Uxmal and the Puuc Maya

In the low Puuc hills south of Mérida, Maya cities flourished between about 700 and 1000, drawing water from cisterns rather than cenotes. Uxmal, the largest, became the capital of a regional state linked by a raised causeway to Kabah. Their builders developed the Puuc style: plain lower walls under friezes of cut-stone mosaic, with long-nosed masks of the rain god Chaak.