The Mayan City named Uxmal: one of the most renowned Mayan cities, and rated by many archaeologists as the finest. The name Uxmal means thrice-built in Mayan, referring to the construction of its highest structure, the Pyramid of the Magician.
 The Mayans would often build a new temple over an existing one, and in this case five stages of construction have been found. Uxmal was one of the largest cities of the Yucatan peninsula, and at its peak was home to about 25,000 Mayans. Like the other sites of what is now known as the Puuc route, located 70 miles from Yucatan’s capital city of Merida, it flourished in the Late Classic Period (around 600-900 A.D.) and speculations indicate that its rulers presided over the nearby settlements in Kabah, Labna and Sayil, as well.
Uxmal is a large pre-Columbian ruined city of the Maya civilization in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Uxmal is abut 40 miles south of Mérida, Yucatán.
 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.
While 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 of 25M 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 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, 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. |
