An ancient Mayan city, 80 km/50 mi S of Merida in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. Covering 60 ha/160 acres it flourished AD c.6001000, and was finally abandoned c.1450. Its ceremonial buildings are a notable feature - particularly the Temple of the Magician on its huge pyramid, and the so-called Governor's Palace, erected on a triple terrace.
Uxmal is a large pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of Yucatán, Mexico.
Uxmal is pronounced "Oosh-mahl".
Ancient history
While much work has been done at the popular tourist destination of Uxmal to consolidate and restore buildings, little in the way of serious archeological excavation and research has been done here, therefore the city's dates of occupation are unknown and the estimated population (about 25,000 people) is at present only a very rough guess subject to change upon better data.
Maya chronicles say that Uxmal was founded about 500 by Hun Uitzil Chac Tutul Xiu. For generations Uxmal was ruled over by the Xiu family, was the most powerful site in western Yucatan, and for a while in alliance with Chichen Itza dominated all of the northern Maya area. Sometime after about 1200 no new major construction seems to have been made at Uxmal, possibly related to the fall of Uxmal's ally Chichen Itza and the shift of power in Yucatan to Mayapan.
After the Spanish conquest of Yucatán (in which the Xiu allied themselves with the Spanish), early colonial documents suggest that Uxmal was still an inhabited place of some importance into the 1550s, but no Spanish town was built here and Uxmal was soon after largely abandoned.
Description of the site
Even before the restoration work Uxmal was in better condition than many other Maya sites thanks to being unusually well built.
Some of the more noteworthy buildings include:
The Governor's Palace, a long low building atop a huge platform, with the longest façades in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. 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. it was a government palace) is the finest of Uxmal's several fine quadrangles of long buildings with elaborately carved façades on both the inside and outside faces A large Ballcourt for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame, which an inscription there informs us was dedicated in 901 by Chan Chak K'ak'nal-Ahau.A number of other temple-pyramids, quadrangles, and other monuments, some of significant size, and in varying states of preservation, are also at Uxmal.
The majority of hieroglyphic inscriptions were on a series of stone stelae unusually grouped together on a single platform.
A further suggestion of possible war or battle is found in the remains of a wall which encircled most of the central ceremonial center.
A large raised stone pedestrian causeway links Uxmal with the site of Kabah, some 18 km to the south.
Modern history of the ruins
The site, located not far from Mérida beside a road to Campeche, has attracted many visitors since the time of Mexico's independence. 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).
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited on 27 February of 1975 for the inaguration of the site's sound &
Two hotels and a small museum have been built within the remains of the ancient city.
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