Chaak’s Wrath
“. . . two peepers are enough to make one look away and avoid all direct eye contact, but 500 plus is powerful enough to inflict paranoia complexes and incite panic. It’s reasonable to assume that this too is how the Maya felt about the beastly gods they feared and channeled for survival. A story, a legend, a painted narrative scrawled on a temple of Chaak’s power and abilities and the hellish source from which he was conceived is proof enough, but in Kabah, the reminders to the people could hardly be more forceful. For all residents and pilgrims of the Sacbe, or “White Road,” to Uxmal, old or new, Chaak’s wrath was and still is unavoidable.”
Most Masterful Maya Arch
“. . . Labná’s arch is quite masterful and supposedly possesses one of the most delicately-tapered curvatures in the whole Maya world – an engineering marvel by Pre-Columbian stanards. The technological appreciation lost on me, I thought it simply looked like a handsome arch. Standing and gazing at the heavy entrance, I was more interested in the traveler who would have once passed under that beautiful curve. Merchants, pilgrims, refugees, those headed to Uxmal and those returning all the more enlightened from their journeys.”
My Maya travel narrative: The Travel Companion from the Realm of the Maya
Curious Roof Comb
Finally, I’m getting around to posting about our spectacular and thorough tour of the Yucatan. Ten days, a no-name Chevy and no roads left unexplored! This photo is of El Mirador at the ancient Maya city of Labná. Labná is one of the Puuc cities and is really pretty remote down a barely paved one and a half lane road. We were the only ones here when we arrived in late afternoon. While roof combs are common toppers of Maya temples this one is one-of-a-kind. John Lloyd Stephens, the pioneering rediscoverer of Maya cities, called it the “most curious and extraordinary structure” he’d encountered. Maya temples were covered in decroative stucco reliefs and it’s always a thrill when you find structures where the delicate stucco remains. It really became one of my favorite activities while exploring all these lost cities. Shockingly, El Mirador has some stucco remaining on its roof comb even though it has been fully exposed to the elements for at least half a millenia.
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