Cuca
Cuca is a small archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán near Tixpeual, around 22 km east of the city center of Mérida . The site is currently not open to the public.
Cuca is significant because of the two walls that surround the densely built, ceremonial-administrative center. The outer wall ring is 2.3 km long, the inner only a quarter of it. The landscape is completely flat, the limestone rock, which often comes to the surface, is only covered in places by an extremely thin layer of soil. In a wide area there are low platforms for living quarters. The area within the inner wall ring shows the spatial organization that is usual for Mayan sites: several relatively large pyramids (the highest in the southwest is 13 m high) and elongated buildings are arranged around rectangular courtyards. Individual, largely collapsed buildings with Mayan vaults and portals with columns and capitals indicate an affiliation to the early Puuc style.
The layout of the outer wall, which cuts a large platform and encloses individual small structures (such as a small pyramid in the east), was built at a later point in the history of the settlement. The wall is a 1 to 2 m high and up to 10 m wide mass of unworked stones, with an external, coarse supporting masonry. The inner wall is taller and wider, and is held in place by inner and outer retaining walls. No gates can be seen on either wall. It is uncertain whether the walls, especially the outer one, had a defensive function. It could be that an acute threat has led to these structures, which represent a considerable construction work; their volume is estimated at around 35,000 cubic meters.
literature
- David Webster: Three Walled sites of the Northern Maya lowlands . In: Journal of Field Archeology 5 (1978) 375-390
Coordinates: 20 ° 55 ′ 35 " N , 89 ° 24 ′ 43" W.