Wizard's Pyramid (Piramide del Adivino)

The unconditional dominant feature of the entire complex of preserved structures is the Wizard’s Pyramid (Piramide del Adivino), also called the Dwarf’s Castle. The pyramid has a quadrangular base with rounded corners. It is faced with roughly finished stone. Its height is about 35 m, and the base platform has small and large radii of 50 and 70 m respectively. All the pyramid’s edges are rounded, with an ellipse at the base (this distinguishes it from other surviving Maya pyramids) — sacrifices were made here to the god Chaac. Archaeologists discovered that the Wizard’s Pyramid was once plastered and painted in red and pink colors and decorated with bright ornamental patterns in blue, yellow, and black. Over many centuries, the paints disappeared, and now the pyramid shows the natural sandstone from which it was built. Additionally, the Wizard’s Pyramid has an amazing acoustic effect: if you clap your hands in front of the staircase, the cry of the quetzal, the sacred Maya bird, is heard.

There is a legend associated with the pyramid. When Uxmal was settled for the second time, a powerful sorceress settled nearby. She liked the city’s palaces and wanted a ruler loyal to her to live in them. Until then, in the magnificent city, she had no friends, living only with snakes, her only companions. But she wanted to take over the city. To do this, she performed a miracle of miracles — she gave birth to a son. Actually, she didn’t give birth but made an egg from herbs and snake venom, and from this egg hatched a man — her magical son. The boy matured quickly. In one year, he learned everything a person needs for life. Only his body did not change. He did not grow and remained as he appeared at birth, a dwarf.

Several years later, the sorceress sent her son to the ruler of Uxmal. The ruler looked curiously at the funny dwarf and asked what brought him to the palace. The dwarf answered: “I want to compete with you, to fight in a duel, for I am stronger than you.” The ruler subjected the funny brave one to a series of trials, and the unremarkable dwarf, to everyone’s surprise, passed them perfectly. This angered the ruler of Uxmal, and he ordered the dwarf to do what no man, not even the ruler himself, could do: to build a new luxurious palace in a single night, or else lose his head. But the dwarf was the son of a sorceress, and when the ruler woke up in the morning, he saw a magnificent building that still stands in Uxmal today.

Since the dwarf passed this trial, the Uxmal Goliath had to accept the bold challenge posed by the strange David. For the duel, held in the palace courtyard in the presence of all the nobility and priests, the Indian ruler chose a special kind of weapon — nuts of the kokoyol tree, as hard as flint. The opponents, as decreed by the ruler, had to crack the nut with their own heads. The dwarf was to go first. But protected by his mother’s magic, he did not break his skull. On the contrary, the hard kokoyol nuts cracked open by themselves. Now it was the ruler’s turn. He struck the nut on his forehead with all his might — and fell dead to the ground. Thus, the ruler of Uxmal was dead, and the nobility and priests proclaimed, as is customary: “The ruler is dead, long live the new ruler!” This man, who came from an egg, became the tiny lord of great Uxmal. And his descendants supposedly ruled Uxmal until the Puuc city was abandoned for the second time. And the sorceress mother? She returned to a dark cave near Mani and lived there for many decades in the company of snakes, which gathered there from all over the Uxmal state, now belonging to her son. Besides the magnificent palace that became his residence, the wizard wanted to build his own pyramid. This was the Wizard’s Pyramid. There are several versions of this legend.

Stages of construction of the Wizard’s Pyramid.

Temple I. The oldest construction phase. It was most likely a freestanding building, now forming the eastern boundary of the Birds’ Square. It was built in the classic Puuc style — two rows of five rooms each. Moreover, the back rooms could be accessed by passing through the front ones. The remains of Temple I protrude from beneath the pyramid.

Through the passage, it is visible that the room is partially filled with stone masonry from the next construction phase. The middle entrance lies at the level of the modern staircase and is therefore not visible now. In the last construction phase, some rooms were filled with stones to reinforce the building. The doors were equipped with two wooden beams each. They have survived only in one passage. This beam was dated by radiocarbon analysis to 740-760 AD. Single corner columns were located at the corners. The facade decoration includes several tiers. The plinth has three elements: two smooth levels and one row of small columns between them. The lower level is made of well-hewn facing slabs. In the gaps between doorways and between doorways and corners, there are three small columns each. The middle cornice is richly decorated. It consists of large decorative elements projecting downward and outward. The lower row of the tier consists of simple stepped T-shaped elements in the form of the Ik hieroglyph. Next are flat reliefs depicting fish, twisted elements, intertwined ribbons, crossed bones, and single hieroglyphs. Above them is a row of small columns with capitals. The third tier of the facade is smooth and decorated with masks of the rain god Chaac, placed two on top of each other. Above the middle passage, currently hidden under the staircase, there was an image of a human head emerging from the mouth of a stylized snake. It has now been removed. Above it is a well-preserved mask of Chaac with a trunk, hidden under the staircase and no longer visible. The very top level has not survived to the present. Found fragments of construction debris suggest it might have resembled the lower decorated cornice.

Temple II. Actually, the first pyramid was erected in the second construction phase. Its summit was located slightly east of the first building, which it partially covered. Its height was 22 meters. For greater stability, the back rooms of the first building were filled with stones. At the top of the pyramid stood a building oriented to the east. It was a portico, presumably with eight columns. A wide staircase on the eastern side of the pyramid led up to it. Later, the long portico space was divided into three parts by two transverse walls, one of which merged with a column. The building’s facade was smooth. On the roof was a roof ridge, but it may also belong to the third construction phase.

Temple III. A small building III, consisting of two rooms arranged one behind the other, was later added to building II. This structure is oriented to the west. It was also accessed by a staircase, now preserved only fragmentarily. The rear part of the front room and the entire back room were later walled up when Temple V was built above them. Temple III is completely hidden under later constructions and is accessible only by going through a modern tunnel made in the eastern staircase. The facade of this building had a two-tier middle and a three-tier upper cornice, decorated in the typical Puuc style. Stone spikes protrude from the inward-leaning upper part of the wall, to which spike decorations were attached, which have not survived to the present.

Temple IV. This building surrounds Temple III from above and the sides and projects forward. It is built in the Chenes style. A typical feature of the Chenes style, widespread in southern and central Campeche as well as in the western part of Quintana Roo, was that often the entire facade was designed as a giant whimsical mask of a celestial dragon or another deity.

The entire surface is so overloaded with ornamentation that the main lines of the image are lost, and the observer’s eye sees only endlessly repeating individual details. A staircase from the Birds’ Square leads to building IV. This staircase passes over the first building and partially covers its facade. A passage to the middle room of building I was left but is now walled up. To lighten the structure above the roof of building I, a vaulted corridor was made, which had no other functions. On the edges of the staircase are masks of Chaac arranged one after another. The building impresses with its Chenes-style entrance in the form of a dragon’s mouth. Such architectural elements are characteristic of the Rio Bec area. The interior room is relatively tall, with a vault height of up to 4 m. The entrance opening was supported by two wooden beams.

General view of the Wizard’s Pyramid from the west side. Temple I (at the bottom), Temple IV, and above it the rear side of Temple V are visible. The staircase with masks of Chaac on the edges leads to Temple IV.

Temple V. This building was constructed last and is located the highest. It has two narrow rooms and is located directly above building II at the level of the end of the roof ridge. A new staircase leading to the temple passed over building II and completely covered it. On the west side, two staircases were built on the sides of the building in the Chenes style. This building differs from others in that staircases lead to it from both sides. The middle room has a passage oriented to the west; both rooms on the north and south face east. On the east, there is a narrow platform from which a wide staircase leads to the entrances above. The western facade’s lower part of the walls is divided into two halves by a doorway. On both sides are fields decorated with a diagonal lattice pattern. In the center of each was a sculpture, of which only fragments remain. The walls beside them are smooth. The middle cornice consists of a smooth field bordered above and below by projecting moldings. The walls here are decorated with four separate spiral ornaments, from which a rectangular pin protrudes, possibly used to attach a figure. The upper cornice is designed like the middle one but somewhat higher. The eastern facade bears fewer decorations. The lower half of the walls is smooth and connects with the upper typical three-tier cornice. The upper half is heavily damaged. Continuing the central line of the eastern staircase is an image of a hut with a palm roof.

In the photo, Temple V at the top shows the tunnel made to Temples II and III.

Sources:

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

Miroslav Sting: Mysteries of Indian Pyramids