Pyramid of the Soothsayer
Now a UNESCO site, the Mayan town of Uxmal, in Yucatán, was founded c. A.D. 700 and had some 25,000 inhabitants. The layout of the buildings, which date from between 700 and 1000, reveals a knowledge of astronomy. The Pyramid of the Soothsayer, as the Spaniards called it, dominates the ceremonial centre, which has well-designed buildings decorated with a profusion of symbolic motifs and sculptures depicting Chaac, the god of rain. The ceremonial sites of Uxmal, Kabah, Labna and Sayil are considered the high points of Mayan art and architecture. Uxmal is located 60 km south of Mérida close to the road from Campeche. The site has attracted many visitors since the time of Mexico's independence.
The 16th century A.D. Maya history known as The Books of Chilam Balam dates the foundation of Uxmal to the later 10th century A.D. Archaeological investigations and radiocarbon dating suggest that the main structures in the complex, including a series of hydraulic works, such as reservoirs for storing rainwater (the chultunoob), were built between the 8th and 10th century A.D. During this period Uxmal grew from a peasant town into a political and administrative centre with up to 20,000 inhabitants. The existence of a town wall reflects a situation of conflict, probably due to the strengthening of other urban centres that eventually contested Uxmal's control of the region; Uxmal was abandoned by its inhabitants after the 10th century A.D. and became no more than a place of pilgrimage until the conquest by the Spanish.
Some of the most important buildings at the site are:-
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.
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We only had a few hours here, en route from Campeche to Merida. But I felt that the site was as impressive then Chichen Itza, and with fewer tourists it was more pleasant to explore, and easier to get to buildings (much in Chichen Itza is roped off from the public)