Izamal

Izamal is a small city in Yucat?n state, Mexico, 72 km (about 40 miles) East of M?rida, Yucat?n, at

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Izamal has been continuously occupied for thousands of years. Population estimated at 15,000 people in 2000. It is known in Yucatan as "The Yellow City" (for customarily most of its buildings are painted that color) and "The City of Hills" (though most of the "hills" are probably the remains of ancient temple pyramids).

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Pre-Columbian stucco head, 7 ft 8 in (2.3 m) high

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Izamal was an important site of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It was sacred to the creator deity Itzamna and to the Sun God Kinich Ahau. Izamal was a site of pilgrimage in the region rivaled only by Chichen Itza.

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Two huge Pre-Columbian structures are still easily visible at Izamal (and from some distance away in all directions). The first is a great pyramid to the Maya Sun God, Kinch Kak Mo, with a base covering over 2 acres (8,000 m²) of ground and a volume of some 700,000 cubic meters. Atop this grand base is a pyramid of 10 levels. (A great stucco mask still existed on one side as recently as the 1840s, and a drawing of it by Frederick Catherwood was published by John Lloyd Stephens.) The second structure is the so called "acropolis", known anciently as Popol Chac, a large man-made mound probably built up over several centuries and originally supporting city palaces and temples. After the Spanish conquest of Yucat?n in the 16th century a Spanish colonial city was founded atop the existing Maya one, however it was decided that it would take a prohibitively large amount of work to level these two huge structures and so the Spanish contented themselves with placing a small Christian temple atop the great pyramid and building a large Franciscan Monastery atop the acropolis. It was named after San Antonio de Padua. Completed in 1561, the atrium of the Monastery was second in size only to that at the Vatican. Much of the cut stone from the Pre-Columbian city was reused to build the Spanish churches, monastery, and surrounding buildings.

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Izamal remains a place of pilgrimage within Yucat?n, now for the veneration of Roman Catholic saints. Several saints statues at Izamal are said to perform miracles. An early colonial era statue of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception is particularly venerated, and is the city's patron saint.

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State: :This article discusses states as sovereign political entities. For other meanings, see state (disambiguation)....

Mexico: The United Mexican States or Mexico (Spanish: Estados Unidos Mexicanos or M?xico; regarding the use of the variant spelling M?jico, see section The name below) is a country located in North America, bordered by the United States to the north, and Belize and Guatemala to the southeast. It is the nort...

Pre-Columbian: The term Pre-Columbian is used to refer to the cultures of the New World in the era before significant European influence. While technically referring to the era before Christopher Columbus, in practice the term usually includes indigenous cultures as they continued to develop until they were conqu...

Izamal related Images and Photos (experimental)

Courtyard of the Great Monastery of Izamal