Why go
The relationship between water, habitable land and the coast gives this city a clear geographic story. Its temple was uncovered beneath a later pyramid, while a sixteenth-century church introduces another historical layer. These features make change over time especially tangible at Dzibilchaltún.
The full story
Dzibilchaltún expanded and contracted repeatedly over a long period of occupation. Its position may have balanced access to the coastal salt-producing region with more suitable land inland. Cenote Xlakah supplied fresh water, giving another possible reason for the choice of location. Objects recovered from the cenote also indicate religious activity. The Temple of the Seven Dolls takes its name from seven small effigies found when archaeologists uncovered it beneath the remains of a later temple pyramid in the 1950s. The sequence shows how a prominent building could disappear within a new construction rather than simply being left standing. A sacbe, or white road, connects the temple with the rest of the settlement. Its name refers to the white limestone surface laid over stone and rubble. A ruined Spanish church from the sixteenth century adds a post-conquest presence, placing Maya construction and colonial religious architecture within the same historical landscape.