Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal

• Official name: Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal
• Location: Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
• Type: Cultural
• Year of inscription: 1996

The Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal is an archaeological site in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula that consists of the well-persevered remains of an ancient Maya city. Construction on the city of Uxmal—pronounced oosh-mawl—likely began in the sixth century, with the city reaching its greatest extent in the ninth century, when it was home to about 25,000 people. The city’s most prominent building, the Pyramid of the Magician, was likely constructed in several phases and features unique Maya architecture. The layout of the pyramid and the city’s other buildings is purposely designed to reference the positions of the planets in the sky.

Uxmal initially survived the collapse of the Maya civilization in the tenth century and served as the seat of power in the region for several years. Eventually, new construction in Uxmal stopped, and the city was mostly abandoned by the time Spanish explorers arrived in the sixteenth century. The importance of Uxmal’s architecture and its representation of Maya society and culture earned the site a place on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) World Heritage List in 1996.

History

The first major Mesoamerican civilization was that of the Olmec, who flourished along the Mexican Gulf Coast from about 1500 to 200 BCE. The Olmec built large stone cities and were known for their distinctive artwork, particularly their carved stone heads. The Maya first began establishing agricultural communities in the region about 1800 BCE. They interacted with the area’s other peoples and were greatly influenced by the Olmec, from which they borrowed several religious and cultural elements.

The Maya civilization came into its own about 250 CE, when it began establishing powerful urban centers in the Yucatán Peninsula, southern Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. During the peak of their civilization, the Maya developed an advanced culture known for its architecture, astronomy, mathematics, and calendar system. They established more than forty cities that ranged in population from five thousand to at least sixty thousand. Some archaeologists believe the largest Maya city, Tikal, could have been home to more than one hundred thousand people. Estimates of the overall population of the Maya civilization at its peak range from two million to ten million.

In addition to Tikal, which was located in modern-day Guatemala, another prominent Maya urban center was Uxmal on the Yucatán Peninsula. Uxmal is located about 39 miles (62 kilometers) south of the modern city of Merida in the Mexican state of Yucatán. Archeological evidence suggests the city was likely first settled in the sixth century. By the mid-ninth century, Uxmal had become the powerful capital of the Puuc region, a hilly area on the otherwise flat Yucatán Peninsula. The nearby settlements of Kabah, Sayil, and Labna were controlled by the king of Uxmal.

According to myth, the city’s most prominent feature—the 115-foot (35-meter) tall Pyramid of the Magician—was built in one night by a dwarf wizard. The dwarf was said to have been born from an egg and raised by a witch. When the dwarf foretold the fall of Uxmal’s king, the king gave the dwarf three impossible tasks to complete. One of those tasks was to build a structure taller than all others in the city and complete it overnight. Using his magical power, the dwarf finished the task by dawn. He also completed the other tasks and became king of the city.

At its height, Uxmal was home to an estimated 18,000 to 25,000 people. As the Puuc region contains no bodies of water, the people of Uxmal developed an irrigation system to collect and store rainwater. As a result, drought was a constant danger for the city and likely contributed to its demise.

Sometime after 900, the Maya civilization underwent a dramatic collapse that led to many of its major urban centers being abandoned. Experts remain unsure as to the exact cause of the collapse, although they speculate it may have been caused by overpopulation, drought, disease, or the toll of constant warfare. Even after the fall of the empire, several Maya cities, such as Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Mayapán, withstood the collapse and maintained their political power for a while.

Uxmal continued expanding into the tenth century, but new construction in the city eventually stopped, possibly because it was conquered by the city of Chichen Itza. Most of Uxmal’s population left the city in the eleventh century, but evidence suggests it remained occupied to some extent until the Spanish arrival in the sixteenth century. At that point, it was completely abandoned.

Significance

UNESCO has been recognizing significant natural environments and human-made landmarks as World Heritage Sites since 1978. Inclusion on the World Heritage List is meant to signify a site’s cultural, historical, or scientific importance to humanity. Candidate sites must meet at least one of ten UNESCO criteria to be included on the list. The city of Uxmal and the surrounding locations of Kabah, Sayil, and Labna were included on the World Heritage List in 1996 after the organization determined the site met three of the required criteria.

The first criterion is that the sites are an example of “human creative genius,” most notably in their representation of the unique Puuc style of art and architecture. The style, named after the region, featured structures built with a solid core of stone or plaster and covered with finely cut and decorated stone blocks. These stone blocks were purely decorative and had no foundational purpose. If they were removed, the building would remain standing.

Many of the carved designs on the buildings represented the Maya rain god, Chaac, which showed the importance of rainfall to the people of Uxmal and the surrounding towns. For example, Uxmal’s House of the Governor—a twenty-four-room palace constructed in the tenth century for a ruler named Chan Chak K’ak’nal Ajaw—had a two-headed jaguar throne surrounded by carved representations of Chaac.

The name Uxmal itself means “three-times built,” suggesting the city went through several building phases. This is evidenced in the construction of its most iconic building, the Pyramid of the Magician. The pyramid was constructed in five phases, with the first structure built in the sixth century. Each successive structure was built over the last one, culminating with the largest pyramid sometime in the tenth century. The pyramid is an example of the Puuc style in that its corners are rounded, giving it a distinctive oval shape. A doorway at the top of the pyramid was carved to resemble the mouth of a great serpent, giving the illusion that a priest or ruler was emerging from the mouth of the snake.

The second UNESCO criterion involves the “interchange of human values” over time within a specific cultural area. UNESCO’s description of Uxmal notes that its buildings represent the Maya view of the cosmos and their relationship with their environment. The layout of the city’s buildings is related to the five known planets at the time. Venus was an especially noteworthy planet to the Maya at Uxmal. The House of the Governor was aligned in such a way that its entrance faced Venus as it rose at its southernmost point. Other monuments in the palace mark Venus’ rise at its northernmost point. The Pyramid of the Magician was aligned so that its western staircase faced the setting sun on the summer solstice.

Uxmal’s Nunnery Quadrangle is a large courtyard enclosed by four buildings, each with fine-carved stone decorations in the ornamental Puuc style. Each of the four main structures features numerous doorways that hold some significance in Maya cosmology. The nunnery’s northernmost and tallest building has thirteen doorways to represent the thirteen levels of heaven. The southernmost and lowest building has nine doorways for the nine levels of the Maya underworld. The west building has seven doorways as a nod to the mystical number the Maya associated with the earth. This was likely to represent the “middle world,” where the Maya believed the sun left heaven for the underworld. Despite the name Nunnery Quadrangle—which was given to the site by the Spanish in the sixteenth century—modern experts do not know the true purpose of the structure.

The third criterion met by Uxmal is that it offers “exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization.” The remains of the main city and the towns of Kabah, Sayil, and Labna highlight Uxmal’s place as a significant regional capital that held onto prominence even after the Maya civilization began to fail. The site offers a unique view of the cultural, economic, and social structure of the late Maya period.

Bibliography

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Landau, Elizabeth. “The Maya Ruins at Uxmal Still Have More Stories to Tell.” Smithsonian Magazine, 17 June 2020, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/uxmal-maya-ruins-180974992. Accessed 16 Jan. 2025.

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“Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal.” UNESCO World Heritage Centre, whc.unesco.org/en/list/791. Accessed 16 Jan. 2025.

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