Sacbe

Method of construction

After their construction sacbeob are actually very elongated narrow spaces. In general, the sacbeob have a width of about five to ten meters. When building the space were first the walls, which should be the limit, and applied it filled with rubble. In this gravel layer, a layer of small stones ( 2-5 cm diameter ) was first, just as in the coated with stucco squares and courtyards, is introduced in this slightly curved layer was finally put out of lime mortar to the road as and from the rain water a high degree of wear to protect. The height above the ground depends on its shape and can be for the crossing of sinks up to several meters. Usually, however, only simple stone series are available as a lateral boundary. Thanks to their design, many of the sacbeob can be seen even today in good terrain, although no longer be used as roads. The roads were often interrupted by small platforms and stairs.

The most important non-local sacbeob in Yucatán

The extension of the sacbé of Izamal west to Mérida and east to the Caribbean coast near Puerto Morelos is largely hypothetical

Function

The function of the non-local sacbeob lies largely in the dark. Since carts and making the necessary draft animals were not available, a use for the transport of goods is not to be assumed. They had more of a symbolic political meaning, and to particularly underline the connection between two cities. The sacbeob that led to Izamal, were probably used as a processional roads to the large and important sanctuaries of Izamal. About Local sacbeob were also detected in the Petén in northern Guatemala near El Mirador.

Urban local sacbeob are especially found in Coba and Chichen Itza in large numbers, where they led to various outlying settlements and ceremonial from the center. Here it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between intra- local and regional sacbeob.