Catching a first glimpse of the Great Palace of Sayil

Abdiel started the car, and soon we were back on Federal Highway 261. A few kilometers after leaving Kabah, we exited the highway and took a turn to the left to stay on the so-called Ruta Puuc, a route that connects the impressive ancient Maya ruins of Uxmal with several other sites which together make up the UNESCO-listed Pre-Hispanic Town of Uxmal. Moments later, we started seeing signs mentioning Sayil – our next destination. However, as opposed to the structures of Kabah that could be seen from the road, those of Sayil were hidden behind the dense forest of this part of the Yucatán Peninsula. The few signboards we encountered were the only clues that we had arrived at our next site.

We got out of the car and walked toward a modest ticket booth before following the shaded pathway inside the archaeological zone. Like Kabah, Sayil was also an important Maya city that began to flourish around the ninth century CE until its abandonment in the mid-tenth century, a period in Mesoamerican history known as the Terminal Classic. Of all structures that survive to this day, the Great Palace of Sayil is undoubtedly the most emblematic of this site, so much so its replica was chosen to grace the ancient Maya section at Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología.

After walking past a few rather worn-out stelae, with thatched roofs placed above them to protect the invaluable relics from the elements, we caught our first glimpse of the palace. The approach to this three-story edifice that’s also known as the North Palace made me think of Indiana Jones and his adventures among ancient ruins – sans the giant ball – thanks to the partially-restored state of the monument. Upon closer inspection, the structure had an important sculpture that is also present at other ancient Maya cities in the Yucatán: the face of Chaac. It is not without reason that depictions of the Maya god of rain, thunder, and lightning are more ubiquitous in this region than in the lush jungles of Central America – another realm of the ancient Maya. Dry season was long and aboveground rivers were nonexistent, leaving the local population with only two sources of water: from the sky above and from the cenotes underground.

However, another god was also sculpted into the Great Palace of Sayil, though his image is absent both in Uxmal and Kabah. Known as the Descending God due to his portrayal as an upside-down figure, not much is known about this deity apart from his association with Ah-Muzen-Cab, the Maya god of bees and honey. (Interestingly, this lesser-known god was also sculpted into one of the temples at Tulum, an important Maya site built centuries after Sayil.) And as if that wasn’t fascinating enough, other carvings on the Great Palace caught my attention too: the depiction of two serpents flanking Ah-Muzen-Cab which I personally found very intriguing due to their visual resemblance with the makara at ancient Hindu/Buddhist temples in Southeast and South Asia – including those closer to home in Java. This is a good example of how two geographically isolated societies can develop similar ideas without having interactions between them, just like the case with how ancient pyramids exist both in Egypt and Mexico.

From the palace, we retraced the sacbeob (singular: sacbe) – a network of pathways built by the ancient Maya to connect different structures and cities – to explore other parts of the archaeological zone under the trees whose leaves were beginning to thin out. First, we checked out the so-called El Mirador, a “lookout” older than the Great Palace itself which in the past was a temple sitting on top of a pyramid. From there, we took a little detour after noticing a sign indicating Stela 9, which turned out to be a sculpture of Nohoch Kep, the god of fertility who was depicted as having a larger-than-life phallus. We then moved to the Templo de las Jambas Jeroglíficas which got its name from the Maya glyphs that were sculpted along its “door jambs”. Unfortunately, most of it was in ruins and we could only catch a glimpse of the worn-out script.

At this point, we were right in the middle of the archaeological zone. But we knew at the southern end of the sacbe another supposedly significant structure was waiting to be explored. The South Palace was more remote than the rest of the structures within the compound, and the walk to get there felt longer too. When we arrived at the monument, we found a formerly two-story structure that was partially in ruins. This and the quiet surroundings definitely made this far side of Sayil very atmospheric and rather mysterious.

Knowing that we still had one more archaeological site to check out before dark, James and I concluded this visit. We walked down the same sacbeob back to where we started and met our trusted driver Abdiel who was patiently waiting for us in the car. Before long, we were heading to Labna, the final Puuc site for the day that has its own distinct character.

Worn-out stelae we encountered right after the entrance to the archaeological zone

When I saw this, I couldn’t help but feel like Indiana Jones

One of several Chaac masks at the Great Palace

Taking a closer look at the ruined parts of the large structure

A depiction of Ah-Muzen-Cab (at the center) who is flanked by serpents that remind me of the makara from Hindu/Buddhist cosmology

The Great Palace of Sayil provided the inspiration for the replica of this monument at the Maya section of Mexico City’s Museo Nacional de Antropología

Another relief of Ah-Muzen-Cab, who is curiously also depicted at a structure in Tulum built centuries after Sayil

One last look at the palace before moving on to other parts of the archaeological zone

Walking down the sacbeob of Sayil

It was not uncommon to stumble upon unrestored ruins along the way

Partially-ruined structures like this made Sayil a very exciting place to explore

El Mirador, the remains of a pyramid older than the Great Palace

A sculpture of Nohoch Kep (also known as the god of fertility), tucked away in one corner of the ancient site

The South Palace at the very end of the sacbeob

At the other side of the remote structure

The South Palace is situated farther away from most structures within the archaeological zone