Edzna, Campeche, Mexico Tour Or Travel
Pictures And Photos Page One

George And Audrey DeLange

Edzna, Campeche, You enter Edzna ruins from the northeast. The path takes you onto the Main Plaza, with the Great Acropolis to the left. From the Main Plaza two sacbeob-raised Maya causewaysare on the northwest and west. The building to your right is the Platform of the Knives, a large residential complex named after the flint blades found there. The plaza's west side has a long platform called the Nohoch-Na (Great House). On top of its long staircase, there are two rows of square columns near an interior wall. On the east side of the plaza, a large staircase ascends into the Great Acropolis, of about 10 structures standing on a raised platform about 170 meters to a side. Medium-sized pyramids topped by temples flank the stairs to the left and right, and in the center is a square altar platform. After that stands the large Building of the Five Stories, also called the Palace. The Palace faces west and is aligned so that on May 1 and August 13 at the suns zenith at this latatude -the setting sun shines into its rooms. A grand staircase ascends the center of the west face to a temple which is topped with a roofcomb. The risers of the first four steps at the base are carved with a hieroglyphic. On either side of the staircase, there are doorways that enter into rows of vaulted rooms. The fifth-level temple on top contains three rooms; the back wall of the central room used to contain a stela, which was illuminated by the rays of the setting sun at its zenith. Returning to the Acropolis's plaza, in its northwest corner you find the Puuc Patio, a rebuilt temple with red columns and decorations along the staircase. The small courtyard here used to contain several stelae under thatched roofs. The best of these was Stela 21, dating to the 8th century, depicting a standing ruler wearing a headdress. This has been moved to a small shed with some other stele. The Northwest Temple cuts off the patio from the rest of the plaza. On the south side of the plaza is the House of the Moon (the restorers used to much concrete). Its seven-tier base is the platform for a wide temple with a large center room and one small one on each end. Another temple to the west is the Southwest Temple, it faces east. From here, if you take the staircase back to the Main Plaza; on its south side, you will see on the right, the South Temple and the small Ballcourt just to the east. After walking through the ballcourt, you come to Structure 418, a low platform whose first stage dates to the earliest phase of Edzna monumental construction. On the left (east) you see Structure 414, also called the Temple of the Masks. Two stucco masks that roughly resemble those found at Kohunlich, are on either side of the stairway facing you. With their enlarged eyes, they probably represent aspects of the solar god, perhaps depicting the rising and setting suns. These also might be rulers of Edzna in the disguise of the Sun God. Both stucco masks date to the Terminal Preclassic Era. To the east, a pathway leads onto the Little Acropolis, a five-meter-high platform measuring about 70 meters to each side. On top, there are four small temples, oriented to the points of the compass. Structure 419-2 stands just above the staircase. Structure 419-3 on the east side is decorated with reliefs along its staircase; the temple on top was made from stones from earlier structures, including broken reliefs. We were at Edzna on February 8, 2004 at about 2PM.