After visiting the Governor’s Temple, we walked over to the House of the Tortugas. The House of the Tortugas (Spanish for “turtles”) sits just below the Governor’s Palace. The temple gets its name from the turtle sculptures on the roof. The Mayans built this temple in the Puuc architectural style, which I love. I felt that this temple was fun and homey and comfortable.
According to the INAH Plaque accompanying this temple, the House of the Tortugas is 30 meters (about 97 1/2 feet) long and 10 meters (about 32 1/5 feet) wide. The temple has smooth lower walls which contrast with the colonnades that decorate the upper facade. Sculptures of turtles decorate the length of the cornice in the upper facade. The Mayans associated turtles with rain and the Earth cycles and considered turtles to be very important animals. Archaeologists suspect that the Mayans dedicated this temple to the Aquatic Cult (not sure who that is). The architectural style is the later phase of Flourishing Puuc (? not sure what that is either) or Late Uxmal (900-1000 A.D.).
