The Arch is my favorite part of Labna. I feel a strong attraction to it. I could stay in it all day. I kept returning to it throughout our visit. I feel it is incredibly beautiful; one of the most beautiful examples of Mayan architecture. The arch actually was part of a long wall forming a courtyard inside. Now these walls are mostly rubble.
According to the INAH Plaque accompanying the Arch, the Mayan constructed the Arch in the Puuc Mosaic architectural style. The arch includes 2 rooms on each side of the arch. The Arch formalizes the entrance from what appears to have been a residential group of an upper class family to a central plaza with buildings of dynastic-political use. The center of the vaulted gateway runs northeast-southeast. A big nosed mask decorates the upper part of the north corner of the northeast facade and 2 huts over the entrances to the side rooms, with lattice panels flanking both sides. Both simulated doors of the small huts contained a seated human figure embedded on it. Only the feathers of the topknots and the stone spikes have been preserved. Archaeologists suspect that the stones which project from the sides fo the arch supported anthropomorphic stucco sculptures.
