Yucatan - Near Sayil

Gordon Nicolson

From a series of photographs of pre-Columbian ruins by Gordon Nicolson.

Sayil is a Maya archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatan, in the southwest of the state, south of Uxmal. Sayil flourished during the Terminal Classic period and a number of badly damaged monuments suggest that Sayil was governed by a local royal dynasty. Their wealth depended on the control of the best agricultural lands.

Sayil was most populated circa 900 AD, and the population reached the limits of the agricultural carrying capacity of the land, with crops grown in gardens and fields among the residential complexes and irrigated from artificial cisterns built to store water from the seasonal rains. The city began to decline around 950 AD and became completely abandoned circa 1000 AD.