Uaxactun

Uaxactun, together with Tikal, is one of the cities most studied of mayan history. It was long considered as the oldest city in the area, until the discovery of Nakbe and El Mirador, in the northeast of the Petén. It was in this City, where they laid the foundation for the research of the Maya Civilization, and where he began his extensive study, carried out mainly, but not exclusively, by the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Its name in antiquity was Siaan Ka’an, which means Born of the Sky, however, was called Uaxactun (or Eight stones) by the explorer Sylvanus Morley, by an inscription which he found to decrypt a Trail that had been a gift from the king of Tikal, which began with the number eight.

The monument most notable of Uaxactun is the so-called ‘Temple of the Masks’ (in publication), have stairways on all four sides and your upper platform serves as an observatory to see the equinoxes and solstices (as seen in image 5)

The name of Masks due to the fact that the temple has sixteen great figures that represent a blend of human and tiger, divided at number four on each side.