Gonzalo Extra Oxtankah - Donald W Healey Author

Ichpaatún / Oxtankah

Ichpaatún, the site of so much action in Gods of Rain and Blood, was once a vigorous Maya city located on the western edge of the Bay of Chetumal, at the bottom of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The ancient city was first described in 1946 by a researcher, Alberto Escalona Ramos, who reported the existence of two stelae with dates that he attributed to the year AD 853. Within Ichpaatún’s central area, Ramos identified 18 possible pyramid mounds, a couple of impressive buildings with columns, and a large number of what he called, “sinks.” Later investigations revealed that Ichpaatún’s first inhabitants arrived around 300 BC and that occupation continued until at least AD 1450 or later. It was during this later period that Ichpaatún reached its highest degree of development. Regrettably, during modern urban expansion in the 1950’s and 1960’s Ichpaatún suffered extensive damage when most of its structures were carted off to become fill material for the City of Chetumal’s airport. A subsequent scientific evaluation of the site described its condition as “destroyed.”

Despite its current sad condition, I still chose Ichpaatún as a primary location for my novel. Because the destroyed city once boasted an outer defensive wall and other similarities to Tzamá, its larger contemporary up the coast, it just felt right. With little to work from, and needing to bring Ichpaatún to life, I turned for inspiration to another site about two kilometers to the north. Oxtankah, whose name in Yucatec Maya means “Center of Three Towns,” is the largest, and most important Maya archeological site discovered in the Bay of Chetumal area. Ceramic evidence and early structures show it also has a settlement history dating back to 300 BC. Oxtankah’s core is concentrated around two plazas, the Plaza of the Bees and the Plaza of the Columns, and contains numerous temples, pyramids, palaces, and sunken courtyards. Wandering among those remains, it was easy to imagine the city as vibrant and alive and to populate it with a cast of intriguing characters. If you are ever in Oxtankah’s vicinity I highly recommend that you pay a visit.