Uxmal

Uxmal (shmäl`, z–), ancient city, northern Yucatán peninsula, Mexico. A Late Classic period Maya center situated in the Puuc hills, Uxmal flourished between 600 and 900. It is one of the finest expressions of Maya architecture known as the Puuc style. The site has such impressive structures as the unique Pyramid of the Magician; the Nunnery, with elaborately decorated facades of stone mosaic friezes; and the Governor's Palace (320 ft/98 m long, 40 ft/12.2 m wide, and 26 ft/8.9 m high), with some 20,000 carved stone elements in its facade. The site was abandoned shortly after 950 but was reoccupied briefly in the 15th cent. by the Xiu, a Mexican group who soon abandoned the site after wresting power from the Cocom Itzá at Mayapán.

Bibliography

See studies in the Handbook of Middle American Indians, ed. by R. Wauchope (13 vol., 1964–73); M. P. Weaver, The Aztecs, Maya, and Their Predecessors (1972).

---

Uxmal

The House of Turtles (foreground), the Pyramid of the Magician (right), and the Nunnery Quadrangle, …

(credit: © Robert Frerck/Odyssey Productions)

Ancient city, Yucatán state, southeastern Mexico. It was the chief city of the later Mayan empire (c. AD 600–900). After c. 1000, major construction in the city ceased, although it continued to be occupied and was a participant in the political League of Mayapán. When the league ended, Uxmal, like the other great cities of the north, was abandoned (c. 1450). Mayan ruins include a pyramid, a palace, and a quadrangle.