15 posts tagged “mayan ruins”

Unlike in Europe, where you can hop a train to Paris from Madrid for the weekend and explore on your own, the Mexico semester provides planned fun with built-in educational opportunities. Snorkelling is a good example of this, as is hiking through a forest looking for monkeys. Today was one of those days, and we went white-water rafting. The morning was cold, as we dressed for it- packing long sleeve shirts in rainjackets, predicting that we could stay dry if we really wanted. That prospect was eliminated before we even took off down the river, when war broke out. Our boat adopted the attitude of the French, put up a weak fight initially, and then just perpetually waved our white flag and submitted to the assault.

After learning how to hold the oar correctly, follow some basic directions and duck into the boat for the waterfalls, we took off down the river with the team cameraman in tow. This paparazzi man, Ernesto, could have given Roberto a run for his money: he has some amazing footage. Unfortunately, none of it is of us because we were in his boat, and Robert has none because we were always first. Its just too bad- our less than flattering expressions will not have the opportunity to echo throughout time on the internet in pixel form.

The highlight of my boating experience was definitely my near-life experience. It’s an early waterfall and not a very big one. In fact, the entire course doesn’t even register to a ½ a point on the scale of white-water. Nevertheless, I’m a little uncomfortable due to the unfamiliarity of the situation. We paddle faster and faster towards the edge before ducking into the boat, and I grab the lifeline in what I swear is the correct position, lean back appropriately, take a deep breath and wait for us to land upright on the other side. Things don’t exactly go as planned, and fortunately or unfortunately, there are no pictures because we are the first boat.

In Fight Club, Jack is arguing with Tyler about why Jack wasn’t included in Project Mayhem, citing the special nature of their relationship, its outgrowth from Fight Club which they began together, and so on. Tyler is incredulous at this and wants Jack to just let go, especially after he can’t robotically produce something he wished he could do before he died. So, speeding down the highway in a car stolen from an airport parking lot by a valet who works there, Tyler lets go of the wheel. He lets go of the wheel, drifts into the lane of an incoming eighteen-wheeler and forces Jack to accept that he’s going to die, not without protest, as the car passes through incoming traffic and off of the highway where it ends in a colossal wreck. They are alive, but battered, having finally experienced something akin to near-life.

The boat flips and despite by best efforts, I am flung out of the grip of the lifeline and into the undercurrent. My first thoughts are, “So this is the undercurrent he was talking about. I should tuck and wait to come out.”  Fifteen seconds later, when I feel the oxygen in my lungs dissipating, and the strength of the current increasing, so  that I feel like I am being thrown around in a washing machine, I start to think that I am not going to make it. My life doesn’t flash before my eyes. I’m obviously a little scared because I think I am going to die, but I don’t have any dramatic thoughts. “So this is what it feels like to drown,” is one thought, and “Well, if I have to die, life hasn’t been so bad.”  Like when my plane to Pennsylvania hit a deep spot of turbulence that pushed the plane down altitude significantly, I just accept death if it’s coming because there is nothing I can do about it. So, anyway, struggling for air but doing my best not to inhale the water, I finally pop out. I swim the that I can towards Dana and Danielle, who were also tossed out of the boat and see from the opposite side of the river that it flipped, and that other boats have come down safely. I just had a near-life experience, and I’m damn resentful none of the other boats were privileged either.

For our boat, the rest of the rafting experience was relatively uneventful, but nevertheless a lot of fun. The weather was miserable- dark, cloudy, rainy and yes, cold, but this didn’t inspire our moods at all, even as we choked back water when we tried to swim individually through some rapids. I was soaked to the bone, freezing cold and having a lot of fun. One of the other boats flipped at one point, but they experience was less dramatic than ours, or maybe just less fun. Cesar, our bus driver, popped out during a waterfall, only to stand up gracefully, slip, and fall back into the water- all caught on video, by the way. In another glorious feat of acrobatics, Hugo, our perpetual guide, rolled out of the boat on a fall with incredible drama, again, caught on tape.

I was sad to reach the end of the river because I knew the weather was going to affect my mood when I did. We got out of the boat, still soaked to the bone and freezing cold, but not excited by the prospect of hiking at least 1.5km to a Mayan site, then back down, up to a waterfall where we could finally eat, and then, at least 5km after that, all through the jungle, to reach our cabins where we could acquire (hypothetically) warm showers and dry clothes. To make matters worse, we had to wear our life jackets, our helmets and carry our oars the entire way, and my shoes were not staying on. My feet slid around in them effortlessly, lubricated by water, mud, and blood from the many sticks that stabbed into them. Who would be in a good mood facing that kind of prospect?

Still, we all sucked it up. Lacanja, the Mayan site was undeniably beautiful for its setting, and as the last site we are visiting on the trip, I felt compelled to appreciate it through what I had learned this semester. After awhile, my teeth stopped chattering and things weren’t so bad. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall we were all too cold to swim in and ate a lunch of delicious cheese, watermelon, Ate de Frutas, which is a fruit-mash-pectin-gel-substance that is great and olives. Some of my classmates played the old ROPES game of passing the team through a spider web with the waterfall setting for beautiful pictures. I changed into my semi-dry clothes, relaxed, and enjoyed myself watching them have fun too. The hike back was long, but enjoyable, and I felt like Raymond K.K.K.K. Hessel after my shower- I will never feel so clean in my life again.

We set our eyes on Guatemala today as we took the Usamacinta River down to Yaxchilan. Yaxchilan was a Mayan city set just above the river in a solid defensive position that also allowed it to control trade traffic. It’s architectural florescence occurred during the reign of Bird Jaguar IV, whose name and titles ad nauseam are present on many of the lintels: engraved tablets set in doorways. One of these lintels tells us that Bird Jaguar IV, Divine Ajaw of Yaxchilan, Master of Aj Jux, He of 20 Captives, Master of Jeweled Skull, etc has a wife who is the mother of the heir to the throne, Izamnaaj Balam III. I know this because Katie and I translated it from the Mayan hieroglyphs. Cool, right?

We entered the city through a labyrinth similar to the one we were denied access to in Oxkintok, and experienced a pathway to the Xibalba complete with fairly large bats of the Emballuridae family. From there, we began a tour of Bird Jaguar IV and his greatness as we gazed on his constructions and read his lintels, full of titles exalting himself. On a few occasions, he sought to elevate and legitimize his mother, who was not the primary wife of his father, and in one stela, he also paid tribute to his sajal, or nobles. All of these features served one function, like they have at every site we have visited: to assert and legitimize his power.

Much of the architecture at the site is the standard Peten style with Rio Bec influence present in features like roof combs, which add false height to buildings. Like other sites we have visited recently, Yaxchilan is a Classic period site and a number of the buildings haven’t been consolidated or reconstructed. Rebecca also told us that a lot of the “dirt” archeology hasn’t been done here either. This was surprising to me because there is obviously a thriving, if not monolithic like at Uxmal, Tulum or Chichen Itza, tourism business here. While I would like to come back to Yaxchilan in some hypothetical future and see it in a different, improved state than it is now as a result of that business, I am wary of what results from that money. The sound and light shows at Tulum and Uxmal still rub me the wrong way. Maybe the fact that the site is yards from Guatemala insulates and will continue to protect Yaxchilan from such distortion.

After a long, hot day at Yaxchilan, we visited a waterfall to cool off- and cool off we did. Like at Siaan Kann, the water made the Guadalupe River feel warm, and as a result, I could only manage to stay in just long enough to strip the accumulated sweat and bug spray off my body. The view, however, was just as beautiful outside the water as it was in it, and we were spared the company of strangers because of the relative obscurity of the waterfall.  

Today we visited one of the sites I had scripted into obscurity in my notes: Bonampak. While the sit emay have had some political influence and significance in the Early Classic period, its cultural florescence occurred under the hegemony of Yaxchilan during the Late Classic Period. During this name, a ruler named Chan Muwaan married a member of nobility at Yaxchilan and commissioned some of the most beautiful and well-preserved murals in the Mayan world. I am sure I have said this before though: anything of real beauty has to be experienced in person. You just can’t capture it with a picture.

                The murals are divided into three rooms. According to The Chronicles of the Mayan Kings and Queens, the first room is a scene at court. There are three nobles dancing, there are musicians playing the music they are dancing to, and there are masked actors in costume serving some unidentified purpose. The second room, which is my favorite, is hell and destruction. Three walls are full of fighting warriors in traditional uniform. The fourth wall is the resulting captives from that battle- some of them are already dead, some of them are being tortured, and all the while, their captors lord over them. With room three, the pleasantry returns with a celebration of victory. I will agree with Robert that this room is really surreal. There are some strange figures, all hazy either as a result of the botched cleaning process of the murals, time, or the state of mind of the artist. The most bizarre of these images include royal ladies performing autosacrifice, or piercing their tongues.

                The murals themselves have an interesting history. As a I mentioned, they were done while Bonampak was under the thumb of Yaxchilan, specifically Izamnaaj Balam III, whom I will probably bring up tomorrow when we visit Yaxchilan because he is the son of the important Bird Jaguar IV. Moreover, the murals are unfinished, evidencing some kind of disruption or collapse of the city, especially because there are no further records found on site.

It was another Dawley morning for us this morning as we headed out to the site of Palenque to explore its unique architecture, beautiful setting and the adjacent museum. The city itself was a contemporary of Calakmul, though much smaller, and also of Yaxchilan, which we will be visiting later this week. It’s fluorescence was under the rule of K’inich Janaab Pakal I, partially due to his intense desire to legitimize himself after the deaths of notable figures at the city.  In its earlier days, it was subject to attacks by distance attacks by Scroll Serpent at Calakmul during the reign of Palenque’s first queen, Lady Yohl Ik’nal, and her son, Aj Ne’Ohl Mat.

While the whole city is worth talking about, my favorite feature of the site was not the Temple of Inscriptions, or the Palacio del Palenque, or anything else commissioned by the great Pakal, but instead something created by his son, K’inich Kan B’alam II: The Temples of the Sun, the Cross, and the Foliated Cross. Each temple represents an aspect of the Mayan world with its associated symbols. The Temple of the Sun venerates the sun and is associated with warfare, Xibalba, captives and the jaguar. The Temple of the Cross celebrates the Ceiba Tree as it rises out of a Monster Mask, and is associated with the celestial realm.  Finally, my person favorite because it represents the empirical realm, is the Temple of the Foliated Cross, which venerates maize. Here, maize rises out of a water lily and heads come out of the maize, creating a very surrealistic image that I unfortunately didn’t catch a glimpse of. In the center of each temple is a sweatbath for the establishment of spiritual connections

What makes Palenque most striking is that its architecture is very unlike anything else that we have seen. The most obvious of these features is the watchtower than rises out the Palacio del Palenque, invoking something distinctly Asian. The ruling bodies of Palenque must have been something special to create such a different style in an interconnected world. The fact that the surrounding

After lunch, we visited the museum that holds the sarcophagus of Pakal and many of the artifacts found in the Temple of inscriptions. I have to say that I was very impressed by the sheer size of the sarcophagus and what it meant as a physical undertaking to a culture without wheels. The artifacts in his tomb were also beautiful- I am a big fan of the jade mosaic masks. They remind me of the kind of jewelry my mother likes to wear.

For some reason, even though we didn’t encounter residences like in Oxkintok, I felt like Palenque was finally the city that felt like a city. Perhaps it was the fluctuating elevation that created a feeling of temple skyscrapers. Maybe it was the abundance of resources- you don’t really have to worry about rain in the rainforest, which also provides a significant amount of food, and the wood may not serve very much use in temples, but it is certainly the base material for an everyday palapas. Whatever the reason, with however a rational foundation, Palenque was the city I was holding my breath for, and it was definitely worth the wait.

Today was the second day of our Calakmul visit. In addition to being an archeological site for a major superstate in the Mayan region, it is also a biosphere reserve in the middle of nowhere. As a result, it was the perfect way to spend two days learning about ruins and keeping an eye out for elusive mammalian species.

We spent the large majority of our time at Calakmul filling our field notebooks with animal sightings. While we have become accustomed to seeing many of the same birds over and over again, things like flycatchers, jays, orioles and mot-mots, we were treated to less common varieties of these birds in our first hour, including toucans, Oscillating Turkeys so frequently Robert chased some down the road on the way in, a Boat-billed Flycatcher, and a Violaceous trogon, which I am glad to take credit for spotting since I am binocularly-challenged. Then, we saw the monkeys! Now you know what time it is- Spot the Sigmund! At first, it was just one lone, aggressive male spider monkey, which is strange because spider monkeys do not usually roam alone. We spent fifteen minutes chasing him a little bit off of the beaten path, listening to him vocalize and make threat displays when two of his friends showed up, more inclined to hop around between the trees and eat.

Later, as we were climbed down from atop the tallest structure in Calakmul, the illustriously named Estructura Dos, we heard the growling bark of a troop of Howler Monkeys, and having been deprived their presence, we chose to chase down their call.  We were not disappointed and chased a group of seven or so of them in the trees, at least two large males and a small baby howler monkey. After they had escaped our camera and our trail in the brush, we cut through to the road again where we spotted them a second time, but they had largely stopped howling. Further down the trail, was a very agitated group of howlers, or I should saw, couple of males. I wish I could describe the sound to you- it sounded everything like a cross between the sound you hear the T-Rex make in Jurassic Park to the phantom scream of a supernatural villain in a horror movie. Oh wait, why don’t you watch the movie on Youtube? That more hominid, less-frightening sound you hear is Ellen.

                Today, we were accompanied by the field biologist of Calakmul on a nature walk around the largest of the five reservoirs the Calakmul Mayans used for water. Again, we were treated to many birds on our way in, including a pair of unexpected Great Egrets on the other side of the reservoir. We also spotted an Agouti, several Great Curassows, and more Oscillated Turkeys.  While on the trail, we also spotted Leist Grebes, an as-of-yet unidentified but very colorful snake, and the molted skin of the vicious Fer-de-Lance.

                Like I mentioned before, in addition to being one of the largest biological reserves in Mexico, Calakmul is also a major archeological site, although for its relative importance, little is excavated for likely one reason: the remoteness of its location. From Xpuhil, a relatively small town, it is a two-and-a-half-hour trip by bus, at least, depending on how many turkeys Robert takes a mind to paparazzing on the way in. While it was discovered in the 1930s, large-scale excavations did not take place until the 1980s, when travel-guides were still recommending chainsaws as useful tools for alleviating the difficulties of travelling into Calakmul. Moreover, while approximately 117  stelae have been found here, more than any other in the Mayan region, because the quality of the limestone is poor when not imported, most of the history is lost except where it is recorded in other cities. That it is even recorded at all attests to the large hegemonic power of Calakmul as the seat of the Kaan dynasty and arch-rival of the superstate of Tikal.

                The notable features of the site include the monolithic structures one and two and structure three for a post-archeologically-relevant inscriptions. Structure one and structure two are only interesting because they are gigantic, and you can see Guatemala from the top of them. Otherwise, they fit the mold of the common Calakmul monument: Terminal Classic with Early Classic substructures with Peten-style architecture. Structure three, however, is worth mentioning for its graffiti. Although there is a large amount of graffiti left by tourists, who feel compelled to destroy whatever stucco has been spared erosion, there is an inscription from the archeologist, Cyrus Lundall, who discovered the site in the 19321. Can you pick out his name in the old and the tourist graffiti?

                Overall, I’d argue that Calakmul is incomparable to any site we have seen so far, not just for its magnitude, but for its location as well.

On our way from Siaan Kaan to Xpuhil, where we will be staying while we visit Calakmul, we stopped at two scheduled, and one unscheduled stop along the way.

Our first site was at the Mayan city of Bécan, which is notable for the large moat around it.  While the moat could have provided a significant amount of defense, especially if the dirt from the moat was used the build a defensive palisade, there probably wasn’t enough water in the region to use it as a moat even if there was evidence that it was used defensively. Regardless, its presence was probably appreciated by its citizens during an attack by Calakmul. What there is evidence of, however, is that the moat was used as a trash dump because there is a large amount of…trash…in it.

Bécan is the first site we have visited with large amount of Rio Bec architecture. The style is a mock-replication of Peten-style architecture with Chenes influence, but unfortunately we haven’t seen enough of either of those styles to pick it out ourselves yet. In order to create height and grandeur, the Rio Bec style employs false towers, stairways and roof combs. While these definitely result in structures that rival the beauty of the Puuc-style architecture we have become familiar with, they are ultimately less impressive than say, the Acropolis at Ek’Balam, which really is as functionally tall as its architecture suggests. It does, however, have a round structure similar to the one who saw in Muyil associated with the cult of the Feathered Serpent. It is also the site of a beautiful and well-preserved frieze of a Chaak Monster mask associated with Chenes-style architecture. It’s turned in profile so that it is completely unrecognizable to my eyes, which have only recently learned to identify the three-dimensional masks we have encountered in sites like Uxmal.

Perhaps on the way to Bécan, or maybe in between Bécan and Chicanna, we made an unscheduled stop at a random pyramid along the highway. I don’t remind because I was half-asleep when I woke up to a lurching stop, spotted Robert with his paparazzi camera in hand, Ellen, Hugo and Rebecca (with her camera too!) running across the highway. I watched them groggily climb up and then back down the tower, and then fell asleep when the bus finally lurched forward again, and completely forgot to ask any of them about the pyramid. I would have thought it was a dream except I have a picture. I think it says something about the Mayans, though, that we seemed to encounter pyramids wherever we go. This wasn’t some random civilization, concentrated in a few places- the Mayan were everywhere.

We visited Chicanna after lunch. It’s a much smaller site although it is a little bit older. While most of the structures in Bécan were built in the 8^th to the 9^th century, Chicanna’s architecture, less substructures, range from about 550-750AD.  It also has predominantly Rio Bec architecture, although the Chenes-style profile masks are present here also. The most interesting structure, although certainly not the most attractive, is Structure 2, which the site is named after: “Mouth of the Monster Mask.” The Monster Masks at this structure are nice, but the Mayan graffiti of the structure across from it, accompanied by revolting modern graffiti, is more interesting. Even better is the layer of hieroglyphs the peeling stucco reveals. Who knows what stories they will tell?

Today, we travelled to the Siaan Kaan Biosphere Reserve, on which is the small site of the city of Muyil, where we ventured back into the land of name-by-number structures.

To begin our day, we took a motorboat into the lagoons of Siaan Kaan and explored the Mayan-constructed canals surrounded by marsh. Conspicuously, there were few birds- I only recorded one chilling Great Blue Heron in my notebook, even though it was flying over the lagoon. This is probably because the lagoons were made of freshwater, which is naturally less biomass abundant than saltwater. As a result, there is fewer things for the birds to eat, like fish, which are absent because of the lack of large amounts of algae. The water as clear, icy blue, and where the boat had not stirred up the sandy sediment at the bottom, there was an off-white limestone bottom to gaze on, perfectly devoid of all life except for sporadic marsh grass.

After the passing through two lagoons connected by the Mayan canals, we entered another group of Mayan canals, were instructed to stand on the dock and put our life vests on. So, I, centered the life jacked on my body like I intended to put it on backwards, and then threaded my legs through the arm-holes, pulled it up like a gigantic diaper, and fastened it around my stomach. Not visual enough? Try the picture to your left. Then, I lowered myself into the water that makes the Guadalupe River feel warm, and proceeded to float down the Mayan canals, paparazzi’d by Ahau Roberto the entire way. Along the side of the riverbanks, we gazed on more marsh grass, mangroves, some termite nests, and occasional spots of brown algae, but we were really the only living things in the water until a second group of tourists, all in boats, met us at the end of canal. They insisted they had paid more for their dry excursion, but I doubt they had as much fun.

On the way back, Aakash’s attempts to imitate Leonardo di Caprio gave me something to contemplate- I still owe him a Mayan sacrifice- would a lagoon instead of a cenote suffice? Before I made my decision, we had arrived back on land to explore Muyil. Unfortunately, this Mayan city, while beautiful, provided no opportunities to make up for my indecision.

Like other sites we have visited, like Labna, Sayil, or Acanceh, there is not a lot of money coming into the site. As a result, less of the buildings are reconstructed or consolidated, there are fewer tourists to spoil my pictures or to encourage grotesque sound and light shows. This also means that a good number of buildings are mostly as they were found- no more than large mounds of rubble. A good number of the structures were still “presentable” in a way that they would appease the eyes of tourists, however.

Muyil itself was one of the largest East Coast cities and has architecture that reflects influences from their East Coast geography and the Peten region. There is evidence of occupation from the Middle Preclassic (550BC) to the Terminal Classic (~925AD), although there is no architecture from the earliest periods, so the origins of the site are dated by pottery.  Apparently, it is one of several sites that we will see in the coming days with a peculiar round structure at the top of the Castillo related to either the Terminal Classic/Postclassic cult of Quetzalqauotl (sp?), or possibly the World Tree.. More interesting to me now that we have seen more than fifteen sites of ruins, was that this site is still used in modern Mayan rituals. On the pathway into the reserve, there was a hieroglyph as a worship-aid for a Mayan pilgrimage up the East Coast of the Yucatan peninsula where they carry a Jesus Christ on a cross. This is yet another example of the way the Mayans have integrated Christianity into their ancestral religion. Additionally, one of the temples is still used by modern Mayan shamans for religious rituals because it is built over a sacred cave. As I may have mentioned before, caves and cenotes are inherently sacred to the Mayan because they represent a link to the underworld, Xibalba.

After the site and the lagoon, we went out to lunch in Bakalar, the small town where we stayed at the hotel Laguna Bakalar. The restaurant was built next to a cenote that would rival a small lake in size and reached a depth of 90m. After the frigid water of the reserve earlier that morning, I had burnt myself out on swimming, but I did stick my feet in the water to find it surprisingly warm not only for the weather that day, but also for how deep it was. It was yet another nice cenote ending to a long, Mexico day of ecology, travelling, ruins and restaurants.

After leaving Kiuic, we headed for the Caribbean Coast to visit the Mayan sites of Coba and Tulum. While we never made it to Coba, we did visit Tulum and it was quite an experience in tourism.

Tulum, like Chichen Itza, has a large influx of tourists from Cancun. As a result, the city, resembles an amusement park, although a much more beautiful and smaller one than Chichen because it is perched on cliffs overlooking the Caribbean sea. Although some may argue that its Floridian landscaping increases this beauty, I likened it to a miniature golf course because of it. The palms were excessive, the grass over-maintained, and resulting, it bordered on gaudy. I couldn’t help but wonder what how the Mayans who built Tulum had envisioned instead. I will say that I prefer this gaudiness over Chichen Itzas sac-bes of vendors, however. At Tulum, they were permitted in the strip-mall entrance, but no further. Equally ridiculous, however, was the swamp of tourists, many of whom wish to take advantage of the beach access and seemed to be dressed only for that. Tulum was just a backdrop for their sunbathing, I suppose.

Tulum the archeological site was comparable to little else that we have seen because it is the only place we have visited that was almost exclusively built in the style of East Coast Architecture. The temple of this style in Ek’Balam was very plain and remarkably boring in comparison to the Puuc, Peten and Chenes style architecture of the other sites we had seen, as well as the Acropolis at Ek’Balam. As a result, I expected Tulum to be equally boxy and plain. I was pleasantly surprised. At the Temple of the Frescos, we were treated to what were elaborate, colorful murals before an assault of camera flashes bleached them, and contrasting masks echoing the themes of light and dark, life and death, etc that Hugo enjoys pointing out at many of the sites. There was little of the plain architecture we witnessed at that Temple in Ek’Balam, perhaps a reflection of the longer-lasting wealth Tulum retained as an important trade center.

After Tulum, we went back to our hotel for the night where we listened to a lecture of howler and spider monkeys by Phil. Afterwards, we were set loose on the town to acquire dinner and breakfast for the next morning since we would be getting up very early to go to Puntas Lagunas to monkey watch. We were not disappointed when we got there, in as much as we did get to see a very large spider monkey troop, even if we didn’t see the Howler monkeys. Can you spot the monkey?

We departed from the monkeys to listen to a semi-comprehensible lecture on the ecology of reefs by a guy who works at a reserve, but we didn’t do any snorkeling there because the water was too rough. Tomorrow, however, there will be snorkeling off of the coast of Puerto Morelos. The day after, we will visit the tourist-clogged Playa del Carmen and Cozumel islands for the same. I can’t think of any better way to have class.

As a complement to visiting Uxmal yesterday, today we visited three sites that were at one time or another, under the thumb of Uxmal: Labna, Sayil and Kabah.

We visited Kabah first. Of course it is the Puuc region, and it has an 8^th-10^th century florescence. The name Kabah, for reasons beyond architecture, means Lord of the Hand. What makes this site interesting is that it has a sac-be that goes to Uxmal, and that it has a temple that to me, demonstrates the influence of that communication, although I only have appearance for evidence: The Temple of the Masks. The front of this temple is just a series of mask after mask, lined up next to each other like an excel spreadsheet. The sheer excessiveness of it, the “Baroque” we saw in Uxmal, is the only explanation in my opinion. The fact that there are hints of the dramatic Rio Bec style in roof combs only contributes to this impression.

Sayil had a culture florescence that was contemporaneous with that of Kabah, but the site is very different. Part of this is because at Kabah, most of the structures are not consolidated and reconstructed, and we only had an opportunity to visit four or five of them. Sayil was a pleasant stroll through the semi-deciduous forest in a large site with fairly spread out structures that served 10,000 people at its height in the interior, and probably 5-7,000 more outside the city. Despite the fact that some of these were also unconsolidated, they seemed to amount to more than a pile of rubble like at Kabah.

Sayil is home to three things worth mentioning: El Palacio, El Mirador and Yow Kep.  The Palacio was impressive because it reminded me of a

smaller version of the Acropolis at Ek’Balam. It is decorated with the rare Diving God, as well as other zoomorphic gods, and has ninty-four accessible rooms, although that only represents the number of rooms accessible in its final period. Because the Palace was bult in parts, there might have been more or less in other periods. Next, El Mirador, demonstrated to us yet another small example of Rio Bec architecture with a roof comb. Apparently, this “El Mirador” building has a style all of its own, but it could also be that roof combs are just an engineering dream because they don’t force a lot of weight on the corbel arches. Finally, Yow Kep is a Penis God.

The final site we visited was Labna, with yet another culture florescence in the 8^th-10^th

centuries. This site in a couple of ways felt like a combination of Kabah and Sayil, but this could have something to do with the fact that we had just visited them. All of the elements of the day were present though: roof combs, an El Mirador, a Palacio, Chaak masks, a long sac-be and the now familiar Puuc mosaic. The only thing that was different is that we were treated to a group that may have been residential. Although they are usually less than a pile of rubble, I always enjoy these groups the most- they remind me that the ruins we see are not just fancy structures, they were part of a city that people lived in.

Uxmal is a city that is impressed with itself, although it should be. It reached its culture florescence in the Terminal Classic period and cultivated hegemony over many nearby, smaller cities, including the three we will be visiting tomorrow- Sayil, Labna and Kabah. Its architecture reflects that its rulers wielded incredible power due to the presence of many large structures as well as extensive and detailed adornment on these structures. The Puuc –style excess is so extensive that the name “Puuc-style Baroque” has been ascribed to it, accordingly to Hugo. For me, the height of this excess is not in the Nunnery Quadrangle, with elaborate imagery associated with conjuring, kingship, warfare, etc, but instead the Governor’s Palace, which drips Puuc mosaic. While there is certainly more quantity at the House of the Magicians, reason can be ascribed to it. At the Governor’s Palace, it feels only like showing off. I may feel this way because I read an analysis of the House of the Magicians and know almost nothing about the Governor’s Palace other than the imagery I can recognize from the House of the Magicians, but I feel like I would have the same opinion with or without this information.

Architecture aside, I found something very disturbing at Uxmal. Throughout the Nunnery Quadrangle, there were large pieces of flat metal on

the ground in the plaza, and occasionally in the arches of the buildings themselves. Certainly these are not artifacts, and must be something fairly important to destroy part of historic ruins to fit them in, right? No. I wish. It was a sound and light show to attract more tourists and more money, but not for excavation. Of course, like anyone who is not an archeologist, I prefer to look at consolidated and reconstructed buildings. They are more appealing to me than gigantic piles of rocks. However, you can’t learn about a culture and not invest something in it because of that knowledge. As a result, I would like to see some of my money put back into the science of the cities, instead of the entertainment of Homo sapiens tomatus. Unfortunately, I can’t hold my breath. Business doesn’t run that way, so I will just have to appreciate the fact that I had an opportunity to visit before things degenerated too much.