Uxmal

Wow! What an amazing place this is! Uxmal was the ultimate destination on this trip. Founded in about 500 AD, Uxmal (pronounced "oosh-mahl") was the most powerful site in western Yucatan. The Pyramid of the Magician, at 100 feet tall was probably my favorite as it was so unusual with the curved lines and eliptical shape. Another really interesting thing about that pyramid is that you could stand in front of it on the back side and clap your hand loudly and it would echo back a bird type chirp from that little door. Very cool. The architecture style known as Puuc is prevalant where the relief decorations start at the level of the doors and flow upwards. until they cover the entire upper sections of buildings. There were lots of masks some say to represent the rain god, Chaac. Some of the buildings line up pointing to the southernmost rise location of Venus, which occurs once every eight years. Also according to some sacred geometry knowledge, beginning at Uxmal there are seven temples laid out in a spiral (Labna, Kabah, Chichen Itza, Tulum, Kohunlich, and Palenque) and we are going to 3 of those. We took a gazillion photos so I have posted them separately at http://picasaweb.google.com/divadelmundo/Uxmal
should you wish to see more. There was so much to see as we stayed here a full day and 2 nights. The light and sound show in the evening was very worthwhile (in Spanish)...we went twice it was so good! I have to come back to this place!