Photos

A different angle of the Magician pyramid in Uxmal (Uxmal = built three times), Mexico. I like the way it looks through the vegetation. However, I don't like the way the sky looks. It seems to have a pink hue. When I tried to get rid of it, it turned green, so I decided to post the original + some sharpening. The picture was taken just before noon.

I was excited when we visited Uxmal because I thought we could climb the pyramid. It turns out that climbing has been forbidden in order to preserve the ruin. We could only climb the stairs to the palace of the governor and the pyramid of the sun that was built close to it. These steps are pretty steep. I was almost afraid to come back down, so people suffering vertigo should not attempt the climbing.

"According to an ancient legend, of various different tellings, a magician-god named Itzamna was single handedly supposed to have constructed the pyramid in one night. From archaeological excavation however, we know that the pyramid was constructed in five superimposed phases. The legendary association of the pyramid with a magician may be understood as an indication that the structure, and indeed the entire sacred part of the Uxmal complex, had ancient and ongoing use as a mystery school and ceremonial center. It is also interesting to note that the entire city is aligned with reference to the position of the planets then known, with Venus predominating, and that the pyramid of the magician is oriented so that its stairway on the west faces the setting sun at the time of summer solstice. "

http://www.sacredsites.com/americas/mexico/uxmal.html