H ome to one of the most advanced pre-Hispanic civilizations in the new world, Uxmal today is a monument to Mayan engineering, social organization, and architecture. Uxmal started small as a provincial village. As it grew in size, it grew in political power. This success, unfortunately, also made it a target. Uxmal was sacked and rebuilt at least three times. One of those times was in 674. By 688 the city was abandoned by the Yucatan Mayans, but reestablished around 987 under the leadership of Ah Suytok Tutul Xiu, a man from non-Yucatan Mexico. The most prominent feature of the site is the Pyramid of the Seer, also known as the Pyramid of the Magician (Pirámide del Adivino). This ancient pyramid rises more than 90-feet above the city reminding all within its view of its religious power. It base is 227-feet by 162-feet. There is a legend that the pyramid was built in one night by an enchanted dwarf. To this day it is still sometimes called the House of the Dwarf (Casa del Enano). When the pyramid was built (900-1000) the city's entire existance revolved around a group of people who were thought to be the gods' representatives on Earth. The citizens' desire to be like these people so they could be close to their gods is evident in how they built their homes, markets, and other buildings. The proper term is "flourishing puuc," which describes buildings festooned with religious icon, reliefs, and carvings to the point that the ornamentation and grand scale of the buildings ended up limiting the useable space inside. The central figure in this worship was the rain god Chac (or Chaac) whom the citizens of Uxmal depended on to fill thier cisterns and reservoirs. Building continued until about 1100ad when the city began to lose political power due to the influence of other cultures moving into the area. Around 1450 the League of Mayapán, the equivalent of a Mayan United Nations, collapsed and the city was abandoned.
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