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| Walk / Tour | 2.00 Miles |
500 AEG |
| | Walk / Tour | 2.00 Miles | 4 Hrs | | 0.50 mph |
| 500 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Most know about the Chichen Itza pyramid complex in the Yucatan but surprisingly few are aware of the Uxmal site, which is in my opinion a superior site. While generic tourists may prefer Chichen Itza, the community on hikeAZ would love Uxmal because at Uxmal...
- You can explore in relative peace, with no vendors pushing goods in the ruin complex ( a nice mayan restaurant is in the small square by the ticket window before the ruins, also small non pushy shops...I bought a handmade magnet of a pyramid for only $2 US without even needing to negotiate, if anything they undercharge by too much and I should have offered more)
- At one point there were only 3 of us in the entire ruin complex (after local field trips departed) leaving us in peace to explore and experience; meanwhile others at Itza complained of massive crowds on the same day (this was a cruise excursion)
- While the tallest pyramid at Chichen Itza is taller than the tallest pyramid of Uxmal, the carvings / hieroglyphics at Uxmal are far superior
- Uxmal is likely the best preserved site in the Yucatan...check out the before/after pictures of Chichen Itza and Tulum and you can see that it was restored (rebuilt) in the modern era to look as it does today, while Uxmal has more naturally preserved details, and has had relatively minimal excavation work; one pyramid has only had 1 side uncovered/restored for example (for me the non-restored portions were the most interesting)
- All but one ruin at Uxmal can be climbed & entered, and from the top of one pyramid several others in the distance can be seen not yet restored, still mostly engulfed by the jungle.
While I not want the world to know of and overtake this amazing place, I hope that others with an appreciation of history on this site might consider visiting; it can be visited via bus from Cancun, or in my case as an excursion from Progreso during a western Caribbean cruise which gave me a 3 hour visit to the site; I hope to return one day to experience it again.
This UNESCO site has additional background details and pictures and is very informative: whc.unesco.org/en/l ... 791/ |
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Route Editor
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