Oxkintok

Tags: Maya ruins, Mexico, Oxkintok, Yucatan

Date: June 1, 2024

We left Mérida to go to Campeche and on the way we passed very close to the archaeological Maya site of Oxkintok. We decided to spend a little time visiting one last Maya site before leaving Maya territory.

Oxkintok is part of the Puuc architechtural group of Maya sites like the nearby sites of Uxmal, Labná and Kabah, that we visited in September 2018. One of the first structures we saw upon entering the site was this arch, that is very similar to arches we saw at the sites of Labná and Kabah:

The architectural style in Oxkintok is an early version of the Puuc style. For example, we see that the lower part of the arch above is blank with a flat surface of rectangular thin "veneer" blocks set in concrete instead of the earlier Classic period technique of using larger stones stacked on top of each other. However, at Oxkintok, we did not see any richly decorated facades with intricate stone mosaics or rain god Chaac masks, that were so prominent in Uxmal and other of the later Puuc style sites.

Here is one of two stairs at Oxkintok, with hieroglyphs on three of the steps:

Bjarne in front of a large plaza with the main pyramid in the background:

Bottom part of a stele with the lower part of a human figure standing on top of some hieroglyphs:

Not a lot of the writing at Oxkintok has been identified. A few dates have been identified tentatively as well as a reference to a governing figure of the name Walas.

A look into a structure where most of the arched roof has collapsed:

Félicie in front of an anthropomorphic column. These columns were sculpted to represent elites, warriors and deities:

One of the larger pyramids in the Ah Canul group of structures:

The same pyramid from a little further away:

Another structure in the Ah Canul group:

East Plaza with a second arch and a palace structure to the left: