General Uxmal Information and other Ruinas Uxmal, Mexico Things to Do Tips

If you are in the western part of the Yucatan peninsula, consider going to Uxmal. This ruin is pure Mayan, and is quite beautiful - comparing favourably to Chichén Itzá which is the most visited ruin in the area.

Depending on what detail you wish to get into, visiters can spend from 3 hours to a whole day at the site. We arrived early in the morning, and visited most of the restored buildings and left at 1pm when the heat got to us, but we missed some of the structures (like the cemetery).

In 2005 admission is 88 pesos (approx $9 US), plus if you arrive by car there is a 10 peso parking charge. Admission is cheaper on Sundays. The administration building has bathrooms, air-conditioned restaurants, shops, phones, ATMs, etc. – most of which we used. Guides are available, with different prices for different languages, but English-speaking guides cost 350 pesos.

We chose to visit Uxmal by rental car. There are other ways - by organized tour or local transportation. See my Merida transportation tip for a discussion on the various ways to tour Uxmal.

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Directions: 78 km (1 1/2 hours drive) south of Mérida on Route 261

The Magician's Pyramid or Dwarf's House is the first structure you see when you enter this ruin site. It is an imposing 39 metres in height. Unfortunately in 2005, they do not allow climbing of this pyramid which is too bad -- I see from other Uxmal pages on VT that they used to allow climbing of this pyramid. These steps appear steeper than the Great Pyramid which you are allowed to climb.

This photo was taken through a doorway of the Nun's Quadrangle. This face of the pyramid is well decorated with images of the hooked-nose rain god Chaac.

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This photo is the same structure taken from further away. After researching a bit I find that it is called the Magician's or Soothsayer's Pyramid (Templo del Adivino) or Dwarf's House. The Spanish gave it the name: Magician's Pyramid but the Mayan's the name: House of the Dwarf -- because they have a legend that it was built in one day by an enchanted dwarf.

This pyramid is unusual in that it is one of the only eliptical structures the Mayan's built.

You would never know it by looking at it, but this pyramid has in fact been rebuilt and added to five times in the course of its history (the Mayans often built newer temples on top of older ones - in a 52 year cycle, and it was considered bad luck to destroy the previous version).

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The Spanish called this series of buildings the Nun's Quadrangle or Nun's Cloister (Cuadróngulo de las Monjas) because that is what the buildings reminded them of. It's hard to tell from this photo, but there really is a quadrangle.

Each direction has a building with a series of rooms (74 in all), and there is an open courtyard in the centre. Each of the four buildings are at a different height above the courtyard, and the one side has steps big enough to be called seats, where you now sit to see the "Light and Sound show" each evening. You can go in any of the rooms, but all that live there now are birds (swallows?) who nest near the roof, and the odd iguana (at least that is all that we saw).

The Nun's Quadrangle was built during Lord Chak's reign (who is not the rain god Chaac -- this took me a while to comprehend), and was the last major piece of construction at Uxmal, which perhaps explains the wonderful shape of the building's carvings.

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At Uxmal, tourists are allowed to climb the Great Pyramid (La Gran Pirámide). It is not too difficult -- in my opinion, most people will be able to climb Uxmal's Great Pyramid. (I forgot to count the number of steps).

As expected, the scenery from the top is fine! You can see most of the buildings on site, and in the Uxmal area, there are hills in the background as well. Only one side of the pyramid has been uncovered.

You can see in subsequent photo the back of the Great Pyramid which has not been restored.

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The city is only partially restored, so there are vast undisturbed areas left for your imagination. I am afraid I am not an archeologist; I require someone to interpret the ruins. The photo is the back of the Great Pyramid. You can see from the photo that Uxmal would need a lot of imagination if all you saw was such piles of rocks.

I have no idea what the long range plans are at Uxmal, but staff were working on clearing/digging new sections while we toured. I hope more is restored. From what we currently see, I found it hard to imagine how townspeople actually lived. Most of the restored buildings that we saw were buildings for research or worship or palaces for royalty -- none seem to be living quarters and 25,000 people lived in Uxmal.

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The Governor's Palace (La Casa del Gobernador) is a huge building. According to the brochure you receive it is "considered by experts as a wonder of the ancient world for its precision and architectonic beauty".

This is the only building at Uxmal that faces east (the others face west). (Please excuse my photo. It is of the back, not the front because I was having troubles with taking pictures facing into the sun), but you can see the frieze all along the back of the palace. The palace is built on a platform -- actually four platforms, one on top of the other on top of the other, etc. It makes the palace look like its on a hill.

This structure is a true feat of engineering. this building is almost 100 meters (270 feet) long and 15 meters wide. The length of the frieze is then 230 meters long and about 4 meters high. In the total area that makes up the frieze of the Palace of the Governor, there are 230 Chaac masks. That is a lot of carving -- almost mass production -- and in a society that had no metal tools.

We wandered all around the palace and into many of the rooms. It is amazing how much cooler the rooms were than the outdoors.

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The Pigeon's Quadrangle (El Palomar) was once a quadrangle like the Nun's. One wall is all that is left of this structure.

You can see why it is named after pigeons. It has the look of a pigeon coop.

It is interesting that in Uxmal they have at least two similar constructions. The relationship between the Nun's Quadrangle and the Magician's Pyramid is matched by the Pigeon's Quadrangle and the Great Pyramid. I wonder if there were competing Mayan rulers using these two complexes.

One theory I read is that Uxmal was a city of Mayan holy men -- who did not care for war. There are very few war images in the stonework.

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All Mayan communities seemed to have ball courts, although the game must have changed slightly from city to city, as the ball courts seem to be different sizes and depths.

It is hard to believe that one of the Uxmal ball court rings survived all these years. (They have a sign saying respect the carvings). The goals are located about 3 metres (10 feet) off the ground. Ballcourt rings are carved with religious images.

I read that the players have to move a rubber ball the size of a basketball using their hips, but not their feet. I'm having difficulty imagining scoring a goal on a ring 3 metres off the ground.

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