en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ekbalam_map2_numbered.jpg
Structure 1, or "the Acropolis", the largest step pyramid at Ek' Balam. I made it up to the second 'balcony' on the left, where the people are walking on the 'loggia', examining the large sculptures. That was high enough for me! Some people come down on their rear ends, as the women in blue pants is doing! The best way to navigate these very steep steps is in zig-zag fashion and tilting your body sideways--both up and down.
Tags: ekbalam maya pyramid steppyramid climbing sculptures ancientmonument monument treasure mexico yucatan temezon valladolid 2013 patrimony
Occasionally, it rains in Yucatan, especially in early autumn, and infrequently in winter. This day tourists and students of the ancient ruins were grateful for the palm thatch roofs, erected to offer protection to the extraordinary stucco sculptures found at this site north of Valladolid.
I am standing under the roof of a vendor's shelter, near #13 on the map in the linked page.
Learn more about Ek' Balam, here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ek_Balam
Tags: yucatan ekbalam maya ruin pyramid sculpture stucco art architecture ancient indigenous mexico 2013 rain storm downpour rainstorm wet trees park site temezon december
More sculptures on the upper level of the large pyramid at Ek Balam (Black Jaguar), Yucatan. Teeth, eyes, and open mouths serving as doors to the Underworld are recurrent themes in Maya iconography. Made of fine limestone stucco in, probably, the 8th century CE, and well conserved by the builders who surrounded it with sand when its useful life was at an end. Note the skull at the lower corner. The palm thatch roof and supports were erected by archaeologists to help with modern preservation.
For more on Ek Balam, see preceding frames.
Tags: Archaeology Yucatan Mexico sculpture mountain pyramid 2013 native maya ekbalam
The sculptures are built of stucco and are unusual in Maya art for being in-the-round. Open to the public.
www.yucatantoday.com/en/topics/ek-balam
According to a scholar's website:
"The ancient Maya preserved the stucco so well that no modern restoration was required. Not long after Ukit Kan Le'k Tok' was buried inside the building, it was carefully filled with powdered limestone and rocks and then the entire facade was covered with the same material."
So the sculptures are original and have not been restored.
www.mesoweb.com/features/ek_balam/index.html
Tags: sculpture maya pyramid ekbalam yucatan 2013 INAH archaeology ancient figures warriors art architecture temezon
at Ek Balam, the archaeological zone in Yucatan.
These have been uncovered by archaeologists during the past 15 years. When found (uncovered of earth, rocks, and trees), they were in this excellent state of preservation. No restoration was needed, we are told.
This is seen on the upper level to which I climbed. (See adjacent images.)
www.yucatantoday.com/en/topics/ek-balam
Tags: ekbalam archaeology yucatan 2013
