UXMAL
Uxmal's Archaeological Zone
Mayan Culture, Mexico
Main
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The Zone known as Puuc covers an area of 4687 miles in the actual States of Yucatan and Campeche, in there you find the most number of archeological buildings with the styles attributed to the Puuc zone which include architecture, construction and decoration.
One of the most important sites of the Puuc zone is Uxmal, located at 49 miles southeast of Merida, capital of Campeche, the meaning of “Uxmal” comes from “Ox” which means three and “mal” which refers to the number of times that a task is repeated, therefore “Uxmal” is “The one that has been built or inhabited three times,” another interpretation comes from “Ux” which means harvest and “mal” which means the previous.
According to Chilam Balam, the sacred book of the Mayas, Uxmal was inhabited in the year katún 2 Ahau, 1007 B.C. (according to archeology), nevertheless, the Chilan Balam of Chumayel states that the persons abandoned the city 870 years before the arrival of the Spaniards.
Uxmal is considered to be a ceremonial center, where the influence of Kukulkan o Quetzalcóatl was emphasized. In some buildings there are several chambers where one finds representations of various animals such as frogs and birds, the symbolism of the frog is about the transmutation in our creative energies. The most important buildings are the quadrangle of the nuns, the pantheon, the observatory, the temple of the magician and the governor’s palace. This archeological zone is a representation of the Being with all of his/her attributes and tells us that the Great Work is to build once and again the different parts of the Being.
The temple of the magician has an elliptic platform; its shape is that of a truncated cone. Its name comes from a the legend of the Magician of Uxmal, in the archeological zone of Kabah, there is a sculpture of an old woman, mother of Saiyawincow, with a serpent over her shoulders.
The temple’s layout is made up of three stepped sections, a symbol of the three mountains: initiation, resurrection and ascension, and in the highest part there is a temple. The corners are rounded. It has two sets of steps, one at the east and another at the west side, both of very steep inclination. When seen from above, the steps mark a transverse line that divides the elliptical pyramid, in that manner forming the symbol “IO”, the same as the 10, the number of the Divine Mother.
In the Western side of the building there is an interior temple with five portals, there are also groups of three columns, alternating with panels on the lower part in the middle of the façade. The passage has the shape of a “T,” that among the Mayas is the symbol of Ik (wind), this supports a strip of embossed designs that include flowers, calendaric symbols and other motifs that can also be seen in the northeast corner.
There one can notice human figures with aquatic elements, hieroglyphs and geometric figures. The element of air as the symbol of the spirit, the geometrical figures indicate righteous thinking, feeling and behavior with the help of the aquatic elements, symbol of the spermatic waters of the first instant.
Also in the rear (west) under the steps there are two great masks of the God Chac, Hidden to the eyes of the flesh, a living representation of the forces of the Being, there is a landing where one find the famous sculpture known as the “Queen of Uxmal.” As a fact this is a masculine figure emerging from the open jaws of a serpent. The authentic man comes from the divine Mother. The Mayan culture is a Serpent and this speaks of the power of the serpent. Only the serpentine civilizations are true cultures, true civilizations.
About this culture, one finds some columns with a knot in the center, this motif is interrupted by crossed bands that form squares with circles in the center to remind us of the squaring of the circle and end with the mask of Chac in the corner. In the façade to the East there is also an interior temple, there is a stairwell that is parallel to the exterior one, which indicates the construction of one temple on top of the other.
At the façade in the south there are figures of Chac’s head, coiled serpents and bands forming crosses. The San Andrés (Saint Andrew) cross, filled with enigmas and wonders, on top of which the separated members of a recluse fisherman were tied up in a merciless manner. The profound meaning of the tortures of Andrés (Andrew) in the terrible X is “the annihilation of the beloved ego in the laboratorium oratorium of the third logos,” that is, the hard struggle to manage the elimination of all of the psychological aggregates based on conscious tasks and voluntary hardships.
There are eight masks in the corners of the temple, there is no doubt that is necessary that it falls upon us all the universal floods in order to clean and purify us totally. Chac is a perfect creature, who is beyond the good and the evil. In his hands are the flood, drought, hail, ice, lighting, a reason why the ancient magicians feared his anger. It is said that the great priests would come out of the temple with divine messages, and that is why they were called Chilam (interprets), being that they were mediators between the Gods and the people.
The temple in the upper part is the most impressive, with its façade at the west, it is Chac’s mask formed with intertwined serpents. All these carvings are very ancient, made by brilliant artist, with extraordinary wisdom, which was deposited in those stone books that tell us clearly about inner self-realization of the Being.