Uxmal Pyramids near Merida Mexico

On Day 4 of our month-long Yukatan road trip, we left the Kabah Pyramids, and kept heading North on the road to Merida. We soon came upon the Uxmal pyramids. This place was set up for tourist traffic, and and we were greeted by a big parking lot, a large welcome center, and several men waiting at the entrance, kindly offering their guide services (they weren’t aggressive at all!).

We turned down the guides and instead accepted a map to walk the grounds ourselves.

The first view upon entering Uxmal is of the towering pyramid, “Casa del Adivino” (House of the Magician). 

This pyramid is 39 meters tall–about 128 feet. Apparently the temple has had 5 lives…with new temples built on top of one another until this 5th and last time!

There are no signs prohibiting climbing, but this pyramid was soooo steap and soooo tall, that we honestly didn’t have any interest attacking it with kids!

Uxmal was an important city back in its heyday, but it was abandoned around AD 900. They suspect this was because of drought conditions, as water is scarce around here….but it is just a guess.

Uxmal is located very nearby to the Kabah Pyramids, and therefore also has some similarities. Some of their walls also portrayed Chac, the rain god or sky serpent, and we immediately recognized the similar curled nose masks we had seen at Kabah!

We circled around the giant pyramid and found the Cuadrangulo de las Monjas (Quadrangle of the Nuns), a huge rectangular plaza with large buildings on every side. Comprised of 74-rooms in total, archaeologists believe it was once a military academy, royal school, or a palace complex. I’m not an archaeologist…but it certainly looked like a palace complex to me!

Entering and exiting this plaza required walking through these doorways!

Next, the ball court!  In the photo below you will see a ball court that is very typical of the Maya. It is a rectangular field with platforms on each long side, and no closure on the short ends of the rectangle. Vertical circular hoops are located halfway through the court (on either side), to shoot the balls through. The left stone hoop in this ball court was broken off, but the right one was still intact, if you look closely (look above Jared’s head, straight to the right) you can see it!

It is widely speculated how the Maya played their ball game…with some people suggesting they only used their hips to move the ball. Others say that they may have used forearms or bats. One thing everyone seems to agree on is that feet and hands were not used. Can you imagine playing a ball game without hands or feet?

And no, my daughter doesn’t always walk on her hands….but of course, Ella took the opportunity to do some cartwheels, yet again…

Looking back at the first pyramid, we could see it towering over the treetops in the distance!

We entered another portion of the property which proved to be even larger than the first section! This was the Palacio del Gobernador (Governor’s Palace). It has a facade that is 100 meters (329 feet) long, and has beautiful geometric carvings on it.

We also discovered there are more iguanas on this property than tourists. At one point we stopped and could count nearly 15 in our immediate view!

Maiya tried to chase some within a safe distance!

We climbed to the top of the Governor’s Palace to get some fantastic photos overlooking the whole property. We were so excited to see these on our computer, later. However, I accidentally deleted them while transferring them to my computer. Ahhhh!!  Such is life!  :::sigh:::

So…skip to the Gran Piramide–el Templo Mayor. “The Great Pyramid” It is 32 meters (105 feet) tall, and has only been restored on one side. Archaeologists propose that a destroyed structure on the top is evidence that they were going to construct a second pyramid above it, but the work was never completed.

The very last section we visited was El Palomar (the Dovecote), which is only half restored. It has a wall that is reminiscent of the Moorish pigeon houses built into walls in Spain and northern Africa (so they say).

Behind the wall is wild jungle and more ruins, awaiting their turn (if ever) to be uncovered and restored!

Our travel book says “Uxmal was first excavated in 1929…Altough much has been restored, much has yet to be discovered”!! Isn’t that the truth?

Looking back at all of the pyramids in the Yukatan (well beyond just these 4, so far), Uxmal was one of our absolute favorites. It has a reputation as being among the top Maya archeological sites, and besides that, “It just feels good”!