Mayapan

This is the East side of the Castillo, a nine-bodied radial pyramind with four stairways. The pyramid would once have been stuccoed in its entirety. Continuing east is the Hall of the Masks, a virtual wall of giant-sized Chaac (rain god) masks, ...

The Round Temple, reminiscent of Chichen Itza's Caracol, sits on a platform at the southeast corner of Mayapan's urban core. Bordering the south side of the platform is the so-called Hall of the Masks, which presents a series of giant Chaac ...

Detail of one of the masks of Chaac, Mayan god of rain. These masks are about four feet tall and span some seven feet. (Image Credit: Michelle Williamson, Ideum)

From this vantage point atop the Crematorium, the viewer can see, moving in a clockwise direction, the Room of the Turtles, the Round Temple in the distance, and the Castillo. This view gives a sense of the scale of the city's urban core, since ...

The Round Temple of Mayapan sits on a rectagular platform at the southeast corner of Mayapan and has four doorways facing the cardinal directions. There is no evidence of its ever having windows. To its south side is the Hall of the Masks, seen ...

These giant serpentheads adorn a square platform off of the Room of the Turtles, marking the ballustrades on either side of the staircases. Their mouths gape open showing rows of teeth, and the eyes, though worn with time, are still open. The ...

The city of Mayapan is thought to have been built shortly after the de-population of Chichen Itza, said to have taken place around the year 1200. However, carbon dates obtained from artifacts at the site of Mayapan have yielded earlier dates, by ...

The east side of Mayapan's Castillo, a smaller version of the Castillo at Chichen Itza, also known as the Pyramid of Kukulkan. There are questions about whether the Castillo at Mayapan exhibits similar solar alignments to its counterpart at ...

The Hall of the Paintings is a collonaded corridor displaying mural paintings relating mainly to the cult of the sun. The murals are red and yellow, and figures are often set against a blue background. Mayanists have identified representatios of ...

Fragment of the original mural painting, Hall of the Paintings. (Image Credit: Michelle Williamson, Ideum)

This is. . . something that the dry earth of history will reveal . . . as soon as the INAH archeaologists get the funding to continue excavations. It sits to the south of the Hall of the Masks, southeast of the cenote. Note the white numbers ...

This is Mayapan's Room of the Turtles, which sits behind a series of walls. Atop its platform is a small room with three doorways. If you can gain permission from INAH to get a small iron key from the custodian, it will open up the left-most of ...

A closer detail of Mayapan's Room of the Turtles through spring foliage swaying in the breeze. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

This is Mayapan's Room of the Turtles, which sits behind a series of walls. Atop its platform is a small room with three doorways. Inside the room remain, to this day, fragments of the original mural painting that covered these walls. (Image ...

This is a fragment of the original finished wall of this room, stuccoed in a fine plaster and painted. This painting is part of the north wall of the Room of the Turtles, which faces three low-lying doorways to the outside. Inset into the wall ...