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Uxmal
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. Most of the architecture visible today was built between about 700 and 1100.
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. The Xiu moved their capital to Maní, and the population of Uxmal declined.
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.
Even before the restoration work Uxmal was in better condition than many other Maya sites thanks to being unusually well built. Much was built with well cut stones 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, a long low building atop a huge platform, with the longest façades in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.
The Adivino or "Pyramid of the Magician", a fine pyramid temple unusual in several ways. The layers of the step pyramid are oval, rather than the usual rectangular or square shape. 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.
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 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 others 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. The stelae depict the ancient rulers of the city, and 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 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.
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Name and Orthography
Uxmal is a large Pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. It is 78 km south of Mérida, Yucatán, or 110 km from that city on Highway 261 towards Campeche, Campeche), 15 km south-southeast of the town of Muna.
Uxmal is pronounced "Oosh-mahl". The place name is Pre-Columbian and it is usually assumed to be an archaic Maya language phrase meaning "Built Three Times", although some scholars of the Maya language dispute this derivation.
 
Tour
CLocated 80 kilometres south of Merida in a range of low hills covered with brush, Uxmal is the largest Maya city of the Puuc region. The city is believed to have been the hub of a district that includes the sites of Kabah, Sayil, Labna, and Xlapak. These sites, largely restored, experienced their golden years between AD 800 - 1000. The characteristics of the Puuc architecture are the thin squares of limestone veneer, decorated cornices, boot-shaped vault stones, rows of attached half columns, and upper facades heavily decorated with stone mosaics. The city is characterized by its quadrangles in which large, elongated, multi roomed buildings orm a closed complex around a square courtyard. The nunnery quadrangle is considered the most outstanding example of Puuc architecture in the Maya world.
Little is known of the origins and development of this important political, economic and learning centre. Although the Maya word Uxmal means "Thrice Built", there is strong evidence that it has been rebuilt 5 times.
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