions of the buildings that extend above the ceiling height.

The decorations at Xlapak are well preserved and include masks of the Yucatec Maya rain god Chaac.

By bus from Mérida, 2:30 hours, $9.

By bus from the town of Campeche, 2:40 hours, $17-$21.
By bus from Campeche via Hecelchakán, 2:50 hours, $14-$17.

From Valladolid by bus just via Mérida.

The name “Kabah” or “Kabaah” is usually taken to be archaic Maya language for “strong hand”. This is a pre-Columbian name for the site, mentioned in Maya chronicles.

An alternative name is Kabahaucan or “royal snake in the hand”.

The area was inhabited by the mid 3rd century BCE.

Most of the architecture now visible was built between the 7th century and 11th centuries CE.

A sculpted date on a doorjamb of one of the buildings gives the date 879, probably around the city’s height.

Another inscribed date is one of the latest carved in the Maya Classic style, in 987.

Kabah was abandoned or at least no new ceremonial architecture built for several centuries before the Spanish conquest of Yucatán.

The most famous structure at Kabah is the “Palace of the Masks”, the façade decorated with hundreds of stone masks of the long-nosed rain god Chaac. It is also known as the Codz Poop, meaning “Rolled Matting”, from the pattern of the stone mosaics. This massive repetition of a single set of elements is unusual in Maya art, and here is used to unique effect.

Masks of the rain god abound on other structures throughout the site. Copal incense has been discovered in some of the stone noses of the raingods. The emphasis placed on Chaac, the “Protector of the Harvest”, both here and at other neighboring Puuc sites, stemmed from the scarcity of water in the region. There are no cenotes in this dryer, northern part of the Yucatán, so the Maya here had to depend solely on rain.

The site also has a number of other palaces, low stone buildings, and step-pyramid temples. While most is in the Puuc Maya style, some show Chenes elements. The site had a number of sculpted panels, lintels, and doorjambs, most of which have been removed to museums elsewhere. The sculptures mostly depict the site’s rulers and scenes of warfare.

The first detailed account of the ruin was published by John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood in 1843.

The site is on Mexican highway 261, some 140 km south from Mérida, Yucatán, towards Campeche, Campeche, and is a popular tourism destination. Ruins extend for a considerable distance on both sides of the highway; many of the more distant structures are little visited, and some are still overgrown with forest. As of 2003, a program is ongoing to clear and restore more buildings, as well as archeological excavations under the direction of archeologist Ramón Carrasco.

Microbial biofilms have been found degrading stone buildings at Uxmal and Kabah. Phototrophs such as Xenococcus are found more often on interior walls. However stone degrading Gloeocapsa and Synechocystis were also present in large numbers.

Kabah was declared a Yucatán state park in 1993.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

SNational Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
Police (Emergency): 060
Civil Protection: +52(55)5683-2222
Anonymous Complaint: 089

Setravi (Transport Mobility): +52(55)5209-9913
Road Emergency: 074

Cruz Roja: 065 o +52(55)5557-5757
Firefighters: 068 o +52(55)5768-3700

The present name seems to derive from Oxmal, meaning “three times built”. This seems to refer to the site’s antiquity and the times it had to be rebuilt. The etymology is disputed; another possibility is Uchmal which means “what is to come, the future.”

By tradition, this was supposed to be an “invisible city,” built in one night by the magic of the dwarf king.

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. The city’s dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population (about 15,000 people) is a rough guess. Most of the city’s major construction took place while Uxmal was the capital of a Late Classic Maya state around 850-925 AD. After about 1000 AD, Toltec invaders took over, and most buildings ceased by 1100 AD.

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. It was the most powerful site in western Yucatán, and for a while, in alliance with Chichen Itza, dominated all of the northern Maya areas. 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 did not last long, as the population dispersed around 1000 CE.

After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán (in which the Xiu allied with the Spanish), early colonial documents suggest that Uxmal was still an inhabited place of some importance into the 1550s. As the Spanish did not build a town here, Uxmal was soon after largely abandoned.

The Mayan story The Dwarf-Wizard of Uxmal is set in Uxmal.

Even before the restoration work, Uxmal was in better condition than many other Maya sites. Much was built with well-cut stones set into a core of concrete not relying on plaster to hold the building together. The Maya architecture here is considered matched only by that of Palenque in elegance and beauty.

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, is a long low building atop a huge platform, with the longest façades in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.

From a small platform with a stone throne with two jaguar heads, this edifice would have been used as an astronomical observatory for watching settings of Venus (similarly to the so-called “E-Group” of Uaxactun for watching solstices and equinoxes). On this same alignment (approximate azimuth 118°) and at a distance of about 5 km, observations to the western horizon from the pyramid of Cehtzuc would have seen Venus setting at its northern extreme, over the north side of the “Palace”, every 8 years.

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 staircase of the pyramid is situated so that it faces the setting sun on the summer solstice.

The structure is featured 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. It was 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. According to Stephens’ version, the pyramid was magically built overnight during a series of challenges issued to a dwarf by the gobernador (ruler or king) of Uxmal. The dwarf’s mother (a bruja, or witch) arranged the trial of strength and magic to compete against the king.

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. It has elaborately carved façades on both the inside and outside faces.

A large Ballcourt for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame. Its inscription says that it 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 the significant size, and in varying states of preservation, are also at Uxmal. These include the 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. They show signs that they were deliberately broken and toppled in antiquity; some were re-erected and repaired. A further suggestion of possible war or battle is found in the remains of a wall that 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 southeast. Archaeological research at the small island site of Uaymil, located to the west on the Gulf coast, suggests that it may have served as a port for Uxmal and provided the site access to the circum-peninsular trade network.

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). 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.

Sylvanus G. Morley made a map of the site in 1909 which included some previously overlooked buildings. The Mexican government’s first project to protect 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. They made 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. 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 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 (the Maya rain deity), a sudden torrential downpour occurred. Gathered dignitaries included Gaspar Antonio Xiu, a descendant of the Xiu noble Maya lineage.

Three hotels and a small museum have been built within walking distance of the ancient city.

Microbial biofilms have been found degrading stone buildings at Uxmal and Kabah.

Phototrophs such as Xenococcus are found more often on interior walls.

However, stone-degrading Gloeocapsa and Synechocystis were also present in large numbers. Aureobasidium and Fusarium fungi species are present at Chichen Itza and Uxmal. Cyanobacteria were prevalent in the interiors of rooms with low light levels.

The name “Labna” is derived from the Mayan word “Labanha,” which translates to “old house” or “abandoned house.” This name is fitting, as Labna is characterized by its well-preserved structures that showcase the architectural achievements of the Mayans.

Labna’s history dates back to the Preclassic period of Maya civilization, around 300 BCE to 250 CE. During this time, the site began as a small settlement with modest structures.

It was during the Late Classic period (600-900 CE) that Labna flourished and reached its architectural peak. The city’s growth was influenced by its strategic location along ancient trade routes, connecting it to other significant Maya cities.

Rediscovery

Labna, like many other Maya sites, experienced a decline and eventual abandonment around the time of the Spanish conquest and remained largely hidden by the dense Yucatan jungle until the 19th century.

Labna underwent a resurgence of attention in the 19th century when a group of determined explorers and dedicated archaeologists commenced the task of excavating and studying the site.

The first written report of Labna was by John Lloyd Stephens who visited it with artist Frederick Catherwood in 1842.

Modern rediscovery and restoration efforts have aimed to preserve and showcase the historical significance of Labna, allowing visitors to appreciate the remarkable architectural achievements of the Maya civilization.

Labna is renowned for its intricate architecture, particularly its Puuc-style buildings. The Puuc architectural style is characterized by intricate stone mosaics and decorative elements that adorn the facades of the structures.

Elaborate masks, geometric patterns, and representations of the rain god Chaac are common motifs found in these structures.

The site is a comparatively small and compact one.

Among its notable structures is a large two-story ‘palace’ (“El Palacio”), which is one of the longest contiguous structures in the Puuc region. El Palacio is approximately 120 m in length a long and narrow building that showcases the distinctive Puuc-style features.

El Palacio features a long colonnade, a central courtyard, and elaborately decorated facades, making it a testament to the advanced construction techniques of the Mayans.

From the palace, a ceremonial road (sacbe) extends to an elaborately decorated gateway arch (“El Arco”). This structure is 3 m wide and 6 m high, with well-reserved bas-reliefs. The arch is not an entrance to the city but rather a passageway between public areas.

Next to this gateway stands “El Mirador”, a pyramid-like structure surmounted by a temple.

Also on the site is the Temple of the Columns.

The structural design and motifs of the site’s buildings are in the Maya architecture regional style known as Puuc. This makes extensive use of well-cut stone forming patterns and depictions, including masks of the long-nosed rain god Chaac.

The journey from Merida to Labna takes around 1.5 to 2 hours by road, depending on the route and traffic conditions.

Rental car: Renting a car is a convenient way to explore the region, as it provides flexibility and allows you to visit Labna and other nearby archaeological sites at your own pace.

Public transportation: Buses and shared vans (collectivos) are available for transportation. While they might not take you directly to Labna, you can get closer and then arrange for further transportation, such as a taxi or a local guide.

Guided tours: Joining a guided tour is a hassle-free option. Many tour operators in Merida offer excursions to Labna and other archaeological sites in the area. These tours often include transportation, entrance fees, and knowledgeable guides.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

National Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
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Mayapan is 4.2 square kilometers and has over 4000 structures, most of them residences, packed into this compound within the city walls.
Built-up areas extend a half kilometer beyond the city walls in all directions.

The stone perimeter wall has twelve gates, including seven major gates with vaulted entrances. The wall is 9.1 km long and is roughly ovate with a pointed northeast corner.

The ceremonial center of the site is located in Square Q of the city’s grid in the center of the wider western half of the walled enclosure. The ceremonial center has a tightly packed cluster of temples, colonnaded halls, oratories, shrines, sanctuaries, altars, and platforms (for oration, dancing, or stela display). Archeologists estimated 10–12000 people lived within the walled city.

According to Dr. Bradley Russell’s survey outside the city walls, there were numerous additional dwellings and he revised the total population estimate to between 15,000–17,000 people.

People living outside of the city wall engaged in agriculture, animal-raising, and specialized activities such as lime production.

Archaeologists also found a colonnaded hall outside the city wall, revealing much is still to be discovered regarding the complexity of this urban landscape.

The Temple of Kukulcan, a large pyramid also known as the Castillo, is the main temple in Mayapan. It is located immediately to the east of the Cenote Ch’en Mul, which has caves radiating from it. In form, the Temple of Kukulcan (Structure Q-162 on the site map) is a radial four-staircase temple with nine terraces; it is generally similar to the Temple of Kukulcan at the earlier site of Chichen Itza.

However, the Mayapan temple appears to be an inferior imitation of the one at Chichen Itza, and the city’s buildings in general are not constructed as well as those in other Mayan cities. For example, most or all of the vaulted roofs in Mayapan have collapsed, while many of the better-built buildings at Chichen Itza remain intact.

Other major temples in the ceremonial center include three round ones, which are unusual for the maya area and are also linked to the deity Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl in his wind god (Ehecatl) aspect.

Unlike Chichen Itza, Mayapan has no ballcourts.

The extensive residential zones of the site are composed of dwellings and ancillary domestic structures, with those around the ceremonial district larger and of higher quality and those toward the fringes being generally poorer. The houses are often arranged in small patio groups surrounding small courtyards.

Houses were built haphazardly without organized streets. Lanes wind among the residences and walls.

The residential areas of the site contain many cenotes, perhaps as many as 40.

Settlement was the most dense in the southwestern part of the city where cenotes are more numerous.

The ethnohistorical sources – such as Diego de Landa’s “Relacion de las Cosas de Yucatan”, compiled from native sources in the 16th century – recount that the site was founded by Kukulcan (the mayan name of Quetzalcoatl) after the fall of Chichen Itza. He convened the lords of the region, who agreed to found a new capital at Mayapan. The lords divided the towns of Yucatán among them, and chose the chief of the Cocom family as their leader.

The ethnohistorical sources recount multiple different histories of the rise and fall of Mayapan. These histories are often confusing, chronologically implausible, and difficult to reconcile.

For example, some sources say that the maya revolted in 1221 against the Maya-Toltec lords of Chichen Itza. After a short civil war, the lords of various powerful cities and families met to restore a central government to Yucatán. They decided to build a new capital city near the town of Telchaquillo, hometown of Hunac Ceel, the general who defeated the rulers of Chichen Itza. The new city was built within a defensive wall and named Mayapan, meaning “Standard of the maya people”.

The chief of the Cocom family, a rich and ancient lineage that had taken part in the revolt against Chichen, was chosen to be king, and all the other noble families and regional lords were to send members of their families to Mayapan to play parts in the government (and perhaps act as hostages for the good behavior of the subsidiary cities).
Mexican mercenaries from Tabasco were also employed to keep order and maintain power.

Another family, the Xiu, may have been living in the Mayapan area prior to the arrival of the Cocom. The Xiu claim to be a part of the lineage from Uxmal.

This arrangement lasted for over 200 years.
An alternative account is given in a Maya chronicle from the Colonial era, claiming that Mayapan was contemporary with Chichen Itza and Uxmal and allied with those cities, but archeological evidence shows this version to be less likely.

Mayapan became the primary city in a group of allies that included much of the northern Yucatán, and trade partners that extended directly to Honduras, Belize, and the Caribbean island of Cozumel, and indirectly to Mexico.

Though Mayapan was ruled by a council, the Jalach winik and the aj k’in (the highest ruler, and the high priest) dominated the political sphere. Below the two primary officials were many other officials with varying responsibilities.

The range of classes went from the nobility, down to slaves, with intermediary classes in between. The social climate of Mayapan was made complicated by the antagonistic relationship between the factions of nobles, which were often arranged by kinship.

In 1441, Ah Xupan of the powerful noble family of Xiu became resentful of the political machinations of the Cocom rulers and organized a revolt. As a result, all of the Cocom family, except one who was away in Honduras conducting trade, were killed, Mayapan was sacked, burned, and abandoned, all the larger cities went into decline, and Yucatán devolved into warring city states.

Archaeological evidence indicates that at least the ceremonial center was burned at the end of the occupation. Excavation has revealed burnt roof beams in several of the major buildings in the site center.

In 1841 John L. Stephens was the first to document parts of the Mayapan site with two important illustrations.
The first was of the Q-152 round temple, and the second was of the Pyramid of Kukulkan.
He was the first in a long string of explorers who drew the ruins of Mayapan.

The first large-scale archeological site surveys were not conducted until 1938 by R.T. Patton. These surveys mapped the main plaza group and the city wall, and were the basis of later maps.

In the 1950s, archaeologists of the Carnegie Institution, including A. L. Smith, Robert Smith, Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Edwin Shook, Karl Ruppert and J. Eric Thompson conducted five years of intensive archeological investigations at Mayapan.

In the early 1990s, Clifford T. Brown of Tulane University carried out excavations in the residential zones of Mayapan as part of his doctoral dissertation research.

Several years later, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) of Mexico began extensive architectural excavations and consolidation under the direction of archaeologist Carlos Peraza Lope. This work continues to the present. It has resulted in the discovery of many important artifacts, murals, stuccoes, and architectural elements.

From 2001 to 2009, further investigations were begun at the site by a team under the direction of Dr. Marilyn Masson from the State University New York at Albany, Carlos Peraza Lope of INAH, and Timothy S. Hare of Morehead State University.

Major findings of this project include the identification of diverse occupational specialization among the city’s commoners, who worked as craftsmen, conscripted military personnel, farmers, and domestic servants.

Great variation is now recognized in the types of work performed by commoners of different households and their degrees of affluence. This project has also identified a probable major market plaza in Square K (between the site center and major north gate D); Richard Terry, Bruce Dahlin, and Daniel Bair have analyzed soil samples from this location to test the function of this locality. In 2008 and 2009, the PEMY project focused excavations on an outlying ceremonial group by the far eastern city gate (Gate H), known as Itzmal Ch’en, as part of its study of the economic and social links between governing elites and distant neighborhoods within the city.

Before Mayapan

Some evidence suggests overlapping occupation of the area by different cultures. Shook in 1954 said that there may have been a Puuc “city” somewhere near Mayapan prior to its post-classical settlement. The mixture of Puuc pot sherds in the lower parts of Mayapan lots may support this, but it is a very small percentage of the material (2% in most cases and no more than 4% in others).

Site chronology based on ceramics

According to Robert Smith, the ceramicist for the Carnegie Institution, there were two ceramic phases in Mayapan: hocaba, which he said started around A.D. 1200 and may have included types named Mama Red and Navula Unslipped, more commonly associated with southern lowland settlements. (Milbrath and Pereza argue that the Hocaba phase starts in A.D. 1100, which fits better with the chronology of the southern lowland sites.) The second phase is Tases, which has some overlapping typology with the Hocaba phase.

Site chronology based on radiocarbon dates

Middle Preclassical Date

In an alley fill between the Templo Redondo and an adjoining hall, some charcoal was found that yielded a calibrated date of 540–820 B.C. But, most of the pottery in this fill was post-classical. Researchers think that this sample represented old charcoal that predated the context in which it was found.

Terminal Classical Dates

A burial found on bedrock in the houselot soils of a post-classical solare dated between A.D. 600 and A.D. 780. The burial appeared to be a secondary interment, and could not be completely excavated because it intruded into a wall. There was no pottery with the burial; midden samples in this area suggest occupation prior to the construction of the post-classical houselots.

Charcoal was found on the upper floor of one of the temples that was dated to A.D. 770-1020. Researchers think that this sample is not associated with the context in which it was found. The construction fill as well as the upper floors were of post-classical age.

Early Mayapan occupation

Three separate samples form the frame for early Mayapan occupation. These dates are A.D. 990–1170. However, two of these dates come from inexact sources. One was burned copal found in an unknown structure (apparently the label had eroded off of the structure); the researchers inferred that it was Q-95. The early date would suggest that this temple was built and in use in Mayapan’s early history.

Carbon dating of the pits below what was assumed to be Q-97 (again the label had eroded) dated from A.D. 990–1180.

Charcoal found in the early construction phase of the site’s main pyramid was dated A.D. 1020–1170. This sample was found in reliable context and is presumably the most accurate. It is important for suggesting that the post-classical phase in Mayapan started earlier than A.D. 1200.

Late Mayapan occupation

Mayapan’s settlement pattern radiated outwards to its fringes over time; many of the later dates are from materials outside of the main group of ruins. The fall of the city is tentatively dated around A.D. 1461, based on the lack of construction of altars and burial cists after this date. (Lope et al. 2006). According to Diego de Landa Calderon (1524 – 1579), the city was abandoned following the country’s enslavement by a certain chieftain of the Yucatecan nation (in collusion with a garrison of Mexica Indians), and which abuse eventually led to internecine war, culminating in the city’s demise in circa 1441.

Milpa, or mixed, fields may have been cultivated when Mayapan was inhabited. There is evidence that the area around Mayapan was regularly used for slash-and-burn agriculture.

Cenotes and underground limestone canals serve as the only source of freshwater in this area, making them essential to support agriculture.

Researchers have suggested that Mayapan was an import/export center, and that they often traded luxury goods, such as cotton, salt, and honey, for products of obsidian and metal, which they would have forged.

Today farmers use mixed fields, called milpa fields, to cultivate maize, beans, squash, watermelons, mangoes, papayas and other crops. Also, citrus fruit such as oranges and limes are often grown within the domestic house groups of the local residents.

Faunal remains indicate that the local population used varying methods of animal acquisition. A study done by M.A. Masson and C. Peraza Lope in 2008 looked at faunal remains from two different middens, one located in the monumental center by some houses, and the other is located in the domestic area outside the monumental compound.

While excavating, the researchers noted many fish skeletons, but few fish heads. They concluded that the fish were being traded into Mayapan, and not collected near the site. If the fish had been prepared at the site, the heads would have been common refuse.

Within the ceremonial center, numerous deer heads and teeth were found among the remains.

Mayapan was a major capital in the Yucatán, and there is extensive evidence that it had far-reaching trade routes, as seen in architecture and artifacts of other settlements in the region.

A wide variety of goods were traded, including maize, honey, salt, fish, game, cloth, and birds.

Peten

Zacpeten on Lake Salpeten – Incense burners found at this site are nearly identical to those found at Mayapan.

The temple assemblages at Zacpeten are very similar to those at Mayapan.

Topoxte in Lake Yaxha, Peten also shares similarities of architecture and artifacts of effigy censers. Topoxte architectural remains show a similar stone carving style to Mayapan. Also, tiny “dwarf” shrines found at this site were very similar to shrines found at Mayapan.

The two sites appear to have been abandoned around the same time; which may suggest a connection between their governments.

Highland Guatemala

Architectural and artifact connections are seen between Mayapan and the Utatlan in highland Guatemala.

Examples are similar temple assemblages, the presence of skull imagery and squatting figures, extensive and lavish use of stucco combined with crude masonry, and effigy figure censers.

Yucatan East Coast

This region also shows apparent influence of Mayapan, in similar temple assemblages, similarities in architecture, effigy censers at some sites, and parallels between architectural decoration at Mayapan and some east coast sites.

The east coast sites exported products such as cotton, salt, and honey from the Yucatán. Sites in Guatemala traded back cacao.

El Chayal in Guatemala was the only source of the obsidian found at Mayapan.

Aztecs, Central Mexico, and the Campeche Coast

The presence of Matillas Fine Orange ceramics in Mayapan suggests trade with Tabasco. This area may have mediated trade between Mayapan and the rest of Central Mexico.

Sculptures and murals at Mayapan suggest that there was contact between Mayapan and the rising Aztec empire. Some Mayapan figures showed details of Aztec dress, and what appears to be an Aztec deity is carved on an altar in Mayapan.

This evidence suggests a: “circum-Yucatecan trade route that linked Mayapan to Peten, northern Belize, and east-coast sites in the Late Postclassic period”.

The symbolism present in Mayapan is particularly significant, partially because the center of the site is mainly used for ritual purposes.

There are many similarities between the murals in Mayapan and the art and iconography of the Aztec and Mixteca-Puebla regions.
Symbols that they have in common include:

• the sun disc (there are varying interpretations of what this represents
  • Could represent the sun god
  • However, the diving posture of the figure within the disc is a common motif used to represent a dead warrior, and because the figure is represented bound and with his heart removed it has been interpreted as a representation of a warrior sacrificed to the sun god.
• representations of Quetzalcoatl
• murals in structure Q.80 show reptile iconography which has been interpreted as participation in Mixteca-Puebla traditions. The dentition of the reptile indicate that they are serpents. There are similar representations found at Coba and on some pottery in Cholula dated to circa 1350–1550 AD.

Serpent iconography is very common at Mayapan, serpent balustrade carvings are common throughout the ritual center in the complexes that are associated with the Cocom lineage like the Castillo.

In contrast depictions of the rain god Chaac are common to the temples related to the Xiu lineage.

There are also depictions of the Monkey-man god.

Most of the iconography in Mayapan is found either in murals on the temple walls, stone carving, or carved stone covered in plaster.

Directionality may have played a role in the representation of inequality among the powerful factions of Mayapan. East and west were of primary importance because it represented the track of the sun through the sky.

The east was associated with: life, males, and heat; whereas the west was associated with: death, females, and cold. This has led many sources to believe that the Itza and the Xiw may have been associated with east and west. There was very little evidence for obvious separation of residence between classes.

This is mostly due to the residential center of Mayapan being located around the concentration of the water filled cenotes. Most residences are tandem structures made of several building within a separating wall.

Many of these tandem structures include multiple residential buildings; the size of these residential buildings, relative to each other, suggests that some of them were for slaves. The integration of classes extends to the outer edges of the residential areas probably due to the convenience of being close to the agricultural fields.

Some sources indicate that the analysis of oratarios or god-houses (large house-like shrines) show boundaries that were known to the people of Mayapan. This is shown in relation to the analysis of household oratarios and those oriented around the ceremonial center of Mayapan. Unfortunately there is very little skeletal evidence found in this region because of the composition of the soil.

The goods found in different house structures do suggest different levels of social status, mainly in regard to the specialization of housing structures. There are at least two examples of obsidian workshops in Mayapan. The strongest evidence for inequality in Mayapan is found in the presence of deep shafts full of sacrificial victims, this suggests that the noble class had enough power to condemn some people to death.

The site of Mayapan was abandoned sometime in the 15th century.

There has been some dispute over when the actual abandonment took place. However, written records state that the site was abandoned in A.D. 1441. There appear to be several contributing factors to the abandonment of Mayapan. Around A.D. 1420 a riot was started by the Xius against the Cocom which culminated in the death of nearly all (if not in fact all) of the Cocom lineage.

Pestilence may have been involved in the subsequent abandonment of the site by the remaining Xiu inhabitants. There were several sources of evidence to support this interpretation. Evidence of burned wood was found inside of structure Y-45a as well as burned roofing material on many of the other structures that was dated to around the time of the collapse in K’atun 8 Ahua.

A mass grave in the main plaza, and bodies in a burial shaft covered in ash were dated to around the collapse and showed signs of violence, some of the bodies still had large flint knives in their chests or pelvises, suggesting ritualized sacrifice. Smashed vessels litter the floors of the Y-45a complex that date to around A.D. 1270–1400, prior to the documented collapse of Mayapan. A vessel bearing the glyph K’atun 8 Ahua was found on the floor of this complex. From this they have posited that the complex was abandoned finally when the city fell.

After A.D. 1461 there is little evidence of altars and burial cists being constructed after 1461, suggesting that the site had been abandoned by this point. Very little evidence has been found to support later usage of Mayapan. Copal from an altar was found in the Templo Redondo compound that may suggest later pilgrimages to the Castillo de Kukulkan. However, these samples date to the industrial era and may not be valid, so any assumptions based on this evidence would also not be valid.

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Yucatán experiences a tropical climate, characterized by warm temperatures throughout the year. The rainy season typically spans from June to October, while the dry season extends from November to April.

Consider planning your visit during the dry season, from November to April.

During this period, the weather is more predictable, and the chances of rain are significantly lower. The months of December to February offer pleasant temperatures without the discomfort of excessive heat.

Ek Balam (from Yucatec Maya “Éekꞌ Báalam” (“Jaguar Star”).

Previously, there was doubt about the ancestral name of this site.

The particle éekꞌ can mean both “star” and refer to the color black, but thanks to the discovery of the Mayan glyph emblem of this city, it can be said with certainty that the correct translation would be “Jaguar Star”.

Ek’ Balam was occupied from the Middle Preclassic through the Postclassic. At the beginning of the Late Preclassic, the population grew. Ek Balam came to control the region around the beginning of the Common Era.

From its modest beginnings, in the year 300 BC, until the arrival of the Spanish, the human settlement in Ek Balam reached about 12 sq km, which included a central sacred space of 1 sq km, where the elite resided.

Defensive Walls

The site layout is surrounded by two concentric walls which serve as a defense against attack. There were many smaller walls that snaked through the city as well.

The inner wall encompasses an area of 9.55 hectares. The carved stone of the inner wall, 2 m tall and 3 m wide, is covered in plaster; the outer wall serves purely for defense, as it is less substantial and less decorative.

These walls were the largest in the Late Classic Yucatan, and seem to have a symbolic meaning of protection and military strength.

Theories claiming a hasty desertion of the city are backed up by the fourth wall inside the city, which “bisects the Great Plaza, and, at less than a meter wide and made of poorly constructed rubble, it was clearly built as a last-ditch effort at protection” against invading attackers.

Structures Inside the Walls

Only the center of Ek’ Balam has been excavated. Large, raised platforms line the interior wall, surrounding internal plazas.

Sacbé roads stem off of the center in the four cardinal directions, an architectural allusion to the idea of a “four-part cosmos”. These roads are often understood to have been sacred.

The buildings were designed in the northern Petén architectural style, as were the surrounding large cities of the time, although it has its dissimilarities with them as well.

The Acropolis houses the tomb of King Ukit Kan Le’k Tok’, who ruled from 770 (the starting year of the “height” of this city) to 797 or 802 CE.

Wall Paintings

In rooms of the Acropolis, wall paintings consisting of texts have been found, amongst these the ‘Mural of the 96 Glyphs’, a masterwork of calligraphy comparable to the ‘Tablet of the 96 Glyphs’ from Palenque.

Another wall painting of the Acropolis features a mythological scene with a hunted deer, which has been interpreted as the origin of death. A series of vault capstones depict the lightning deity, a specific decoration also known from other Yucatec sites.

View from the top

On a clear day, from the top of the Acrópolis, the temples of Cobá and Chichén Itzá can be seen on the horizon.

• Temple Ixmoja of Cobá is approximately at azimuth 135° (Southeast) at a distance of 65 km.
• El Castillo of Chichén Itzá is approximately at azimuth 242° (West-Southwest) at a distance of 55 km.

Ek’ Balam was rediscovered and explored first by influential archaeologist Désiré Charnay in the late 1800s but extensive excavation did not take place until a century later.

Bill Ringle and George Bey III mapped the site in the late 1980s and continued to do extensive research into the 1990s, their works being cited by many others who later wrote on the site.

Subsequently, the Acropolis was excavated by Leticia Vargas de la Peña and Víctor Castillo Borges from the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia.

Alfonso García-Gallo Lacadena deciphered the most important set of North Maya Maya hieroglyphic texts and all historical references of Ek Balam are based on his intellectual work.

• Given the warm climate, staying hydrated is crucial. Carry a water bottle with you.
• Wear lightweight, breathable clothing and comfortable shoes suitable for walking on uneven terrain.
• Don’t forget to apply sunscreen, wear a hat, and bring sunglasses to shield yourself from the sun’s rays.

The site has been continuously occupied for thousands of years, although it has expanded and contracted from a mid-sized city to a small town more than once in its long history.

Restoration continues at Dzibilchaltun with over 35 sq km investigated by international archaeologists. 8,000 structures have been identified but only a small portion excavated.

Due to the long history of this particular site and the various influences from both Maya and Spanish communities, INAH has added an on-site museum on some of the great architectural features of the buildings and artifacts.

Dzibilchaltun ruins are located near Merida. Archaeologists estimate there were as many as 200,000 inhabitants and 8,400 buildings during its history with artifacts dating back to the middle of the classic period (700 – 800 CE).

Dzibilchaltun was a large settlement and was still occupied when the Spanish arrived during the 1500s. Highlights are the large plaza, sacbe trails, the Temple of the Dolls, and the Open Chapel, an unusual amphitheater-shaped structure.

Dzibilchaltun doesn’t have huge pyramids like Chichen Itza or Uxmal, but it does have unique features that make it a worthwhile site to visit. It was once a wealthy port and center of Mayan coastal trade with a peak population of about 200,000.

The population declined as Chichen Itza rose to power.

The Maya lived here from 300 BCE to the time of the Spanish invasions. The Spanish continued to build in the city once they arrived and visitors can see the Franciscan chapel that lies in the middle of the Mayan ruins.

Temple of the Dolls

Templo de las Siete Muñecas, the Temple of the Dolls, is an impressive building on a pyramid base with one short tower on its roof and a stelae in front of the building.

The temple was discovered by archaeologists in the 1950s under the ruins of a larger pyramid which was constructed on top of The Temple of the Dolls.

Building temples on top of temples was a common practice with the Maya. The dolls were found in the buried temple, but are now housed in the museum to protect and preserve these architectural features.

Though the dolls have been moved, the ingenuity of this building remains. The Temple of the Dolls and its temple doorways were constructed in a specific and deliberate direction that confirms the Maya understanding of the solar system.

During the Spring and Autumn equinox, the sun’s rays pass through the doorways of the temples.

Since corn remained a major part of the Maya diet, this event had great significance to the Maya as it represented the beginning and end of harvest season honoring Yum Kax, the Maya god of corn.

The site is open at 17:30 on those two days so visitors can view the phenomenon.

The temple is connected to the rest of the site by a sacbe, or “white road,” so-called because they were originally coated with white limestone, and built over stone-and-rubble fill.

The Open Chapel

An ancient Mayan roadway leading from the Temple of the Seven Dolls connects to the central plaza and an unusual arched structure called the Open Chapel.

When the Spanish arrived in the 16th Century, they dismantled some of the buildings in this settlement and used the stone to construct their buildings, including this 16th-century Franciscan church that now lies in ruins on the site.

This is the only Mayan ruin that has Spanish buildings co-existing with Mayan structures.

Cenote Xlakah

Cenote Xlakah is a beautiful freshwater pool located to the side of the main plaza.

It was the city’s freshwater source and perhaps the main reason the Maya chose this location to build their settlement. Water from Cenote Xlakah would have been perfect for residential drinking water and irrigation of their fields.

Under the surface, Cenote Xlakah reaches depths of 44 meters.

According to the plaque near the water’s edge, Xlakah means “old town” in Maya.

The cenote was first explored from 1957-59 when thousands of pottery shards and urns were found in the water along with wood, stone, and bone artifacts. The earthenware dates to the Late Classic Periods of 600-1000 CE.

Visitors to Dzibilchaltun can swim in the cenote during their tour.

Dzibilchaltun Museum

The museum is located by the entrance to the ruins site.

The site’s museum is full of interesting artifacts. Carved stone tablets, stelae, and the original carved dolls are displayed alongside Maya hupiles, old textile machinery, maps, Spanish armor, swords, and other weapons.

The other major feature of Dzibilchaltún is its cenote, Cenote Xlakah, located around the center of the city’s ruins. It is thought that the availability of this source of clean drinking water influenced the builders’ choice of location.

Archaeological findings retrieved from the cenote by divers indicate that it was the center of a religious cult. These days the cenote is used as a swimming hole by residents and tourists year round.

Dzibilchaltún also contains the ruin of a 16th-century Spanish church built at the site after the conquest.

The Dzibilchaltun archeological site also includes a visitor center with maps, restrooms, and gift shops. The renovated museum housing Mayan artifacts located at the site has re-opened.

Dzibilchaltun is only 9 miles from Merida.

Merida taxi drivers would be happy to take you to this site or you can hop on public transportation to the site.
From Mérida by taxi will take about 20 minutes and will cost $3-$10.

Combi vans (collectivos) can be found on Calle 69 between 62 and 64 in San Juan Park, Merida.
These vans go directly to Dzibilchaltun.

• The entrance fee is 139 MXN for non-Mexicans.
• Entry fees include access to the museum.
• Open from 8:00 to 17:00

The site of Dzibilchaltún has various services to make the visitor comfortable: a restaurant, a gift shop, an information booth, medical services, telephone, handicapped facilities, restrooms, and parking.

Chichen Itza is located in the northern Yucatán.

The northern Yucatán Peninsula is arid, and the rivers in the interior all run underground. There are two large, natural sinkholes, called cenotes, that could have provided plentiful water year-round at Chichen.

One of the cenotes, the “Cenote Sagrado” (“Sacred Cenote”), is the most famous. Pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into this cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac.

Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910 and recovered artifacts of gold, jade, pottery, and incense, as well as human remains. Studies have confirmed that this is a human sacrifice.

The Mayan name of the place “Chi’ch’èen Ìitsha” in Yucatec maya means “at the mouth of the well of the Itza”. This derives from the word chi’ (“mouth” or “edge”) and the word ch’en or ch’e’en (“well”).

Itzá is the name of an ethnic-lineage group that gained political and economic dominance of the northern peninsula. One possible translation for Itza is “enchanter (or enchantment) of the water” from its (“sorcerer”) and ha (“water”).

The name is spelled Chichén Itzá in Spanish, and the accents are sometimes maintained in other languages to show that both parts of the name are stressed on their final syllable.

Other references prefer the Maya orthography, Chichen Itza. This form preserves the phonemic distinction between ch’ and ch, since the base word ch’e’en (which, however, is not stressed in Maya) begins with a postalveolar ejective affricate consonant.

The word “Itza'” has a high tone on the “a” followed by a glottal stop (indicated by the apostrophe).

Evidence in the Chilam Balam books indicates another, earlier name for this city prior to the arrival of the Itza hegemony in northern Yucatán. While most sources agree the first word means seven, there is considerable debate as to the correct translation of the rest.

This earlier name is difficult to define because of the absence of a single standard of orthography, but it is represented variously as Uuc Yabnal (“Seven Great House”), Uuc Hab Nal (“Seven Bushy Places”), Uucyabnal (“Seven Great Rulers”) or Uc Abnal (“Seven Lines of Abnal”).

This name, dating to the Late Classic Period, is recorded both in the book of Chilam Balam de Chumayel and in hieroglyphic texts in the ruins.

Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Late Classic (c. AD 600–900) through the Terminal Classic (c. AD 800–900) and into the early portion of the Postclassic period (c. AD 900–1200).

The layout of the Chichen Itza site core was developed during its earlier phase of occupation, between 750 and 900 AD. Its final layout was developed after 900 AD, and the 10th century saw the rise of the city as a regional capital controlling the area from central Yucatán to the north coast, with its power extending down the east and west coasts of the peninsula. The earliest hieroglyphic date discovered at Chichen Itza is equivalent to 832 AD, while the last known date was recorded in the Osario temple in 998.

Establishment

The Late Classic city was centered upon the area to the southwest of the Xtoloc cenote, with the main architecture represented by the substructures now underlying the Las Monjas and Observatorio and the basal platform upon which they were built.

Ascendancy

Chichen Itza rose to regional prominence towards the end of the Early Classic period (roughly 600 AD). It was, however, towards the end of the Late Classic and into the early part of the Terminal Classic that the site became a major regional capital, centralizing and dominating political, sociocultural, economic, and ideological life in the northern Maya lowlands. The ascension of Chichen Itza roughly correlates with the decline and fragmentation of the major centers of the southern Maya lowlands.

As Chichen Itza rose to prominence, the cities of Yaxuna (to the south) and Coba (to the east) were suffering decline.

These two cities had been mutual allies, with Yaxuna dependent upon Coba. At some point in the 10th century, Coba lost a significant portion of its territory, isolating Yaxuna, and Chichen Itza may have directly contributed to the collapse of both cities.

Decline

According to some colonial Mayan sources (e.g., the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel), Hunac Ceel, ruler of Mayapan, conquered Chichen Itza in the 13th century. Hunac Ceel supposedly prophesied his own rise to power.

According to custom at the time, individuals thrown into the Cenote Sagrado were believed to have the power of prophecy if they survived. During one such ceremony, the chronicles state, there were no survivors, so Hunac Ceel leaped into the Cenote Sagrado, and when removed, prophesied his own ascension.

While there is some archaeological evidence that indicates Chichén Itzá was at one time looted and sacked, there appears to be greater evidence that it could not have been by Mayapan, at least not when Chichén Itzá was an active urban center.

Archaeological data now indicates that Chichen Itza declined as a regional center by 1250, before the rise of Mayapan. Ongoing research at the site of Mayapan may help resolve this chronological conundrum.

After Chichén Itzá elite activities ceased, the city may not have been abandoned. When the Spanish arrived, they found a thriving local population, although it is not clear from Spanish sources if the Maya were living in Chichen Itza or nearby.

The relatively high population density in the region was a factor in the conquistadors’ decision to locate a capital there. According to post-Conquest sources, both Spanish and Maya, the Cenote Sagrado remained a place of pilgrimage.

Spanish conquest

In 1526 Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo (a veteran of the Grijalva and Cortés expeditions) successfully petitioned the King of Spain for a charter to conquer Yucatán. His first campaign in 1527, which covered much of the Yucatán Peninsula, decimated his forces but ended with the establishment of a small fort at Xaman Ha’, south of what is today Cancún.

Montejo returned to Yucatán in 1531 with reinforcements and established his main base at Campeche on the west coast. He sent his son, Francisco Montejo The Younger, in late 1532 to conquer the interior of the Yucatán Peninsula from the north.

The objective from the beginning was to go to Chichén Itzá and establish a capital.

Montejo the Younger eventually arrived at Chichen Itza, which he renamed Ciudad Real. At first, he encountered no resistance and set about dividing the lands around the city and awarding them to his soldiers.

The Maya became more hostile over time, and eventually, they laid siege to the Spanish, cutting off their supply line to the coast, and forcing them to barricade themselves among the ruins of the ancient city. Months passed, but no reinforcements arrived.

Montejo the Younger attempted an all-out assault against the Maya and lost 150 of his remaining troops. He was forced to abandon Chichén Itzá in 1534 under cover of darkness.

By 1535, all Spanish had been driven from the Yucatán Peninsula.

Montejo eventually returned to Yucatán and, by recruiting Maya from Campeche and Champoton, built a large Indio-Spanish army and conquered the peninsula. The Spanish crown later issued a land grant that included Chichen Itza and by 1588 it was a working cattle ranch.

Modern history

Chichen Itza entered the popular imagination in 1843 with the book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan by John Lloyd Stephens. The book recounted Stephens’ visit to Yucatán and his tour of Maya cities, including Chichén Itzá.

The book prompted other explorations of the city. In 1860, Désiré Charnay surveyed Chichén Itzá and took numerous photographs that he published in Cités et ruins américaines (1863).

In 1875, Augustus Le Plongeon and his wife Alice Dixon Le Plongeon visited Chichén and excavated a statue of a figure on its back, knees drawn up, upper torso raised on its elbows with a plate on its stomach.

Augustus Le Plongeon called it “Chaacmol” (later renamed “Chac Mool”).

Teobert Maler and Alfred Maudslay explored Chichén in the 1880s and both spent several weeks at the site and took extensive photographs. Maudslay published the first long-form description of Chichen Itza in his book, Biologia Centrali-Americana.

In 1894 the United States Consul to Yucatán, Edward Herbert Thompson, purchased the Hacienda Chichén, which included the ruins of Chichen Itza. For 30 years, Thompson explored the ancient city.

His discoveries included the earliest dated carving upon a lintel in the Temple of the Initial Series and the excavation of several graves in the Osario (High Priest’s Temple).

Thompson is most famous for dredging the Cenote Sagrado (Sacred Cenote) from 1904 to 1910, where he recovered artifacts of gold, copper, and carved jade, as well as the first-ever examples of what were believed to be pre-Columbian Maya cloth and wooden weapons.

Thompson shipped the bulk of the artifacts to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

In 1913, the Carnegie Institution accepted the proposal of archaeologist Sylvanus G. Morley and committed to conducting long-term archaeological research at Chichen Itza. The Mexican Revolution and the following government instability, as well as World War I, delayed the project by a decade.

In 1923, the Mexican government awarded the Carnegie Institution a 10-year permit (later extended another 10 years) to allow U.S. archaeologists to conduct extensive excavation and restoration of Chichen Itza.

Carnegie researchers excavated and restored the Temple of Warriors and the Caracol, among other major buildings. At the same time, the Mexican government excavated and restored El Castillo and the Great Ball Court.

In 1926, the Mexican government charged Edward Thompson with theft, claiming he stole the artifacts from the Cenote Sagrado and smuggled them out of the country. The government seized the Hacienda Chichén.

Thompson, who was in the United States at the time, never returned to Yucatán. He wrote about his research and investigations of the Maya culture in a book People of the Serpent published in 1932. He died in New Jersey in 1935.

In 1944 the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that Thompson had broken no laws and returned Chichen Itza to his heirs. The Thompsons sold the hacienda to tourism pioneer Fernando Barbachano Peon.

There have been two later expeditions to recover artifacts from the Cenote Sagrado, in 1961 and 1967.

The first was sponsored by National Geographic, and the second by private interests. Both projects were supervised by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

INAH has conducted an ongoing effort to excavate and restore other monuments in the archaeological zone, including the Osario, Akab D’zib, and several buildings in Chichén Viejo (Old Chichen).

In 2009, to investigate construction that predated El Castillo, Yucatec archaeologists began excavations adjacent to El Castillo under the direction of Rafael (Rach) Cobos.

Political organization

Several archaeologists in the late 1980s suggested that, unlike previous Maya polities of the Early Classic, Chichen Itza may not have been governed by an individual ruler or a single dynastic lineage.

Instead, the city’s political organization could have been structured by a “multepal” system, which is characterized as rulership through a council composed of members of elite ruling lineages.

This theory was popular in the 1990s, but in recent years, the research that supported the concept of the “multepal” system has been called into question, if not discredited. The current belief trend in Maya scholarship is toward the more traditional model of the Maya kingdoms of the Classic Period southern lowlands in Mexico.

Economy

Chichen Itza was a major economic power in the northern Maya lowlands during its apogee.

Participating in the water-borne circum-peninsular trade route through its port site of Isla Cerritos on the north coast, Chichen Itza was able to obtain locally unavailable resources from distant areas such as obsidian from central Mexico and gold from southern Central America.

Between AD 900 and 1050 Chichen Itza expanded to become a powerful regional capital controlling north and central Yucatán. It established Isla Cerritos as a trading port.

Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities, with the relatively densely clustered architecture of the site core covering an area of at least 5 sq km. Smaller-scale residential architecture extends for an unknown distance beyond this.

The city was built upon broken terrain, which was artificially leveled in order to build the major architectural groups, with the greatest effort being expended in the leveling of the areas for the Castillo pyramid and the Las Monjas, Osario, and Main Southwest groups.

The site contains many fine stone buildings in various states of preservation, and many have been restored. The buildings were connected by a dense network of paved causeways, called sacbeob.

Archaeologists have identified over 80 sacbeob crisscrossing the site and extending in all directions from the city. Many of these stone buildings were originally painted in red, green, blue, and purple colors.

Pigments were chosen according to what was most easily available in the area.

The site must be imagined as a colorful one, not like it is today. Just like gothic cathedrals in Europe, colors provided a greater sense of completeness and contributed greatly to the symbolic impact of the buildings.

The architecture encompasses a number of styles, including the Puuc and Chenes styles of the northern Yucatán Peninsula.

The buildings of Chichen Itza are grouped in a series of architectonic sets, and each set was at one time separated from the other by a series of low walls. The three best-known of these complexes are the Great North Platform, which includes the monuments of El Castillo, the Temple of Warriors, and the Great Ball Court; The Osario Group, which includes the pyramid of the same name as well as the Temple of Xtoloc; and the Central Group, which includes the Caracol, Las Monjas, and Akab Dzib.

South of Las Monjas, in an area known as Chichén Viejo (Old Chichén) and only open to archaeologists, are several other complexes, such as the Group of the Initial Series, Group of the Lintels, and Group of the Old Castle.

Architectural styles

The Puuc-style architecture is concentrated in the Old Chichen area, and also the earlier structures in the Nunnery Group (including the Las Monjas, Annex, and La Iglesia buildings); it is also represented in the Akab Dzib structure.

The Puuc-style building features the usual mosaic-decorated upper façades characteristic of the style but differs from the architecture of the Puuc heartland in their block masonry walls, as opposed to the fine veneers of the Puuc region proper.

At least one structure in the Las Monjas Group features an ornate façade and masked doorway that are typical examples of Chenes-style architecture, a style centered upon a region in the north of Campeche state, lying between the Puuc and Río Bec regions.

Those structures with sculpted hieroglyphic script are concentrated in certain areas of the site, with the most important being the Las Monjas group.

El Castillo

Dominating the North Platform of Chichen Itza is the Temple of Kukulkan (a Maya feathered serpent deity similar to the Aztec Quetzalcoatl), usually referred to as El Castillo (“the castle”). This step pyramid stands about 30 m high and consists of a series of nine square terraces, each approximately 2.57 m high, with a 6 m high temple upon the summit.

The sides of the pyramid are approximately 55.3 m at the base and rise at an angle of 53°, although that varies slightly for each side. The four faces of the pyramid have protruding stairways that rise at an angle of 45°.

The talud walls of each terrace slant at an angle of between 72° and 74°.

At the base of the balustrades of the northeastern staircase are carved heads of a serpent.

Mesoamerican cultures periodically superimposed larger structures over older ones, and El Castillo is one such example.

In the mid-1930s, the Mexican government sponsored an excavation of El Castillo. After several false starts, they discovered a staircase under the north side of the pyramid. By digging from the top, they found another temple buried below the current one.

Inside the temple chamber was a Chac Mool statue and a throne in the shape of a Jaguar, painted red and with spots made of inlaid jade.

The Mexican government excavated a tunnel from the base of the north staircase, up the earlier pyramid’s stairway to the hidden temple, and opened it to tourists. In 2006, INAH closed the throne room to the public.

In 1566, the pyramid was described by Friar Diego de Landa in the manuscript known as Yucatán at the Time of the Spanish Encounter (Relación de las cosas de Yucatán).

Almost three centuries later, John Lloyd Stephens described with even more detail the architecture of the pyramid in his book Incidents of Travel in Yucatán (Incidentes del viaje Yucatán), published in 1843.

At that time, the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá was located on an estate, also called Chichén Itzá, owned by Juan Sosa. Frederick Catherwood illustrated the book with lithographs depicting the pyramid covered in abundant vegetation on all sides.

There are some photographs taken at the beginning of the 20th century that also show the pyramid partially covered by said vegetation.

In 1924, the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. requested permission from the Mexican government to carry out explorations and restoration efforts in and around the area of Chichen Itza.

In 1927, with the assistance of Mexican archaeologists, they started the task.

In April 1931, looking to confirm the hypothesis that the structure of the pyramid of Kukulkan was built on top of a much older pyramid, the work of excavation and exploration began in spite of generalized beliefs contrary to that hypothesis.

On June 7, 1932, a box with coral, obsidian, and turquoise-encrusted objects was found alongside human remains, which are exhibited in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.

After extensive work, in April 1935, a Chac Mool statue, with its nails, teeth, and eyes inlaid with mother of pearl was found inside the pyramid.

The room where the discovery was made was nicknamed the Hall of Offerings or the North Chamber. After more than a year of excavation, in August 1936, a second room was found, only meters away from the first.

Inside this room, nicknamed the chamber of sacrifices, archaeologists found two parallel rows of human bone set into the back wall, as well as a red jaguar statue with 74 jade inlays for spots, jade crescents for eyes, and white painted flint for teeth and fangs.

On its back was found a turquoise disc apparently used for burning incense.

Both figures were found facing north-northeast.

Researchers concluded that there must be an inner pyramid approximately 33 m wide, shaped similarly to the outer pyramid, with nine steps and a height of 17 m up to the base of the temple where the Chac Mool and the jaguar were found.

It is estimated that this construction dates to the eleventh century CE.

After all of the work was completed, an entryway was cut into the balustrade of the northeastern exterior staircase to provide access to tourists. The older, inner pyramid is referred to as the “substructure”.

Closed for public climbing

Climbing El Castillo was stopped in 2006, after a 91-year-old woman slipped on her way back, fell fell down the remaining steps of the pyramid. Medical assistance was immediate.

The ambulance, permanently stationed at the foot of El Castillo, was mobilized.

Its crew administered aid at the scene and then rushed her to the nearby Regional de Valladolid Hospital. Unfortunately, the lady’s head and neck injuries were too severe. Despite the best efforts of the hospital personnel there, she died four hours later.

For the owners of Chichén Itzá, this was the last straw.

They had bowed to public pressure to keep the structures accessible to climbers for too long.

An army of specialists had scrubbed or otherwise erased the graffiti; repairs had been made to eroded steps; guide ropes had been fitted; and the ambulance installed. But there were now simply too many people wishing to climb the pyramids.

What had occurred with the old lady had been an accident waiting to happen, and now it had actually happened. The decision was made, for the safety of visitors and the preservation of the structures, to prohibit public climbing on the pyramids.

At the same time, INAH closed the public access to the interior throne room.

Spring and Autumn equinoxes

On the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, in the late afternoon, the northwest corner of the pyramid casts a series of triangular shadows against the western balustrade on the north side that evokes the appearance of a serpent wriggling down the staircase, which some scholars have suggested is a representation of the feathered-serpent god Kukulkan.

Great Ball Court

Archaeologists have identified thirteen ballcourts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame in Chichen Itza, but the Great Ball Court about 150 m to the north-west of the Castillo is by far the most impressive.

It is the largest and best-preserved ball court in ancient Mesoamerica. It measures 168 by 70 m.

The parallel platforms flanking the main playing area are each 95 m long. The walls of these platforms stand 8 m high; set high up in the center of each of these walls are rings carved with intertwined feathered serpents.

At the base of the high interior walls are slanted benches with sculpted panels of teams of ball players. In one panel, one of the players has been decapitated; the wound emits streams of blood in the form of wriggling snakes.

At one end of the Great Ball Court is the North Temple, also known as the Temple of the Bearded Man (Templo del Hombre Barbado).

This small masonry building has detailed bas-relief carving on the inner walls, including a center figure that has carving under his chin that resembles facial hair. At the south end is another, much bigger temple, but in ruins.

Built into the east wall are the Temples of the Jaguar.

The Upper Temple of the Jaguar overlooks the ball court and has an entrance guarded by two, large columns carved in the familiar feathered serpent motif. Inside there is a large mural, much destroyed, which depicts a battle scene.

In the entrance to the Lower Temple of the Jaguar, which opens behind the ball court, is another Jaguar throne, similar to the one in the inner temple of El Castillo, except that it is well-worn and missing paint or other decoration.

The outer columns and the walls inside the temple are covered with elaborate bas-relief carvings.

Additional structures

The Tzompantli, or Skull Platform (Plataforma de los Cráneos), shows the clear cultural influence of the central Mexican Plateau. Unlike the tzompantli of the highlands, however, the skulls were impaled vertically rather than horizontally as at Tenochtitlan.

The Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars (Plataforma de Águilas y Jaguares) is immediately to the east of the Great Ballcourt. It is built in a combination of Maya and Toltec styles, with a staircase ascending each of its four sides.

The sides are decorated with panels depicting eagles and jaguars consuming human hearts.

This Platform of Venus is dedicated to the planet Venus. In its interior archaeologists discovered a collection of large cones carved out of stone, the purpose of which is unknown. This platform is located north of El Castillo, between it and the Cenote Sagrado.

The Temple of the Tables is the northernmost of a series of buildings to the east of El Castillo. Its name comes from a series of altars at the top of the structure that are supported by small carved figures of men with upraised arms, called “atlantes.”

The Steam Bath is a unique building with three parts: a waiting gallery, a water bath, and a steam chamber that is operated by means of heated stones.

Sacbe Number One is a causeway that leads to the Cenote Sagrado, which is the largest and most elaborate at Chichen Itza.

This “white road” is 270 m long with an average width of 9 m. It begins at a low wall a few meters from the Platform of Venus. According to archaeologists there once was an extensive building with columns at the beginning of the road.

Sacred Cenote

The Yucatán Peninsula is a limestone plain, with no rivers or streams. The region is pockmarked with natural sinkholes, called cenotes, which expose the water table to the surface.

One of the most impressive of these is the Cenote Sagrado, which is 60 m in diameter and surrounded by sheer cliffs that drop to the water table some 27 m below.

The Cenote Sagrado was a place of pilgrimage for ancient Maya people who, according to ethnohistoric sources, would conduct sacrifices during times of drought.

Archaeological investigations support this as thousands of objects have been removed from the bottom of the cenote, including material such as gold, carved jade, copal, pottery, flint, obsidian, shell, wood, rubber, cloth, as well as skeletons of children and men.

Temple of the Warriors

The Temple of the Warriors complex consists of a large stepped pyramid fronted and flanked by rows of carved columns depicting warriors. This complex is analogous to Temple B at the Toltec capital of Tula and indicates some form of cultural contact between the two regions.

The one at Chichen Itza, however, was constructed on a larger scale. At the top of the stairway on the pyramid’s summit (and leading towards the entrance of the pyramid’s temple) is a Chac Mool.

This temple encases or entombs a former structure called The Temple of the Chac Mool. The archeological expedition and restoration of this building were done by the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1925 to 1928. A key member of this restoration was Earl H. Morris who published the work from this expedition in two volumes entitled Temple of the Warriors.

Group of a Thousand Columns

Along the south wall of the Temple of Warriors are a series of what are today exposed columns, although when the city was inhabited these would have supported an extensive roof system.

The columns are in three distinct sections: A west group, that extends the lines of the front of the Temple of Warriors. A north group runs along the south wall of the Temple of Warriors and contains pillars with carvings of soldiers in bas-relief;

A northeast group, which apparently formed a small temple at the southeast corner of the Temple of Warriors, contains a rectangular decorated with carvings of people or gods, as well as animals and serpents.

The northeast column temple also covers a small marvel of engineering, a channel that funnels all the rainwater from the complex some 40 m away to a rejollada, a former cenote.

To the south of the Group of a Thousand Columns is a group of three, smaller, interconnected buildings. The Temple of the Carved Columns is a small elegant building that consists of a front gallery with an inner corridor that leads to an altar with a Chac Mool.

There are also numerous columns with rich, bas-relief carvings of some 40 personages.

A section of the upper façade with a motif of x’s and o’s is displayed in front of the structure. The Temple of the Small Tables is an unrestored mound. The Thompson’s Temple (referred to in some sources as Palace of Ahau Balam Kauil ), is a small building with two levels that has friezes depicting Jaguars (balam in Maya) as well as glyphs of the Maya god Kahuil.

El Mercado

This square structure anchors the southern end of the Temple of Warriors complex. It is so named for the shelf of stone that surrounds a large gallery and patio that early explorers theorized was used to display wares as in a marketplace.

Today, archaeologists believe that its purpose is more ceremonial than commercial.

Osario Group

South of the North Group is a smaller platform that has many important structures, several of which appear to be oriented toward the second-largest cenote at Chichen Itza, Xtoloc.

The Osario itself, like El Castillo, is a step-pyramid temple dominating its platform, only on a smaller scale. Like its larger neighbor, it has four sides with staircases on each side.

There is a temple on top, but unlike El Castillo, at the center is an opening into the pyramid which leads to a natural cave 12 m below. Edward H. Thompson excavated this cave in the late 19th century, and because he found several skeletons and artifacts such as jade beads, he named the structure The High Priests’ Temple.

Archaeologists today believe neither that the structure was a tomb nor that the personages buried in it were priests.

The Temple of Xtoloc is a recently restored temple outside the Osario Platform.

It overlooks the other large cenote at Chichen Itza, named after the Maya word for iguana, “Xtoloc.” The temple contains a series of pilasters carved with images of people, as well as representations of plants, birds, and mythological scenes.

Between the Xtoloc temple and the Osario are several aligned structures: The Platform of Venus (which is similar in design to the structure of the same name next to El Castillo), the Platform of the Tombs, and a small, round structure that is unnamed.

These three structures were constructed in a row extending from the Osario. Beyond them, the Osario platform terminates in a wall, which contains an opening to a sacbe that runs several hundred feet to the Xtoloc temple.

South of the Osario, at the boundary of the platform, there are two small buildings that archaeologists believe were residences for important personages. These have been named the House of the Metates and the House of the Mestizas.

Casa Colorada Group

South of the Osario Group is another small platform that has several structures that are among the oldest in the Chichen Itza archaeological zone.

The Casa Colorada (Spanish for “Red House”) is one of the best-preserved buildings at Chichen Itza. Its Maya name is Chichanchob, which according to INAH may mean “small holes”.

In one chamber there are extensive carved hieroglyphs that mention rulers of Chichen Itza and possibly of the nearby city of Ek Balam and contain a Maya date inscribed which correlates to 869 AD, one of the oldest such dates found in all of Chichen Itza.

In 2009, INAH restored a small ball court that adjoined the back wall of the Casa Colorada.

While the Casa Colorada is in a good state of preservation, other buildings in the group, with one exception, are decrepit mounds.

One building is half-standing, named La Casa del Venado (House of the Deer). This building’s name has been long used by the local Maya, and some authors mention that it was named after a deer painting over stucco that doesn’t exist anymore.

Central Group

Las Monjas is one of the more notable structures at Chichen Itza. It is a complex of Terminal Classic buildings constructed in the Puuc architectural style. The Spanish named this complex Las Monjas (“The Nuns” or “The Nunnery”) but it was actually a governmental palace. Just to the east is a small temple (known as the La Iglesia, “The Church”) decorated with elaborate masks.

The Las Monjas group is distinguished by its concentration of hieroglyphic texts dating to the Late to Terminal Classic. These texts frequently mention a ruler by the name of Kakupakal.

El Caracol (“The Snail”) is located to the north of Las Monjas. It is a round building on a large square platform. It gets its name from the stone spiral staircase inside. The structure, with its unusual placement on the platform and its round shape (the others are rectangular, in keeping with Maya practice), is theorized to have been a proto-observatory with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events, specifically around the path of Venus as it traverses the heavens.

Akab Dzib is located to the east of the Caracol. The name means, in Yucatec Mayan, “Dark Writing”; “dark” in the sense of “mysterious”. An earlier name of the building, according to a translation of glyphs in the Casa Colorada, is Wa(k)wak Puh Ak Na, “the flat house with the excessive number of chambers,” and it was the home of the administrator of Chichén Itzá, kokom Yahawal Cho’ K’ak’.

INAH completed a restoration of the building in 2007. It is relatively short, only 6 m high, and is 50 m in length and 15 m wide. The long, western-facing façade has seven doorways. The eastern façade has only four doorways, broken by a large staircase that leads to the roof.

This apparently was the front of the structure and looks out over what is today a steep, dry, cenote.

The southern end of the building has one entrance.

The door opens into a small chamber and on the opposite wall is another doorway, above which on the lintel are intricately carved glyphs – the “mysterious” or “obscure” writing that gives the building its name today.

Under the lintel in the doorjamb is another carved panel of a seated figure surrounded by more glyphs. Inside one of the chambers, near the ceiling, is a painted handprint.

Old Chichen

Old Chichen (or Chichén Viejo in Spanish) is the name given to a group of structures to the south of the central site, where most of the Puuc-style architecture of the city is concentrated. It includes the Initial Series Group, the Phallic Temple, the Platform of the Great Turtle, the Temple of the Owls, and the Temple of the Monkeys.

Other structures

Chichen Itza also has a variety of other structures densely packed in the ceremonial center of about 5 sq km and several outlying subsidiary sites.

Cenote Sagrado (“Sacred Well”), alternatively known as the “Well of Sacrifice”, refers to a noted cenote at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza.

It is located to the north of Chichen Itza’s civic precinct, to which it is connected by a 300-metre sacbe, or raised and paved pathway.

According to post-Conquest sources (Maya and Spanish), pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac.

Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910 and recovered artifacts of gold, jade, pottery, and incense, as well as human remains. A study of human remains taken from the Cenote Sagrado found that they had wounds consistent with human sacrifice.

Description and History

The northwestern Yucatán Peninsula is a limestone plain, with no rivers streams, lakes, or ponds.

The region is pockmarked with natural sinkholes, called cenotes, which expose the water table to the surface. One of the most impressive of these is the Sacred Cenote, which is 60 m in diameter and surrounded by sheer cliffs that drop to the water table some 27 m below.

According to ethnohistoric sources, the Sacred Cenote was a place of pilgrimage for ancient Maya people who would conduct sacrifices in it. As Friar Diego de Landa observed in 1566 after visiting Chichen Itza:

“Into this well, they have had, and then had, the custom of throwing men alive as a sacrifice to the gods, in times of drought, and they believed that they did not die though they never saw them again.

They also threw into it a great many other things, like precious stones and things that they prized. And so, if this country had possessed gold, it would be this well that would have the great part of it”.

Archaeological explorations of the cenote

Most of the major findings in the cenote were made under the supervision of Edward Herbert Thompson, who began dredging in 1904. Much of what is known about the dredging process is derived from Thompson’s personal notes.

Thompson received money from Stephen Salisbury III to help him buy the Chichén Itzá excavation site and explore the cenote. Much of Thompson’s findings and research can be found at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

A bucket attached to a pulley system was used to dredge the cenote.

Much of the beginning work consisted of clearing debris and fallen trees on the top of the water. Leon Cole, a colleague of Thompson, once recorded in his journal, “they made ten hauls in the morning and six or eight in the afternoon.”

People would search through the buckets of water looking for artifacts and categorizing them accordingly. Unfortunately, there were several reports of stolen artifacts that could never be found.

Thompson decided to take a break from dredging after Salisbury died. A host of problems, including the Mexican Revolution, and financial issues began to hinder the work effort and damage the morale of the workers.

Thompson’s house in Mexico was also burned down, and one of the chests in which he kept his notes and data was destroyed in the fire. By 1923, Thompson was officially done working on the cenote.

In 1909, Thompson decided to dive in the cenote to explore the floors, assisted by two Greek divers from the Bahamas. He reported limited visibility due to the murky water, and many shifting rocks and trees made the dive hazardous.

Thompson found a layer about 5 m thick of blue pigment that had settled on the ground of the cenote. He described the bottom as, “full of long narrow cracks, radiating from centers as if the glass bottom of a dish had been broken by a pointed instrument.

We found down in the cracks and holes a grayish mud in which were embedded the heavier gold objects, jades, and copper bells in numbers.” He later proudly proclaimed, “I have at last personally trod the bottom of the Cenote.”

In 1961, William Folan, a field director for the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH), helped launch another expedition into the cenote. Some of their notable discoveries included an inscribed, gold-sheathed bone, a large chert knife with a gold-sheathed wooden handle, and wooden ear flares with jade and turquoise mosaic.

In 1967-1968, Norman Scott and Román Piña Chán led another expedition. They tried two new methods that many people had suggested for a long time: emptying the water out of the cenote and clarifying the water. Both of these methods were only partially successful.

Only about 4 m of water could be removed, and the water was only clarified for a short amount of time.

Objects found in the Sacred Cenote

Archaeological investigations support this as thousands of objects have been removed from the bottom of the cenote, including artifacts made from gold, jadeite, copal, pottery, flint, obsidian, shell, wood, rubber, cloth, as well as human skeletons.

Many perishable objects were preserved by the cenote. Wooden objects that normally would have rotted were preserved in the water.

A great variety of wooden objects have been found including weapons, scepters, idols, tools, and jewelry. Jade was the largest category of objects found, followed by textiles.

The presence of jade, gold, and copper in the cenote offers proof of the importance of Chichén Itzá as a cultural city center.

None of these raw materials are native to the Yucatán, which indicates that they were valuable objects brought to Chichén Itzá from other places in Central America and then sacrificed as an act of worship.

Pottery, stone, bone, and shells were also found in the cenote.

Archaeologists have found that many objects show evidence of being intentionally damaged before being thrown into the cenote, and have speculated that this intentional damage is meant to be analogous to “killing” the object as a sacrifice.

Human sacrifice

Certain cenotes contain a large number of human remains, including both males and females and young children/infants.

According to archaeologist Guillermo de Anda of the University of Yucatán, evidence from Mayan mythology suggests that many young victims (most aged 6 to 12) whose gender is indeterminate were male.

While the classical images of a female Mayan sacrifice being flung alive to drown in a cenote are pervasive, Guillermo de Anda’s writings on the subject suggest that most sacrificial victims – juveniles who were either purchased or captured while their parents were working in the fields, warriors captured in battle, or elites captured during conflicts with neighboring clans – were usually (though not always) killed prior to being thrown into the cenote, and in many cases, dozens of miles from the cenotes in which their bodies were eventually deposited. He also notes that only a certain set of cenotes was used in this way, while others were reserved for domestic purposes (de Anda 2007).

This suggests that Mayan religious officiants believed that only certain cenotes led to the underworld, and sacrifices placed in others would serve no purpose. It also suggests that the status of the victim as alive or dead was unimportant.

The occasional appearance of human remains in non-sacrificial cenotes can be attributed to rare errors in judgment on the part of the shaman. The actual pattern by which a particular victim’s remains became interred in which cenotes remains a subject of conjecture.

The Franciscan leader Diego de Landa reported that he witnessed live sacrifices being thrown into the cenote at Chichén Itzá. However, his account does not indicate the regularity of this behavior.

Chichen Itza is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico. In 2014 it was estimated to receive an average of 1.4 million. In 2016, Chichen Itza was visited by more than 2 million tourists.

Tourism has been a factor at Chichen Itza for more than a century. John Lloyd Stephens, who popularized the Maya Yucatán in the public’s imagination with his book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, inspired many to make a pilgrimage to Chichén Itzá.

Even before the book was published, Benjamin Norman and Baron Emanuel von Friedrichsthal traveled to Chichen after meeting Stephens, and both published the results of what they found.

Friedrichsthal was the first to photograph Chichen Itza, using the recently invented daguerreotype.

After Edward Thompson in 1894 purchased the Hacienda Chichén, which included Chichen Itza, he received a constant stream of visitors. In 1910 he announced his intention to construct a hotel on his property, but abandoned those plans, probably because of the Mexican Revolution.

In the early 1920s, a group of Yucatecans, led by writer/photographer Francisco Gomez Rul, began working toward expanding tourism to Yucatán. They urged Governor Felipe Carrillo Puerto to build roads to the more famous monuments, including Chichen Itza.

In 1923, Governor Carrillo Puerto officially opened the highway to Chichen Itza. Gomez Rul published one of the first guidebooks to Yucatán and the ruins.

Gomez Rul’s son-in-law, Fernando Barbachano Peon (a grandnephew of former Yucatán Governor Miguel Barbachano), started Yucatán’s first official tourism business in the early 1920s.

He began by meeting passengers who arrived by steamship at Progreso, the port north of Mérida, and persuading them to spend a week in Yucatán, after which they would catch the next steamship to their next destination. In his first year, Barbachano Peon reportedly was only able to convince seven passengers to leave the ship and join him on a tour.

In the mid-1920s Barbachano Peon persuaded Edward Thompson to sell 5 acres (20,000 m2) next to Chichen for a hotel. In 1930, the Mayaland Hotel opened, just north of the Hacienda Chichén, which had been taken over by the Carnegie Institution.

In 1944, Barbachano Peon purchased all of the Hacienda Chichén, including Chichen Itza, from the heirs of Edward Thompson.

Around that same time, the Carnegie Institution completed its work at Chichen Itza and abandoned the Hacienda Chichén, which Barbachano turned into another seasonal hotel.

In 1972, Mexico enacted the Ley Federal Sobre Monumentos y Zonas Arqueológicas, Artísticas e Históricas (Federal Law over Monuments and Archeological, Artistic, and Historic Sites) that put all the nation’s pre-Columbian monuments, including those at Chichen Itza, under federal ownership. There were now hundreds if not thousands, of visitors every year to Chichen Itza, and more were expected with the development of the Cancún resort area to the east.

In the 1980s, Chichen Itza began to receive an influx of visitors on the day of the spring equinox. Today several thousand show up to see the light-and-shadow effect on the Temple of Kukulcan in which the feathered serpent god appears to crawl down the side of the pyramid.

Tourists are also amazed by the acoustics at Chichen Itza. For instance, a handclap in front of the staircase of the El Castillo pyramid is followed by an echo that resembles the chirp of a quetzal as investigated by Declercq.

Chichen Itza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the second-most visited of Mexico’s archaeological sites. The archaeological site draws many visitors from the popular tourist resort of Cancún, who make a day trip on tour buses.

In 2007, Chichen Itza’s El Castillo was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World after a worldwide vote. Despite the fact that the vote was sponsored by a commercial enterprise and that its methodology was criticized, the vote was embraced by government and tourism officials in Mexico who project that as a result of the publicity the number of tourists expected to visit Chichen will double by 2012.

The ensuing publicity re-ignited debate in Mexico over the ownership of the site, which culminated on 29 March 2010 when the state of Yucatán purchased the land upon which the most recognized monuments rest from owner Hans Juergen Thies Barbachano.

Over the past several years, INAH, which manages the site, has been closing monuments to public access.

While visitors can walk around them, they can no longer climb them or go inside their chambers. The most recent was El Castillo, which was closed after a San Diego, California, woman fell to her death in 2006.

At the site, you get around on foot. Wear sturdy, comfortable walking shoes.

There is very little usable shade in the middle hours of the day.

Bring a pair of binoculars, star-gazing and birding are incredible in this region. Also, if you want to know more about the Mayan local communities, their cooking, religious rites, calendar system, and ancient arts, visit the small towns around Chichen.

Yaxkin Spa (Hacienda Chichen Hotel) offers holistic beauty rituals based on ancient Maya traditions. The area has excellent birdwatching opportunities. Guests at the Hacienda Chichen have access to the hotel’s bird refuge and extensive nature trails.

There are several fantastic cenotes, fresh water sinkholes in the limestone, found near Chichen Itza. Some of them are surrounded by lush gardens with restaurants, washrooms, and showers.

During a hot day, cenotes make for a great way to cool yourself off in the afternoon, take a break, and split up your day.

The Descent of Kukulcan During the three most celebrated days which witness The Descent of Kukulcan (the 19th, 20th, and 21st of March), Chichen Itza hosts music, dances, and theatrical performances organized in the interior of the site, as well as at the access door.

The site was discovered in the 19th century by the Austrian explorer Teobert Maler, and was excavated in detail during the 1970s.

The city center covers one square kilometer. There are four main districts of the city: Chacmultun, Cabalpak, Xetpol and the Central district. These groups of buildings were built on hills or artificial terraces to make them seem more imposing. It is thought that the city had trade links with many other contemporary Maya sites in the area, like Edzna, Oxkintok, Uxmal and Kabah.

Some buildings contain preserved Maya murals, which are quite rare.

The city reached its peak during the Late Classic period, during the 10th century. The buildings at Chacmultun are designed in the Puuc architectural style, with elaborate friezes decorating the buildings. The site was continuously occupied until the 15th century.

The best way to get to Chacmultun is from Merida.

From Merida by bus to Akil $3-$5 (1:20 hour), each 30 min.
And then in taxi $3-$$ (0:17 min).

Taxi from Merida to Chacmultun $21-$26.

You can dial 078 from any phone, where you can find free information about tourist attractions, airports, travel agencies, car rental companies, embassies and consulates, fairs and exhibitions, hotels, hospitals, financial services, migratory and other issues.

Or dial the toll-free (in Mexico) number 01-800-006-8839.

You can also request information to the email correspondencia@sectur.gob.mx

MORE EMERGENCY NUMBERS:

General Information: 040 (not free)

National Emergency Service: 911

Radio Patrols: 066
Police (Emergency): 060
Civil Protection: +52(55)5683-2222
Anonymous Complaint: 089

Setravi (Transport Mobility): +52(55)5209-9913
Road Emergency: 074

Cruz Roja: 065 o +52(55)5557-5757
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