There are over 30 Mayan ruin sites that can be visited by travelers to the Yucatan Peninsula, though most visitors only make it to one or two of the big ones–Chichen Itza, Tulum, Coba or Uxmal. A few years ago, my husband and I spent a couple of weeks in a rented car exploring the more lightly-visited Mayan ruins of the Yucatan Peninsula. Like this one, Xlapak.
Compared to nearby Uxmal, which we’d spent half a day exploring just the day prior, Xlapak was tiny. It’s star attraction is it’s restored el palacio, or palace, roughly the size of a house in the US. In classic Puuc style, the upper half of the building has ornate decoration. The palace is covered with images of the god Chaac. It’s a late Mayan site; the height of its occupation was 600 – 1000 A.D.
Here is a close-up of the palace’s corner decoration.
Xlapak was one of a handful of ruin sites we visited where we were the only people there at the time, and our solitude offered us a deeply unique experience. We were able to really take our time here, though we spent a lot of that time searching the trees nearby for colorful birds, of which there were many.
For more travel photos, browse Photo Friday at deliciousbaby.com.
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Thanks for sharing this. I love finding out about smaller, off-the-beaten path historical sites like this. They’re so much easier to visit with kids.