Ebook: Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions 3.2 (Yaxchilan)

The Usumacinta River, in its middle reaches, runs in a bed that is cut deeply into hilly terrain and follows a fairly straight northwesterly course toward the Gulf of Mexico. In two places, however, the river has been forced into detours having the form of great loops, both of them, as it happens, destined to have important ceremonial centers built upon their banks. On the right bank of one lies Piedras Negras, while on the other, about 50 km upstream and halfway around the more perfectly formed of the two loops, lies Yaxchilan. The smoothly curving course of this loop traces the form of a capital omega, its neck no more than 500 m across, its diameter about 3.5 km.

In this region the river flows, for the most part, between sandy terraces of varying width, but on the order of 100 m wide, at the back of which rise up escarpments or irregular masses of karst- formation hills. It is along a stretch of such a terrace, about 1 km in length, and on the ledges and prominences overlooking it, that Yaxchilan was built.

Until recently, access to Yaxchilan had not been easy. The river, it is true, does provide a year- round means of communication, but only in the upstream direction. Passage in a dugout canoe through the rapids of Anaite, about 20 km downstream, and through other rapids at about the same distance farther on, between El Cayo and Piedras Negras, is at best unnerving; at other times, when the level of the river is not propitious, the journey cannot be recommended at all. Rapids below the Piedras Negras make the journey onward to Tenosique impossible at all times.

Upstream, it is a two- day journey (except by speedboat) to Sayaxche, and an expert boatman who knows all the shadows and rocky snags must be employed.

Until recently the only overland route in regular use, since mahogany- cutting along the river began more than a century ago, had been through Guatemalan territory on the other side of the river, passing through Macabilero, Piedras Negras, and Tres Champas, crossing the border there and proceeding to Tenosique. It is a four- day walk.

Since 1974, however, motor vehicles have been reaching the riverbank opposite Yaxchilan over a track that starts at Paso Subin, a settlement on the road between Flores and Sayaxche. The track was seldom passable, but now, at the time of writing, it is being improved.


Yaxchilan may also be reached by light plane. The landing strip is on the terrace west of Structure 81.