Friday, January 11, 2013

Kabah

                           Kabah is another important Mayan site in the Yucatan.

Second in size to Uxmal, it covers over 2470 acres, much of it still covered in heavy jungle.

      It is known for its Palace of Masks. The palace is covered with over 250 of these hook-nosed rain god Chac masks.

  The Yucatan peninsula is a flat limestone plain, with no rivers or streams.  It is pockmarked in many areas with sinkholes called cenotes.  These provided water for the Mayan cities. This region, however, has no natural cenotes, so the Mayans had to depend on rain for all their water here.  This is the importance of the rain god, Chac.

                             This large site was occupied from the 9th--12th centuries.

These 3D human figures, called atlantes, are extremely rare in Mayan architecture.

                                       Entrance to a Mayan building.


The Mayans built cisterns here to catch rain water.  Over 60 of these cisterns, or chultuns, have been found so far. Some of these hold as much as 7,000 gallons of water and are still working today.

The arch at the end of a sacbe. This one connects Uxmal, Sayil, Kabah and Labna.

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