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Main Pyramid (Piramide Mayor)

El Palomar, Uxmal, Yuc., Mexico

The main pyramid of Uxmal is a freestanding structure located behind the Governor's Palace. Its base is square-shaped with a side length of 80 meters. In the 8th century, there was a building on top of the pyramid, accessible by a staircase on the northern side. This building had five rooms in the back row and three in the front.
Maya Cities of Mexico: Uxmal
photo
Jermaine

The main pyramid of Uxmal is a freestanding building located behind the Governor's Palace. Its base is square-shaped with sides measuring 80 meters. In the 8th century, there was a building on top of the pyramid, accessible by a staircase on the northern side. This building had five rooms in the back row and three in the front row. The middle rooms of the back row could be reached through the front row rooms by climbing over the trunk of a large Chaac mask lying in the first room. For stability reasons, the rooms were filled with construction debris in ancient times. Only the front middle room was cleared of rubble during excavations. The facade was very richly decorated. On the northern side, the entire lower part of the walls was adorned with stepped meanders, separated from each other by images of intertwined snakes. Between the elements of the stepped meander were smooth reliefs depicting parrots. Nothing remains of the upper half of the walls. The corners of the building are formed by three Chaac masks stacked on top of each other. They have a more rounded shape than those in other Uxmal buildings.

The facades of the other sides were only studied during the clearing of small sections of their surfaces in 1941. Here, in the upper part of the walls, elements of stepped meanders alternate with protruding crosses. The lower half of the walls here is undecorated. The middle cornice consists of a single smooth central border with rows of stone slabs protruding and slanting outward above and below it. In a later phase, the pyramid was raised up to the roof level of the building. At that time, all sides of the building were hidden by a new construction, and the rooms were filled with stone. This fact and other signs indicate that a large building was planned to be erected on the upper platform of the new step. However, it was not completed.

In 1961, the large staircase and northern facade were cleared and reconstructed. During restoration work and the installation of lighting and sound equipment in 2009, an old facade from an earlier period was found on the northern side. For structural stability reasons, this old facade was covered again.

Sources:

https://ermakvagus.com/North%20America/mexico/uxmal-rus.html

Dmitry Viktorovich Ivanov: Architecture, History, and Art of Uxmal

 

 

photo
Jermaine

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