Yucatan - November 2008
Oxkintok

After visiting the Loltun Caves, we visited Oxkintok.  Oxkintok is an unusual Mayan site in that it has a Labyrinth.  Our friend William said that Spanish archaeologists restored this site without input from the locals or the Mexican archaeologists.  I find it curious that a site restored by European archaeologists just happens to have the only known Mayan labyrinth.  Just my opinion...


Oxkintok has an arch and 3 main groups of temples and our friend the labyrinth.  It also has some unusual stelae.  The sky was overcast and gloomy when we visited.  I don’t know if that affected my experience or not, but I found the site neutral/dead.  I did not feel any energy.  I chanted in and around several temples and left a crystal offering at one of the temples.


According to the INAH Sign at the site entrance, Oxkintok is located halfway between the port of Celestun on the Gulf of Mexico and Dzibilchaltun just 4 miles north of Merida (which was also a former Mayan city).  Oxkintok is also located near the gateway or passage formed by the west end of the Puuc hills and the rolling country bordering the Yucatan Peninsula’s western coastal plains.  Oxkintok is around 2,000 years old; from the Early Classic Period (about 300 A.D.) to the Terminal Classic Period (1050 A.D.).


According to the INAH Plaque accompanying Group Ah May, the Central Plaza was the civic and religious center of Oxkintok and is composed of an extensive esplanade bordered by a series of architectural groups.  The 1st group forms the Central Plaza, which contains a complex network of Saq Beoob (white roads).  The Central Plaza is bordered by Group Ah Canul on the southeast, Group Millet (I do not recall seeing this Group and am not sure INAH excavated or restored it  yet) on the northwest, Group Ah Dzib on the west, and Group Ah May on the south.

The Southeast Plaza, with Palace Chich in the background, in Group Ah Canul at Oxkintok
Map of OxkintokYUCATAN-OXKINTOK-Map-2008.htmlshapeimage_4_link_0