10-22-08 Oxkutzcab to Santa Elana and the Ruins of Kabah and Sayil

A good day to take off. Manuels step daughter was in a bad scooter accident, everyone involved was drunk. She had to be moved to the hopital in Media due to interal bleeding. My next stop was Hopelchen, the biggest town in the Chenes region, and the only town with a hotel. The ride was about 100km with constant hills, so I road about 20km to Santa Elena via Ticul to break the trip up.

A church on the way to Ticul.

The church in Ticul. Ticul seems very nice, I think I will spend a night here on my way back north.

This is my second time in Santa Elena, and I took the rest of the day to see the famous Puuc Ruins at Kabah and Sayil. Both very nice ruins, but not of particular interest to me because the architecture and masonry is well documented. Nevertheless they are great ruins to see and more structures have been uncovered since my last visit.

The famous Codez Poop. I think poop here means mat.. Hundreds of identical masks. Mass production before Henry Ford.


Fun to see. To get into the doorways you step on the noses.


Once inside, there is a second mask that acts as a step to the rear chambers.
Was suprised to see this very ruined structure. The blocks here are very similar to the early classic masonry I have been seeing, and very much unlike the typical Puuc masonry used in terraces. Kabah is carefully layed out, and like Yaxhom (the Puuc site with an early masonry wall), Kabah also has an astronomical complex. In the future sites is will see, all with astronomical complexes have early masonry as should be expected (because all current evidence suggests the Maya stopped building astronomical complexes by the late classic).

The largest known vault. This arch is the formal entrance to the city where a road from the city Uxmal to the north ends in Kabah. Arches can be found at many Puuc sites.

A hyroglyphic doorjamb at Sayil. Very rare because this type of sculptures are habitually removed both by looters and archeologists. Very nice to see in place.

The building to see at Sayil. I think this is the largest single palace the Maya ever built. Off the top of my head I think it has 92 rooms, built in many stages over about 200-300 years.

Distance road: 60km
Trip total: 722km