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Mayapán: The Pyramid of Cuculcán
Pyramid of Cuculcan at Mayapán (Stephens and Catherwood 1843).
Mayapán
was the dominant Mayan political and ceremonial center of western
Yucatán after the 13th century fall of Chichén Itzá, and home to the
Xiu and Cocom dynasties until their rift in AD 1450. At the heart of
the ceremonial center is the large four-sided mound called the Pyramid
of Cuculcán, a Late Postclassic imitation of the Castillo at Chichén
Itzá. Cuculcán (later called Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs) was the
mythical Toltec leader who, as Landa reports, founded both of these
centers.
Reached by stairways on all four sides, the main temple
at Mayapán was partly covered in vegetation when drawn by Catherwood in
1841. The pyramid overlooks numerous other temples and colonnaded
rectangular masonry dwellings on lower mounds in the site, totalling
about 120 buildings.
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