Santa Rosa Xtampak — Chenes Palace-Pyramid
Xtampak · Santa Rosa Xtampak
Late Classic, Chenes (600–950 CE)·Maya — Chenes·🇲🇽 Campeche, Hopelchén Municipality, Chenes region, Mexico
About
About Santa Rosa Xtampak — Chenes Palace-Pyramid
Largest Chenes region city atop meseta between Puuc and Rio Bec, 60 km north-east of Hopelchén, famed for Palace of the Chac adorned with stacked Chenes masks and serpent mouth doorway leading to central courtyard, set on low pyramid base with vaulted galleries stacked three high. Temple-pyramid opposite forms E-group-like plaza. Elaborate stucco and mosaic façades document Chenes style genesis — precursor to Rio Bec towers. Lidar shows sacbé network linking to smaller Chenes hamlets.
Why it mattersType site Chenes style; transition between Puuc mosaic and Rio Bec towers.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Water storage — chultuns within palace?
Theories
- 01Palace-pyramid was both ruler’s house and temple mountain
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 600–800 CE
- Period
- Late Classic, Chenes (600–950 CE)
- Culture
- Maya — Chenes
- Builders
- Maya
- Purpose
- Chenes capital palace-pyramid — three-storey Palace with 40 vaulted rooms on basal pyramid and snake-mouth (zeh) doorway
- Excavation
- Excavated
1887
Teobert Maler photographs Xtampak Palace
1936
H. Pollock draws plan
On the ground
Structures & features
19.7811° N · 89.5868° W · 120 m · 2 mapped features
Palace on pyramid platform central serpent door
palaceThree-storey Chenes palace with snake-mouth doorway on pyramid base
19.7816° N · 89.5863° WOpposite pyramid temple E-group
pyramidPyramid-temple closing east plaza forming pseudo-observatory
19.7806° N · 89.5873° W
Gallery