Yucatán Road Trip: Sayil

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Detail of the Great Palace of Sayil. Along with Kabah and Labna, Sayil is one of three satellite sites included under the designated UNESCO World Heritage Site of Uxmal.

On day two of our Puuc Route adventure, we followed Highway 261 south for just under five km past Kabah, then turned left onto a narrow, unnamed road. After another five km of doubt, we came upon Sayil, our first destination of the day. Turning right (south) off the unnamed road, we drove beneath a canopy of bright orange and green foliage up to the parking lot.

Version 2After paying the modest entrance fee, visitors walk about 100 meters south to a clearing and the site’s most impressive structure, the Great Palace.

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Western façade of Sayil’s Great Palace. The staircase, which once led to the top of the structure, is no longer accessible to visitors.

According to the accompanying plaque, this monumental, three-story structure was built in several stages during the Late Classic period, mostly from 800–1000 AD. By the time of completion, it contained over 90 bedrooms and eight chultuns, and could have housed as many as 350 people. Its primary function was probably to serve as living quarters for the city’s governing elite, but some rooms were likely used for storage or administrative purposes.

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Plan of Sayil’s Great Palace. By HJPD.
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Frieze on the second level of Sayil’s Great Palace. The two upside-down “diving gods” are similar to those found at the coastal site of Tulum, and may represent the maize deity.
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Turquoise-browed motmot perched on the Great Palace, Sayil.

In addition to its palace and unusual trove of artifacts related to non-elite life, the sprawling grounds of Sayil are particularly valued for their avian diversity, attracting bird watchers and archaeology buffs alike. As we followed the sacbe through the rest of the visitable area, we were pleasantly surprised by the variety of fauna we encountered. The only place we saw a more diverse range of wildlife was at Calakmul, the massive, isolated site and nature preserve located over 300 km to the south near the border of Guatemala.

Highly subjective personal rating: 7.5/10

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Great Kiskadee, Sayil.
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Butterfly at Sayil, tentatively identified as the “Gray Cracker” (Hamadryas februa).
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Stela with Yum Keep, the phallic god of male fertility. In comparison to other low-relief depictions of gods found on Maya stelae, the figure is unusual for its frontality and simplicity, as well as its lack of accompanying glyphs.
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Hooded oriole on the grounds of Sayil.
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Sayil’s Mirador Temple is in the early Puuc style, characterized by a high roof comb punctured with openings. The building was originally decorated on three sides, and support stones for now-vanished stucco work are still embedded on the south wall.
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Temple of the Hieroglyphic Jambs, Sayil. The building gets its name from the stone border around one of its doorways, seen here on the far right. Little of the original structure is left, and more than half of the remaining wall–along with its glyphs–is buried beneath the surrounding rubble.
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Detail of the visible glyphs on the Temple of the Hieroglyphic Jambs.

All photos by Renée DeVoe Mertz, May 24, 2015, unless otherwise indicated.