Chenes Architecture

Chenes is a lowland Maya architectural style associated with sites in the Chenes and Rio Bec regions of the southern Yucatan Peninsula, particularly in the present day Mexican state of Campeche, developing during the Late Classic period and continuing into Terminal Classic times. Its most distinctive feature is an elaborate zoomorphic facade in which a doorway is framed by a giant mask so that the doorway itself forms the mouth, a motif possibly representing a sky or mountain deity and sometimes identified with the rain god Chac. Chenes facades are typically a single story, its buildings have shorter foundations than other Maya architectural traditions, and unlike some other styles it makes little use of columns or of glyphic inscriptions and stelae. Notable examples include Dzibilnocac, Hochob, Chicanna and Edzna, and elements of the style also appear at the Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal.