A visit to this mammoth relic (pronounced oosh-mahl) was always something on my bucket list after seeing a few photos of Uxmal in the April 2002 issue of National Geographic. Located along the Puuc Route (Mayan for ridge or hill and pronounced pook) in the northwest interior of the Yucatan Peninsula, it is not very difficult to reach - the roads are as good as the best two-lane highways the US has to offer.

I hadn’t done much driving in this area of Mexico so I was pleased to discover uncrowded roads in very good condition and adequate signage to complement my map.  Getting there from Merida is an easy one-hour drive and there are plenty of signs as this is an attraction growing in popularity especially with tour groups and for good reason. 
It is also quite safe according to my observations and Gregory Segas, the US State Department’s Consul for the State of Yucatan. In fact he suggested that anyone could call the office and ask about safety from the USA (011-52) 999-942-5700.  The USA counsels in Mexico are all listed on page 61 of the 2011 Mexico Tourbook. We devote almost three pages in that guide to describing Uxmal but I’d like to give you my thoughts. 

Covering about 150 acres, Uxmal is the largest and most famous of the ancient Maya cities along the Puuc Route. Mayan roads, or sacbes, connected Uxmal with other cities along the Puuc Route and the 12 km sacbe to Kabah still exists today, marked at each departure point from the city by  a corbel arch. There is an interesting gift shop, decent restaurant, small museum, and clean restroom facilities at the entrance but despite the buses in the parking lot and the visitor amenities it still has a certain undiscovered atmosphere about it.

A World Heritage site, the architecture is very different than Chichen Itza and other more popular sites and that is what makes Uxmal so unique. The buildings are in remarkably good condition, considering their age, due to the fact that they were particularly well built using precisely cut stones set into a type of concrete rather than being held together with plaster.

Just inside the entrance, the towering Magician’s Pyramid soars 118 feet into the air and its oval-shaped base, smooth sides and intricate carvings on the main face of the pyramid are awe-inspiring and unique to this site. Skirting the base of this imposing structure, I pass through an opening in a walled plaza that opens dramatically to the spectacular Nunnery Quadrangle, a huge open courtyard bounded on all four sides by long low buildings beautifully decorated with friezes of serpents along the upper façade, intricate lattice work, and immense carved stone masks of the rain god Chac at the corners.

Beyond this masterpiece and even more impressive with its elegantly carved and mosaic façade, the 320-foot-wide Governor’s Palace is considered to be the finest example of ancient architecture in Mesoamerica and a building Frank Lloyd Wright was enamored with and inspired by. Just beyond the Governor’s Palace, it’s still possible to climb the Great Pyramid. A challenge, but the reward is a jaw-dropping panorama of much of the city plus a closeup of the enormity of the actual pyramid structure with its huge stone “steps” and macaw carvings. 

As I wandered around the open plazas, it was easy envisioning the thriving spirited city Uxmal had been, the plazas bustling with people from all over the Yucatan, the shouts of spectators at the ball court, a crowd of mesmerized worshippers gazing up at a priest standing in the intricately carved doorway of a temple halfway up the Magician’s Pyramid, 75 feet or more above their heads.
 
I returned that evening for the nightly Sound & Light Show held in the Nuns’ Quadrangle. Although the rest of the site is not open, various places and structures are lit up with colored lights coordinated to the accompaniment of drum and flute music while a speaker recounts the history of Uxmal in Spanish.  Even without understanding the Spanish, (it probably should have been in Mayan) it was a thrill to be there at night with only certain buildings illuminated, Mars and Venus rising in the east, a sliver of a new moon, absolute darkness when all the lights were out.

What stood out in my mind was the whiteness of the sacbes, the raised roads paved with cream colored limestone rocks. Even with the light of only a new moon and the distant planets, it would have been easy to navigate these roads at night when it was cooler.(A new Sound & Light Show includes a show in English. Also, headsets are available in English for the show in Spanish.)

By the time the last white light spotlighting the Magician’s Pyramid was extinguished, it felt as if the entire audience was transported to a distant point in time, the surreal magic of the place at night silencing everyone.  I shook myself from my reverie and left an ancient culture and history behind to explore the intertwining of two cultures during more recent history at the Hacienda Temozon. As I drove north towards the hotel, I was already planning a return trip to visit the palace at Sayil, the wall of oversized Chac masks at Kabah, and the gateway arch at Labna.