Pyramid of the Magician

The Pyramid of the Magician is the tallest monument of Uxmal, a great Maya city of the Puuc Hills in western Yucatan. Work on the first temple pyramid began in the sixth century, and for four hundred years successive builders wrapped older temples inside new ones, giving the structure its unusual elliptical base and steep, rounded sides.

Its upper temples blend Puuc and Chenes styles, their doorways framed by giant masks of the rain god Chaac. Maya legend recorded after the Spanish conquest told of a dwarf hatched from an egg who built the pyramid overnight to save his life and then ruled Uxmal.

The city's great building age ended around 1000, after which the pyramid fell into ruin. During the Spanish conquest of Yucatan it was looted and left to the forest, its old cult long silent.