The Codz Poop of Kabah

The Codz Poop, or "Palace of the Masks," at Kabah is a showcase of Puuc-style Maya architecture, in which elaborately decorated upper façades were assembled as mosaics of finely cut limestone veneer stones set over a core of rubble and mortar. Each rain-god mask on this wall is itself built from many separate carved pieces, fitted together into the goggle eyes, stacked geometric elements, and long hooked snout of Chaac. Hundreds of these near-identical faces cover the entire main façade, one of the densest single-motif surfaces in all of Maya architecture. The obsession with the rain god carved into this wall at Kabah makes sense once you understand the land around it. The Puuc hills of Yucatán have no rivers, lakes, or streams; rainfall drains straight down through the porous limestone, leaving the surface dry. The Maya here survived on rainwater collected and stored in cisterns, which helps explain why the façade of the Codz Poop is covered edge to edge with the faces of Chaac, the god who brought the rain they could not do without.