Izamal Part 1: The massive Kinich Kakmó Pyramid

Aerial vew of the pyramid Kinich Kakmó pyramid in the Yucatan city of Izamal. The 700,000 cubic meter volume of the platform and pyramid make it one of the largest ancient structures in Mexico. The pyramid sits on the northern end of a huge rectangular platform. It can be accessed by a broad staircase visible just below the pyramid. When we visited the site, we climbed a similar staircase located on the south end of the platform (upper left). There are four more small staircases, two on the east side and two on the west. In ancient times, there would have been no vegetation on top of either the platform or pyramid. 

This posting begins a multi-part series on Izamal. In my first two postings, I will cover the two largest ancient structures. These, and a handful of others, largely survived the dismantlement that occurred during the 16th century Spanish Conquest of Yucatan. This was not just random vandalism by the Spanish, but the result of deliberate policies. The civil authorities used materials from the great pyramids and palaces to build their own palaces and churches. The religious authorities, led by the Franciscan Order, carried out what came to be called the Spiritual Conquest, aimed at eradicating any vestige of the ancient religions. 

(Photo from https://akumalnow.com/10-most-amazing-pyramids-in-the-yucatan/)

Overview

Map of modern Izamal. North is at the top of the map. The six surviving ancient structures are dark gray, outlined in blue. Kinich Kakmó is the northern-most and largest of these. It can be found in the "V" formed by Calle 26A and Calle 30, where they converge near the plaza at the center of the city. Izamal has been called the "City of Hills" because the six ancient structures stand out in an otherwise flat landscape.

Izamal is located between the cities of Merida and Valladolid, but slightly closer to Mérida. If you are coming from Mérida, travel east on Carretera Costera del Golfo (Highway 180) to Kantunil. Then take the Carretera Kantunil-Izamal (#53) north to Izamal. From Valladolid, go west on the 180D (toll road) to Kantunil and then up #53 to Izamal. For an interactive Google map of this area, click here.

Etching of the stucco mask of Kinich Ahau, by Frederick Catherwood. This mask of Kinich Ahau, the Sun God, once decorated the platform wall of the Kab-ul pyramid. The mask disappeared sometime after 1862, when the only surviving photo of it was taken. The Kab-ul ("Mighty Hand") structure was largely dismantled in colonial times, but some portions have survived. Catherwood created this etching in 1841, when he and the explorer John Lloyd Stephens were visiting Yucatan's Maya ruins. Frederick Catherwood was a remarkable artist whose highly detailed work closely matches surviving Maya structures.

John Lloyd Stephens described the Kab-ul platform as "perhaps two hundred feet long and thirty high...with vast sides covered from one end to the other with colossal ornaments in stucco, most of which had fallen, but among the fragments is the gigantic head represented. It is seven feet eight inches in height and  seven feet in width. The groundwork is of  projecting stones, which are covered with stucco. In sternness and harshness of expression, it reminded us of the idols of Copan, and its colossal proportions, with the corresponding dimensions of the mound, gave an unusual impression of grandeur."

Image of the sun, surrounded by its rays. One of the several manifestations of Kinich Ahau  was Kinich Kakmó ("Macaw, with the eyes of the Sun"). The immense platform and pyramid that bear his name were constructed to revere him. He is often portrayed as a man with flaming eyes and the head of a brightly colored macaw (parrot) who carried a torch in each hand to bring the sun's rays to the earth. The Maya believed that the sun ruled over health. During times of plague, they would leave offerings for the fiery-eyed macaw god. 

Kinich Kakmó was also related to Itzamná, the God of the Sky and Order, whom the Maya credited with the introduction of writing, the calendar system, agriculture, and medicine. These three gods were all deities of the highest importance, making Izamal one of the preeminent Maya ceremonial centers in ancient Yucatan. Pilgrims brought offerings to Izamal in pre-hispanic times and continue to do so today. It was the equivalent of Cholula, the great ceremonial and pilgrimage site in the Valley of Mexico, which also contains a huge pyramid that has attracted pilgrims for centuries. 

The Great Platform of Kinich Kakmó

 

A father shepherds his two sons up the staircase on the southern end of the platform. The staircase has five landings with several steps to each. The platform itself forms an immense rectangle, measuring 200m (656ft) long and 180m (590ft) wide and covering over 8,000 square meters (over 2 acres). The platform had to be built by hand, with no metal tools, no draft animals, and no use of the wheel. And, of course, prior to the first stone or basket of earth being placed, the ground had to be cleared and leveled. Think about the amount of work that took, even before construction began on the pyramid at its top!

View to the east (right), part way up the staircase of the platform. As you can see, the platform was constructed as a series of stepped levels. The man perched on one of the levels provides a sense of proportion. At Izamal's peak in the Classic Era, there were at least twelve large pyramid-temples Only six still exist. Archeologists believe that the town was founded around 700 BC and it has been continuously occupied ever since. 

Construction of these immense monuments began about 200 AD and continued until about 600 AD, an era known as the Classic. Then Izamal began a slow decline that lasted until 900 AD, when there was another burst of activity. This continued until about 1100 AD, when the decline resumed. This period is known as the Terminal Classic, during which, Chichen Itza (about 60 km to the east) reached its peak and Izamal fell under its influence. However, this influence ended in the middle of the 15th Century (the Late Post Classic). An intriguing incident occurred during this period that may, or may not, be historically accurate. 

As the story goes, there was an intense rivalry between Chichen Itza and its rival Mayapan, which was ruled by a man named Hunac Ceel. He tricked Chichen Itza's ruler Chac Xib Chac into abducting the bride of the ruler of Izamal (who is unnamed in the story). Izamal struck back and drove out Chac Xib Chac, hastening the fall and abandonment of Chichen Itza. In the end this simply traded Chichen Itza's dominance over Izamal for that of Mayapan. By the time the Spanish arrived in the 1540s, Izamal was still populated but was more important as a pilgrimage site than as a political or economic power.

View toward the north down the length of the great platform's top level. In the distance is the ten-level pyramid seen in the first photo. A circular ceremonial fire pit is in the foreground. I have not been able to determine the surface area of the top of the platform, but it is somewhat smaller than the dimensions of the base because the sides of the platform all slope inward. In spite of that, this is a huge area capable of containing gatherings of great size, which was clearly the intent of its builders. The groves of trees seen on either side of the pyramid would not have existed in pre-hispanic times.

The platform was built over a cave that held great significance to the Maya. The limestone caves of northern Yucatan were often important sources of water in an area with almost no above-ground rivers or lakes. They were considered to be abodes of Chaac, the Rain God. Caves were also thought to be entrances to Xibalba (the underworld), which had nine levels and was ruled by its own set of gods. According to the Maya myth of the Hero Twins, they entered Xibalba through a cave and outwitted the Lords of the Underworld. In the process they introduced the first humans to maiz (corn) and taught them how to grow it.

The Kinich Kakmó Pyramid

View of the pyramid's front from its left (west) side. Carole can be seen walking around the base of the pyramid. The tiny figure sitting at the top of the staircase helps provide a sense of scale. There are some indications that a structure of wood and other perishable materials once stood at the pyramid's top level. If that structure was still in existence when the Franciscan friars arrived, it would have quickly been destroyed by them. The Franciscans did everything they could to suppress native religious beliefs and eradicate their temples and other monuments, believing them to be places for "devil worship".

A man lifts his young son up to the fourth terraced level of the pyramid. This shot was taken from the second of the pyramid's ten levels. The staircase up to this landing is in good shape, but from here on it is pretty rough, as you see on the right side of the photo. Notice how the terraces' walls begin to curve beyond the man and his son. The corners of the pyramid are curved rather than at right-angles, reflecting the Puuc style of architecture. That style is found at a number of northern Yucatan's ancient sites, including Uxmal, located   approximately 150km (93mi) to the west of Izamal.

The pyramid of Kinich Kakmó from the right front. The great platform spreads out in front and to both sides of the pyramid. The terraces of each level would have provided excellent "stadium seating" to watch the vast ceremonial activities taking place on the platform's surface. Such seating would almost certainly have been reserved for elites such as the ruling family, nobility, warriors, and priests. Commoners would probably have had to stand around the perimeter of the platform. 

Carole walks around the back side of the pyramid. As you can see, this part of the back side is almost completely un-excavated and is still covered with vegetation. While a considerable amount of archeological work has been done on Kinich Kakmó and other ruins at Izamal, there is much left to do. Unlike other sites in Yucatan and elsewhere in Mexico that we have visited, I could find little in the way of ancient artifacts in Izamal's museums. 

Most of what archeologists have found over the years is kept in the Mérida's Maya Museum of Anthropology, which Carole and I visited a number of years ago. Another possible repository is the Gran Museo del Mundo Maya ("Great Museum of the Maya World"), also in Mérida, but which did not exist when we were there. Among the artifacts which have been unearthed at Izamal are obsidian, stone, and bone tools, ceramics, and stucco decorations from the temples.

View toward the west along one of the terraces on the backside of the pyramid. Below this terrace is the staircase seen in the first photo. You can also see one of the modern roads that surround the great platform. An ancient Maya road was called a sacbe ("white road"). These amazingly well-engineered raised roads were made of limestone and surfaced with a naturally-occurring powdered limestone called sascab. The brilliantly white surface of a sacbe could easily be traveled by night, making for a much cooler journey during the hot season. 

One sacbe passed through Izamal, running from Ti'ho (modern Mérida in northwestern Yucatan) to the Caribbean coast just north of Cozumel. The distance spanned approximately 300km (186mi). Other sacbeob extended out from Izamal to outlying towns and cities.The purposes of these roads included trade, political control, and fast movement by military forces. Travel on the hard, relatively smooth surface of an elevated sacbe was vastly superior to trudging along rough trails and through swamps. Sacbeob were built by hand, with tools of stone, wood, and bone, and without the use of draft animals or the wheel.

Top of the pyramid

 

The pyramid's top level provides an expansive view in all directions. Here, you are looking south, toward the center of both the ancient city and the modern town. The pyramid's main staircase extends down from here. The first section is quite rough and reaches down to where the four people are sitting. From there the rebuilt stairs on the lower section provide more stable footing. In the distance, near the top center of the photo, you can see the yellow structures of the 16th century Convento de San Antonio de Padua, the largest and most important Franciscan convent in Yucatan. I will show it in a future posting. 

Remains of a firepit on the pyramid's top level. Ceremonial fires were an important part of pre-hispanic religious rituals. In ancient times, there was a temple at the top level where ritual offerings, including copal (tree resin) incense, would have been consumed by fires. Other than copal, we know little about the other offerings that were made in ancient times. 

Today's pilgrims still burn copal and the firepit above was probably built for the use of modern Maya shamanic practitioners. Copal is burned to purify and send prayers upward with the smoke. Candles in specific colors are set up around the perimeter of the fire. The color of each candle relates to one of the Four Cardinal Directions. Sugar and panela are offered to bring harmony and favorable outcomes. Flowers, herbs, tobacco, and cacao are burnt to show gratitude.

A young girl gingerly picks her way down the upper portion of the staircase. Taking care, while ascending or descending Mexico's ancient structures, is very important. Climbing down can be especially tricky, because gravity works against you and falls have caused serious injuries or even death. 

There were no handholds or safety ropes on Izamal's pyramids when we visited several years ago, but this may have changed. Due to the number of accidental falls, Mexican authorities have begun to install safety measures like ropes or wooden stairways at many popular pyramid sites. In some locations, climbing has been entirely forbidden.

This completes Part 1 of my series on Izamal. I hope you have enjoyed it. If so, please leave any thoughts or questions in the Comments section below or email me directly. If you leave a question, please remember to include your email address so that I may respond in a timely manner.

Hasta luego, Jim