Best Uxmal, Mexico Digital Travel
Pictures And Photos
Page Two, The Nunnery

George And Audrey DeLange

Uxmal (Oosh-mall) is made up of three main areas. We already have seen the Temple Of The Magician, now we will spend some time looking over the Quadrangle of the Nunnery. The Nunnery was called such because the early Spanish settlers thought it looked like a Nunnery. Actually, it may have been used as an exclusive boarding school for the elete of the Maya Rulers. Its Northern Building and its double rooms may have been reserved for the most important young lords. The building is the largest in the quadrangle and it is flanked by two temples. One being the Temple Of Venus. The Eastern building is the simplest and best preserved. A lattice pattern is seen going clear to the top of the building and an owl, the symbol of death, is in the latticework. The Western building shows a throne bearing the body of an old man with the head of a turtle. On the frieze, there are two plumed serpents reaching toward the corners of the facade with a human head in their open jaws. The Southern building has eight rooms. Located above each door is a sculpture of a na or Maya house looking almost the same as they do today. On the ceiling of each room are red handprints like those found at Tulum. We are also left to wonder if there is a connection between the quadrangle's half man and half turtle figure and the House Of The Turtles at Uxmal which is named such for the turtles worked into its design.