Knowra Uxmal Uxmal Uxmal is an ancient Maya city in Yucatán, Mexico, whose monumental buildings exemplify the Puuc architectural style. It flourished during the Late and Terminal Classic periods.
Puuc architecture : A Maya architectural style of the Puuc region, marked by smooth lower walls and elaborate stone mosaics above. Uxmal is the style’s best-known monumental center.
Pyramid of the Magician : A distinctive, rounded-sided stepped pyramid at Uxmal, built in several stages. Its unusual shape and successive construction phases define Uxmal’s most recognizable monument.
Classic Maya period : The period, roughly 250–900 CE, when many Maya lowland cities flourished and produced monumental art and inscriptions. Uxmal’s main period of growth fell near the end of this era and into its aftermath.
Kabah : An ancient Maya city in Yucatán, known for monumental Puuc architecture and the Palace of the Masks. Kabah shared the Puuc building tradition and was linked to Uxmal by a raised road.
John Lloyd Stephens : An American writer and diplomat whose accounts of Maya ruins helped introduce them to nineteenth-century audiences. His published travels helped bring Uxmal to wider international attention.
Maya civilization : A Mesoamerican civilization whose cities, writing, calendars, and political traditions developed over millennia. Uxmal belonged to the Maya world and shared its urban and ceremonial traditions.
Nunnery Quadrangle : A Uxmal complex of four buildings enclosing a courtyard, decorated with intricate stone mosaics. Its façades display Puuc ornament at the city’s most elaborate scale.
Maya kingship : A system of hereditary rulership in which Maya kings held political and ritual authority. Royal authority organized Uxmal’s construction and linked its rulers to sacred power.
Sayil : An ancient Maya city in the Puuc hills of Yucatán, best known for its multi-level Great Palace. Sayil shows how Puuc monumental architecture appeared beyond Uxmal.
Frederick Catherwood : A British artist and architect whose drawings documented Maya sites during nineteenth-century travels with John Lloyd Stephens. His images shaped early outside impressions of Uxmal’s ruins and architecture.
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