Uxmal - Governor's Palace

(Local Name: Palacio del Gobernador) Immediately to the south of the House of Turtles is the Governor's Palace (Palacio del Gobernador), possibly architecturally the most perfect building in prehispanic America. The palace stands on an enormous platform and a terrace and is 98 m (322 ft) long, 12 m (39 ft) wide and 8 m (26 ft) high. The building comprises a main building and two side wings which open on to two vaulted passages. These were later closed in by cross walls.

In the basement with its plain façade there are eleven entrances on the front wall and one on each of the sides; they lead to 24 chambers which all have the typical arched vault. Along the central ledge there is a 3 m (10 ft) high frieze which in its upper section consists of an almost uninterrupted row of 103 Chac masks. Alongside it there is a host of geometric shapes. The lower part has a row of S-shaped decorations which form a serpent which once almost encircled the whole building like a necklace. The sculpture over the middle entrance has been restored; with its headdress of quetzal feathers it could be a former ruler of Uxmal. It is estimated that some 20,000 hewn stones with an individual weight of 20 to 80 kg (44 to 176 lb) were used to make this enormous mosaic frieze.

In front of the palace stands an altar with a two-headed jaguar in the middle. This figure could be a symbol of power and have been used as a throne; it is hewn out of a single block of stone and was discovered by Stephens in 1841.