N9-56 The Mask Temple

The Mask Temple is so named for the large carvings located on both sides of the building - there are also two smaller carvings about mid way up on the structure that are not visible - originally only one of the lower masks was uncovered, but the archaeologists immediately began excavating the other side, since the Mayans had a tendency to build things symmetrically. We were very fortunate to see this site when we did - because of decay, a replica mask was sitting next to the structure and will be installed shortly to cover and preserve the original. The fast rate of decay was due to the fact that, in one of the several reconstructions of this temple by the Mayans, a layer was built up around the masks and the space filled in with dirt in between the layers. Luckily, in covering up the masks the Mayans inadvertently preserved them for the future

Through careful examination the archaeologists learned that this temple was actually hollow, and inside it they discovered a tomb containing many different offerings of jade and other precious stones, as well as the embalmed corps of whoever the temple was built to house. The body was embalmed instead of mummified, which I thought to be an interesting difference between these ancients and those of Egypt.