Dzibanche

Maya Ruins > Dzibanché Dzibanché, means "writing on wood" in Mayan. The name Dzibanché comes from the fact that Temple #6 has a wooden lintel with glyphs from 618 AD. The site is fairly old dating to 200 BC. It became a great city around 200 AD and the buildings that you can see today were built. The site can be visited on a day trip combined with Kohunlich and Kinichna. You may see Dzibanché spelled Tzibanche on some maps. The signs on the road are very well marked with Dzibanché. Dzibanché Hours: 8:00-5:00, the admission fee of $33 pesos also covers the entry fee into Kinichna'
	Temple 6 is a large pyramidal platform upon which there is a temple with two vaulted galleries. It has just recently been re-excavated and some tunnels exposed in the first level. The one at the rear has a special design with tensors that prevent the walls from collapsing at their corners; above it a solid trapezoidal cresting was built, some of which remains. The exposed temple belongs to the last stage of construction; its walls were decorated with painted stucco panels. The stairway shows three constructional phases, the one exposed dating from the earliest times. This is the one temple at Dzibanché that you can no longer climb.
Building 6, also known as the building of the lintels, inspired the name of the site. The original lintels of the south opening show the calendrical inscription dated 733 AD.
	The site is wooded by the giant ceiba trees, which are the sacred tree of the Maya.
Links to other Dzibanché sites Locogringo.com - 360 degree views of Dzibanché --the loading is slow, so you will have to be patient. Frommers -- no pictures but a good description from the 2003 guide book. Gorp - Touring Dzibanché - No pictures, but this is a nice review of Dzibanché as the "Mayan road less traveled" Ruta Maya, Dzibanché - Nice pictures, but a somewhat slow site.
updated 07-May-2008