Nuns' Quadrangle - North Building

Opposite the south building, and standing on a platform almost 7 m (23 ft) high, is the oldest and most important building of the Nuns' Quadrangle, the north building, which is almost 100 m (328 ft) in length. The 30 m (98 ft) wide stairway is flanked by two small temples. The left one (to the west) is called the Venus Temple, because a motive in the frieze has been connected with the planet Venus. The temple rests on four columns which form a hall. It is the only building in Uxmal which has such columns. The north building comprises 26 chambers and eleven entrances on to the inner quadrangle. As is usual with buildings in the Puuc style the basement level has no ornamentation. Over the ledge there are four "mask" towers, each with four Chac masks placed above one another. Next to them there are pictures of thatched houses and reliefs of monkeys and snakes.