Oxkintok

Oxkintok is a Maya city in the municipality of Maxcanú, about 70 km south of Mérida, near the village of Calcehtok and its caves. It sits at a strategic point between the west of the peninsula and the entrance to the Puuc hills, and its architecture mixes the Puuc style with traditions from central Mexico. Its Maya name is usually read as "three days flint" or "three cutting suns"; it was also known as Maxcanú or Tzat Tun Tzat.

It was inhabited for a very long time, from about 500 BC to AD 1450. In the Early Classic (300–550) it grew into a regional power on the trade routes linking the peninsula with the Gulf coast and the central highlands, and most of its pyramids and palaces were built then; inscriptions here carry dates of AD 475 and 487, among the oldest in northern Yucatán. In the Late Classic a ruler known from the inscriptions as Walas held power in the first half of the 8th century. By the Terminal Classic (850–1000) the city followed the Puuc tradition but lost importance as power shifted to Uxmal, and in the Postclassic people mainly added shrines and offerings to the old buildings. A Spanish archaeological mission excavated here from 1985 to 1991, and INAH has continued the work since.

The star building is the Satunsat, "the place to get lost": a three-level structure with a labyrinth of vaulted passages and chambers and a single entrance on the west, one of only four labyrinth buildings known in the Maya world. The May group is the most restored, the Ah Canul group has carved human figures in stone and a plaza where the equinox can be watched, the Millet group sends out a 650-metre sacbé, and the site has one of the oldest ballcourts recorded. Few people come, so you usually have it to yourself.