Uxmal  Mayan Yucatan Mexico

Photographs by Bill Bell  Click on photographs to view in larger format

Uxmal (Yucatec Maya: Óoxmáal) is a large pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of Yucatán,Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell 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. Though it is thought to also have more than one hidden tomb of the gods.

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.Uxmal Bill Bell Photograph

Ancient history

Panorama of UxmalWhile 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 A.D. 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.


 

   Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell

 

Uxmal Bill Bell Photograph  Uxmal Bill Bell Photograph 

 

  Uxmal Bill Bell Photograph  Uxmal Bill Bell Photograph

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell

Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell

Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell Uxmal Archeological Site, Mayan Yucatan, Mexico  Photography by Bill Bell

 

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