The ruins of the great Maya civilization Puuc regional center of Uxmal ("Thrice Built" or "Place of Three Harvests" in the Maya language) are located north of the Puuc hills of the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico.
Covering at least 10 square kilometers, Uxmal was probably first occupied about 600 BC, but rose to prominence during the Terminal Classic period between AD 800 and 1000. Uxmal's monumental architecture includes the Pyramid of the Magician, the Temple of the Old Woman, the Great Pyramid and the Nunnery Quadrangle (shown in the photograph).
Recent research suggests that Uxmal experienced a boom in the late ninth century AD, when it became a regional capital. Uxmal is connected to Nohbat and Kabah by a system of causeways (called sacbeob) stretching 18 kilometers to the east. Archaeologists associated with Uxmal include J. P. Kowalski, Nicholas Dunning, Franz Blom, and M. Foncerrada de Molina.
Sources
Michael Smyth. 2001. Uxmal, pp. 793-796, in Archaeology of Ancient Mexico and Central America, S.T. Evans and D.L. Webster, eds. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York.
This glossary entry is part of the Guide to the Maya Civilization and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
