Pyramids of Yucatan, rough draft

Mérida is the capital of Yucatan. Colonial life in Yucatan really begins in 1542 with the foundation of the city of Mérida in the ancient seat of Mayan peoples known as Ixcanzihó. Of course it took many long campaigns and conflicts to bring the Mayas under the colonial rule of the conquistadores. The Spanish began constructing town squares like this one, dominated by the Catedral de San Ildefonso.

Mérida, the vibrant capital of the Mexican state of Yucatán has a rich Mayan and colonial heritage. The city´s focal point is the Plaza de la Independence, bordered by the fortresslike Mérida Cathedral and white limestone Iglesias de la Tercera Orden, colonial-era churches built using the stone relics from ancient  Mayan pyramids.

Mérida is an energetic town with a rich Mayan and colonial heritage. The town square is the Plaza de la Independencia anchored by the Cathedral and the white limestone walls of the Iglesia de la Tercera Orden. Many of these churches were built using stone quarried from Mayan temples.

I first visited here in 1993. It's changed a lot since then. In those days Mérida was a quieter place. Couples strolled  in the park of the composers where they were serenaded by wandering trios,  Guitar, requinto and bass, playing the urban boleros known as trova yucateca written by composers from Guty Cardenas to Armando Manzanero. These days it's a bustling city where people seem to be in a big hurry. I found it a bit more decrepit; many buildings haven´t been repainted in 20 years. 

Still it's filled with quiet places where one can sit and have a malted milk, or an agua de horchata, and watch the world go by.

Relaxing in front of a sweet shop by the park.

El Parque de los compositores.

Near the main square are other, quieter parks.  

It's a nice place to sit in the shade and just contemplate the universe.

Behind me is the statue of Montejo who founded the city.

The parks give Mérida a special ambience of colonial dignity amid the hustle and bustle of 21st century globalization. 

My fascination with the pyramids would take us a two hours drive outside of Merida to the ruins of Uxmal.

The ruins of the ancient Maya city of Uxmal are about 35 miles outside Mérida.  While Yucatán is home to many important archeological sites of the Mayan culture, for example Śayil, Kabah, Labna, Tikul, and Ek Balam, Uxmal is one of the most important, rivalling Chichen Itza, Palenque  and Tikal in Guatemala. 

Uxmal is found in what is known as the  Puuc region is perhaps most representative of the Pu'uc style. It is a rare and mystic place. Whoever visits here becomes involved in a kind of time machine that transports one to a different time. The buildings here are monumental, yet intimate. A comparison of these ruins with the sister city of Chichen Itza puts one in mind of the difference between the Romans and the Greeks.

The Athenians built the Parthenon at the height of their civilisation. And yet, this great edifice while lavishly built high on a hill, is built to human scale. People who visit the Parthenon often remark, "It's much smaller than I thought it would be." The architecture of the Romans dwarfs that of the Greeks. The Roman Coliseum is huge. 

It is built to superhuman proportions as are many Roman statues of emperors. The very purpose of these structures is to create awe and wonder.

 Not so with the Parthenon, which is meant to inspire contemplation and wisdom.

For this reason the Mayans have often been called the "Greeks" of Meso-America, while the Aztecs who later build the huge pyramids of the sun and the moon in Teotihuacan have often been compared with the Romans. 

The Greeks held the Olympic games rewarding their athletes with laurel wreaths, amphoras of olive oil, and odes written by their best poets. 

The Romans had gladiators who would fight to the death before huge drunken crowds in the Coliseum. 

The Roman senate was a colossal building where the empire was bought and sold by corrupt politicians; the Parthenon was a meeting place for philosophers

By the same token it has often been observed that while Uxmal was a peaceful oasis, shaded from the hot sun where the mysterious Mayan peoples flourished and practiced their astrological rituals, Chichen Itza developed into an Aztec ritual site where crowds would gather to watch hearts sacrificed to the Chac Mool idol at the top of the pyramid's stairs. 

The Chac Mool idol at Chichen Itza holds a bowl over his stomach for the human heart offering.

The Aztecs, according to this view were a bloody and warlike people who dominated their subjects with ritual sacrifice and their predictions of lunar and solar eclipses. The Aztecs created an onerous system of tributes, demanding everything from beeswax to chocolate to gold from their subjects. Whereas the Mayans were thought of as a peaceful agricultural society who abstained from human sacrifice.

The real story is more complicated.

Ruins of Uxmal: the Nunnery Quadrangle

Aurora under a typical Mayan arch. Formed by "corbelling" the stones are free-standing

Detail of Steps to Governor's Palace, Uxmal

The Pyramid of the Dwarf

The Greeks vs. the Romans is a facile interpretation. The Mayans, while seemingly more peaceful than their Aztec brothers, also engaged in human sacrifice. 

For a look into the mythical background of the Maya one may peruse the Popul Vuh, the sacred book of the Quiche Maya. While much of their culture and history remains shrouded in mystery, many of the glyphs of the Mayan writing system have now been decrypted, shining some light on the life of the ancient Maya. https://www.tes.com/lessons/lEUmuIRzvyBJ6w/5-mayan-glyphs

At the same time, the modern Maya preserve many of the old traditions and these may still be observed in the area around Quetzaltenango and Chichicastenango in Guatemala near Lake Atitlan.  So much can be gleaned by comparing the modern linguistic version of spoken Mayan to the ancient glyphs.

As the warlike Toltecs were creating Teohihuacan and Monte Alban in Central Meso-America, the Mayan peoples in Yucatan and Guatemala created achieved a sophisticated culture far in advance of any other native American societies as seen in Mayan centers, each boasting its temples, palaces, observatories, and ball courts with advanced artistic and intellectual achievements especially in mathematics and astronomy.

The Observatory at Chichen Itza

The Pyramid itself was used for Astronomical Calculations

Mayans are thought to have settled the Guatemalan highlands during the third millennium B.C. and over the centuries  the northern and central lowlands somewhere between the Mahabharata war and the fall of the Roman empire (1500BC-100 AD). There is evidence that the Mayan system of villages evolved into ceremonial centres by around the 5th Century.  During this time we find the beginning of what is called the "Early Classic Period."

In the early classical period before A.D. 550, Tikal in the central lowlands is said to have risen to leadership over the Mayan system, as it traded with Teotihuacan and allied with the Kaminaljuyu peoples. 

With the fall of Teotihuacan there was a power vacuum, that was gradually followed by renaissance of sorts. Years later, classical era evolved at Tikal, in Guatemala,  Palenque in Chiapas, and Uxmal in Yucatán.

The  Mayan system,  was based not only on agriculture but also artesania and long distance trade in such goods as cotton, henequen, jade, and obsidian. The Mayas cleared and irrigated the fertile soil of the Yucatán and Northern Guatemala.  They used terracing and cultivated raised squash, maize, chiles, and many other crops. Their diet was largely vegetarian, but included wild turkeys, which one may find today wandering the ruins of Kabah and Labna in the Yucatan jungles.


As there were no beasts of burden, slaves were prized.Wars were fought more for prisoners than land and the prisoners became the slaves of the victors.

 Slaves worked in the fields of corn and in building. There were different social classes. Above the slaves were peasants, and above them craftsmen, and merchants. The elite were families of governing nobles and the class of priests and nobles. Sometimes priests and governors performed interchangeable functions. But normally each class enjoyed different rights and responsibilities, in a manner similar to the varnashram system of ancient India, divided into shudras, or workers and artisans, vaishyas, or businessmen, khsatriyas or the warrior and noble class, and finally priests. Indeed one is struck by the parallels.


As far as the relationship between the sexes: Mayan women enjoyed a certain respect and honour as seen in the stone carved portraits of queens and nobles, and yet their role was limited by the patriarchal society which governed them. They kept house and became expert artisans. Their weaving, embroidery work, and ceramics were highly prized. Divorce and property-holding was allowed.

Typical Mayan Pottery, Classical period

And yet, according to what may be reconstructed through a close study both of the written record and the traditions still held today, Women were restricted in many ways. They were to avoid eye contact with men. They would cook and serve their men and then eat separately with they women. They were forbidden public office.  They were´t allowed to enter a temple or participate in the all important human sacrifice.  That was for the priests themselves.


Mayan pueblos were ruled by a hereditary priest-king. There may have been some queens early on but this practice was later discarded. 

 The typical ruler in the late classical period was considered to be a descendant of the sun god. 

The man-god-king had ministers, priests and nobles in his royal court. He levied taxes, supervised justice, conducted foreign relations, and made war - indeed, as time passed in this era, warfare became increasingly common. 

Headmen, selected after passing examinations, were appointed to administer affairs in outlying villages. They commanded local militias, subject to strict control by the top military officers of the states. Some centers remained independent, but most were members of loosely organised leagues, based on common religions, royal marriages, or diplomatic alignments.

Religion permeated all phases of Mayan life. Law and taxation, for
example, were interpreted as religious principles and religious offerings. Education was conducted mainly as training for priests, who made reading, writing, and learning caste specialties. They conducted the numerous public rituals, including some human sacrifice by decapitation. Mayan thought was more ritualistic than scientific; mathematics and astronomy were considered
necessary to schedule ceremonies honoring the divine heavenly bodies. These were but some among a vast hierarchy of deities, ruling the universe under a supreme god and his consort.

Perhaps the two most enduring achievements of the Mayas were their calendar and their writing system. Neither of these was original, but both were more efficient than those of earlier Mesoamerican peoples.  The Mayas perfected a solar calendar with eighteen months of 20 days each and a five-day period for religious festivals. Using an ingenious cyclical system of notation known as
the "long count," they were able to date events of the distant past for accurate record-keeping and astronomical observations. 
Their notational mathematics, based on 20 rather than 10 in the current decimal system, employed combinations of dots and bars, in vertical sequences, to indicate numbers above 20. 

For non-numerical records, they combined pictographic and
glyphic symbols, which have only recently been partially deciphered. Their remarkable accomplishments in mathematics, astronomy, and writing were more than matched by their truly magnificent art and architecture. The plaza of each Mayan community was marked by at least one pyramid, topped by a
temple. With their terraced sides and horizontal lines, these buildings demonstrated a prevailing sense of proportion. 

The highly stylised sculpture which decorated their terraces is regarded by some authorities as the world's finest, even though Mayan sculptors accomplished their intricate carving with
only stone tools. 

The Mayas also developed mural painting to a high art. Even
their lesser arts, such as weaving, ceramics, and jewelry making, reveal aesthetic sense, sublety of design, and manipulative skills superior to artistic creations in many other high civilizations.
According to historical sources, the Maya of Mesoamerica, along with the Aztecs of Mexico and the Incas of Peru, made up the high civilizations of the American Indians at the time of the Spanish conquest. Both the Aztecs and the Incas were late empires (about AD 1300-1533), capstones of a sequence of civilizations in Central Mexico and the Andes in South America, respectively. But the Maya of Yucatan and Guatemala exhibited a cultural continuity spanning more than 2,000 years (1000 BC-AD 1542), and many aspects of their culture continue to the present.

Mesoamerica had three major time periods: preclassic (2000 BC-AD 300), classic (300-900), and postclassic (900-1500). During the six centuries of the classic period the Mayan civilization flourished first in the forests of the Peten in Guatemala and adjacent areas--creating such cities as Tikal, Uaxactun, Quirigua, Copan, and Palenque--and then in the semiarid scrublands of northern Yucatan--constructing such pilgrimage centers as Uxmal, Kabah, Sayil, Labna, Etzna, Old Chichen, and Coba.
The post classic period in Yucatan was marked by the invasion of the Toltecs from Central Mexico and the establishment of their control at Chichen Itza (987-1200). Later the coastal trading town of Tulum grew in significance following the decline of military leagues led by Mayapan. Pyramids and temples were built in more than 40 cities, each with a population of about 20,000 people. The Spanish conquest by Francisco de Montejo, whose house still stands on the central plaza in the capital of Merida, completed the downfall of the Mayan civilization in 1542.

Today more than 2 million Mayan Indians live in northern Yucatan and highland Guatemala in a style similar to that of the common people among their ancestors. Excavations at Dzibilchaltun near Merida revealed house sites from 1000 BC that resemble today's huts in rural regions. The same style of construction--wattle-and-daub walls in an oval shape with a thatched roof of palmetto fronds and little furniture--serves the native Maya, who continue to resist racial mixing and the dilution of their culture.
The design of the native house from antiquity is reproduced in stone as a decorative art motif in the Puuc style at such sites as Uxmal and Labna (800- 1000). The Puuc style, named for a region of low limestone hills in northern Yucatan, is characterized by an unadorned lower level that contrasts sharply with an elaborately sculptured upper level. Examples are the Nunnery Quadrangle and the Governor's Palace. It is possible that the stone columns, or cylinders, also featured in this art style represent posts and wickerwork of the daub-and-wattle native huts.

The Mayan civilization in all stages--formative, flourishing, declining, and continuing--has been based on agriculture. Indian corn, or maize, was domesticated from a wild grass in central Mexico about 7,000 years ago and sustained most sedentary Indian civilizations from that time.
In the humid Peten a surplus of water and rapid growth of trees and vines encouraged the slash-and-burn farming method. The farmer cleared the cornfield by cutting bushes and girdling the trees, usually near the end of the rainy season, allowing the piled brush to dry under the hot sun of the dry season. Then the wood was burned and the ashes scattered among the stumps. A mattock of stone or wood to scoop the earth into a hummock and a fire-hardened pointed stick to poke a hole for the seed were used.

The productivity of the corn farmer sustained the Mayan civilization. It is estimated that as many as 150 days a year were free from daily drudgery in the fields. This surplus time was utilized by the nobility and the priests in a stratified society to build the cities, pyramids, and temples. There was sufficient leisure to support skilled craftsmen in arts and crafts. The Mayan workers who constructed the great stone structures and decorated the walls with artistic embellishment, however, were unaided by draft animals and wheeled carts. The lords of the land oversaw civic matters, while the priests conducted religious rituals, pursued intellectual studies, and corrected the calendar.
Cities that flourished in the classic period in lowland Guatemala are exemplified by Tikal, which has pyramid-temples more than 200 feet (60 meters) high and numerous carved stelae as time markers and reign recorders. Then the Old Empire collapsed. The stable city-states, comparable to ancient Greece in cultural accomplishment and administrative acumen, faded from memory.

No one knows why the culture declined and the cities were covered by encroaching forest until rediscovery in the 19th century. Possible causes include exhaustion of the cornfields by overpopulation, climatic changes, hurricanes, pestilences of epidemic proportions, wars, and insurrection.

Far to the north at the tip of Yucatan the New Empire waxed while the Old Empire waned. While they had no knowledge of horses or pack animals, the Mayans wandered far and wide throughout Meso America. Archaeologists trace transition routes through Palenque in Chiapas, via Mirador and Rio Bec in Quintana Roo, and around Coba, where a network of causeway roads called sacbes connect distant cities. The Mayans were also a sea-faring people, whose large dugout canoes took them over the waters of the Caribbean as far south as Guatemala and Costa Rica, bearing cotton and henequen, honey and wax, jade and obsidian as trade items, and returning with gold, silver, and exotic birds.

The physical environment of the peninsula of Yucatan differs from that of the Peten. It too is lowland and limestone but arid and covered with desert scrub. Water is scarce and seasonal, draining underground via sinkholes and subterranean streams. Where the water table reaches the surface or the limestone layer can be breached, a cenote, or well, provides water for settlement and cultivation. Chaltunes are man-made cisterns lined with plaster to catch rainwater runoff. Such sites are typified by Uxmal and Chichen Itza with the Sacred Cenote, or Well of Sacrifice.

In Southern Mexico the Mayan temples of Palenque present two notable features: the tomb of Lord Pacal,who ruled between 615 and 683 AD, found inside the Temple of the Inscriptions, and the "Royal Palace" of Palenque with a four-story square tower used not for defense observation but to notify the hospitable lords that visitors were approaching along the Usumacinta River, the artery of trade and travel to Tikal.

The community around Uxmal was built up over a 250 year period somewhere between 750 and 1000) according to the carbon dating of human and animal remains found in situ. Uxmal is  distinguished by the "Temple of the Magician," as it was named by John Stephens and Frederick Catherwood  in their seminal work, "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan," or the "Pyramid of the Dwarf," as it is known by the local Mayan people. Religion and the state among the Maya were as closely interconnected as among the Spaniards who conquered them. This convergence of customs and beliefs facilitated the merging of religions and the acceptance of authority during the colonial period. The Indians were converted to Roman Catholicism, but pagan practices persist, particularly in rural villages. In ancient days religious rites were conducted in temples by priests, and the government was administered by the aristocracy. The "palace" at Sayil and the "governor's palace" at Uxmal probably represent the residences of the landed elite.

According to some of the best research, the oddly shaped pyramid of Uxmal was rebuilt five different times to comply with the cycle of "Fuego Nuevo," where every 52 years according to the rounds of the lunar and solar calendars an offering must be made to the sun god that his light be renewed. 

The Fuego Nuevo sacrifice involved the offering of a human heart to the sun. A ball game was played on the curious ball court that can be seen from the "Governor's Palace." The winning team would offer their team captain in human sacrifice. The "Most Valuable Player" would be rewarding with lavish praise and fresh cotton garments decorated with fine embroidery. He would spend the night with the most beautiful virgins in the community. 

Early in the morning with the sunrise the people would gather and watch as the champion stood atop the stairs. The hero would drink the nectar of the gods, a powerful psychedelic potion made with a concoction of peyote or psilocybin mushrooms, datura, and cactus beer or pulque. After a long ceremonial ritual the hero was bound to a wheel made of stone with a hollow centre to catch the blood. While priests held him down, aided by his fellow team members, the high priest would approach. Armed with a surgically sharp obsidian knife, the priest would cut the champions heart from his breast, hold it high for the sun god to see and offer it to the gods. 

Important in the pantheon of Mayan gods was the serpent god, Kukulkan, or  "feathered serpent." Known also as Quetzal-coatl, the feathered serpent plays an important role in Mayan mythology. Stone sculptures commemorating the snake cult are found throughout Mexico. Throughout the architecture of Uxmal one may find evidence of the serpent cult intertwined through the mosaic of fretwork on the upper wall of the so-called "Nunnery Quadrangle," as well as in many ruins found around the site. Wandering through the ruins inspecting the serpent carvings, I was often surprised by large iguanas who quietly stand witness over the stone snakes.

Closer to Valladolid than Mérida, is Chichen Itza. The principle pyramid here is called "El Castillo," or the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl. Also called Kukulkan after the "feathered serpent" in the Nahuatl language of the Toltecs and Aztecs, this perfectly balanced structure is the outstanding feature of Chichen Itza and is considered one of the 7 modern wonders of the world. It was probably built somewhere between 1000-1200 according to the best estimates of modern archeologists. 

Most see Chichen Itza as a turning point in Mayan civilisation. It  heralds the coming of the Toltecs from Central Mexico and their dominance of the Maya of Old Chichen (800-1000). The themes of art and architecture recapitulate those of Tula, the original capital in the highlands, with emphasis on the images and symbols of the feathered serpent. 

The Quetzalcoatl portal supported the lintel over the entrance to the Temple of the Warriors, and the memoirs of the associated military orders of Jaguar and Eagle are carved into the Court of the Thousand Columns. The head, body, and tail of the creator deity--the giver of corn and civilization--outline the grand staircase rising to the temple atop El Castillo. Inside, the red Jaguar throne is encrusted with pieces of precious jade. 

The Quetzalcoatl legend is supposed to have predicted the return of the god to Mexico, which happened to coincide with the arrival of the conquistadores. The most ruthless and bloodthirsty of these,  Hernan Cortez, famously represented himself as the deity to befuddle the superstitious Montezuma and complete the Spanish conquest. They had never seen horses before. To watch a man in shiny steel armour gallop on horseback was to see a god in action. And yet later the followers of Montezuma had their doubts when the Spanish insisted on more and more gold. Montezuma ordered them to observe the Spanish closely. Did they sleep? Did they pass urine and stool? The Aztecs fed the conquistadores well and then observed them closely. When they found that they did indeed pass stool they understood that these were men, not gods, and declared war on the Spanish. But it was too late. The damage to the great American civilisations that had ruled for thousands of years before Columbus was already done.

The Mayan cities of the Yucatan, demonstrate much sophistication both in design and execution, even though their architects were were unable to go beyond the use of the  corbeled arch which employs only free-standing stone. 

Such special structures as the Caracol at Old Chichen and the observatory at Copan had an astronomical purpose. They were operated by the priests to devise and maintain a calendar more accurate than any except the Gregorian. The Maya invented a numerical system that involved the concept of zero, which was positional like the decimal system but based on 20 instead of 10. The symbols were dot-and-bar combinations and hieroglyphs. Scholars developed a system of hieroglyphic writing similar to the ideographic type of the ancient Egyptians. The glyph inscriptions with narrative content are being translated with partial success.

Many buildings of Yucatan in the Puuc style are decorated with the face of Chac, the Mayan rain god, an all-important deity in a society dependent on agriculture. Chac can be recognized by an elephant tusk nose. Sometimes there are three or four Chacs stacked over a doorway, giving security in numbers, and on the corners of buildings with eyes surveying two sides at the same time. The use of Chacmools--the bearers of messages to the pantheon of deities--so prominent at Chichen Itza, was introduced by the Toltecs of Tula from Central Mexico.



Its buildings are noted for their size and decoration. Ancient roads called sacbes connect the buildings, and also were built to other cities in the area such as Chichén Itzá, Caracol and Xunantunich in modern-day Belize, and Tikal in modern-day Guatemala.

Its buildings are typical of the Puuc style, with smooth low walls that open on ornate friezes based on representations of typical Maya huts. These are represented by columns (representing the reeds used for the walls of the huts) and trapezoidal shapes (representing the thatched roofs). Entwined snakes and, in many cases two-headed snakes are used for masks of the rain god, Chaac; its big noses represent the rays of the storms. Feathered serpents with open fangs are shown leaving from the same human beings. Also seen in some cities are the influences of the Nahua, who followed the cult of Quetzalcoatl and Tlaloc.These were integrated with the original elements of the Puuc tradition.

Typical "Palapa" style building of Yucatan