The Market

The Market is one of the best examples at the site of the gallery-and-courtyard type, where Mayan architects achieved important construction advances including wider vaulting and taller columns. Although its original use cannot be identified, it was clearly closely related to the Plaza in front and connected to it by a large stairway. It has a long front gallery with three accesses toward the plaza and one into the interior of the sunken courtyard. Near this access stands an altar with bas-relief representations of personages, and around the courtyard are very tall columns that supported a roof of perishable materials sloping toward the sunken courtyard, which was drained by a cut-stone canal. It was built in the Maya-Toltec style (900-1200 A.D.).

Yucatán · Mexico