K'alak Muul

K'alak Muul
City
The Facing Mounds, the Blessed City
From top, left to right: Aerial view of K'alak Muul, the Necropolis, the Chak Yaxnah Ho’kan, the southern Reservoir-Canal, and K'alak Muul's Skyline
Flag
Motto:  "To you Human / I come to tell you" (" Ute Winik / Etal Walik")
Country	Mutul
Yajawil	Chaknal
Kuchkabal	K'alak Muul
First Fortress	Late 11th century
Xuman Yajawil Capital	Early 12th century
Capital of the Mutul	1318
Government
• Yax Batab	Nikte' Chan Ha
Area
• City	576 km2 (222 sq mi)
• Urban	1,737.9 km2 (671.0 sq mi)
• Metro	18,940.7 km2 (7,313.0 sq mi)
Population  (2020)
• City	1,067,840
• Density	1,900/km2 (4,800/sq mi)
• Urban	1,957,230
• Urban density	1,100/km2 (2,900/sq mi)
• Metro	7,576,280
• Metro density	400/km2 (1,000/sq mi)
Demonym	Muulti

K’alak Muul is the capital and the second most populous city of the Mutul with a municipal population of around a million and a larger urban population of 5 million. The city is located to the north of the bay of Chaak Muknal, 43 kilometers away from the port of Yax Pasil, the main gateaway in and out of the metropolis.

K’alak Muul was founded by the late K'uy Dynasty who built a fortress on today Divine Hill during the 10th century to protect Yax Pasil, then called Xanaab’, from the Kayamuca Empire. After the Cousins War and the coronation of the K’iche king K'ukumatz as the first K’uhul Ajaw of a new dynasty, K’alak Muul became the residence of the of the Xuman Yajaw, as it’s strategic position allowed for the military governors to control the region, notably the roads linking the Mutul and the Kayamuca Empire.

It’s only after the Belfrasian and the Xuman Crusades that K’uhul Ajaw Tecuman II “The Wise” decided to transfer the institutions and his court to K’alak Muul, which officially became the new capital of the Divine Kingdom in 1318.

Political, economic, and cultural hearth of the Mutul, K’alak Muul is known for its many palaces and temples, monuments and museums. Some of its most visited and seen monuments are the Royal Acropolis, the Chak Yaxnah Ho’kan, the Royal Necropolis, and the monumental Thousand Chak Temple-Complex. It also has the largest concentration of higher education institutes in the country. K’alak Muul is home to five independent and rival Pitz clubs, the PC K’uhul Mul, PC Yax Mul, the PC Sajalzotz, the PC Ch’ak Pasil and the PC Ajawal. It also possess two stables of Mutuleses fencers and one football club, the FC K’alak Muul.

Etymology

K’alak Muul is an alternative spelling older than the current official romanization of Mutli. In the modern romanization, it glyphic spelling would be thus written: K'AL - AK - MUL. A rough translation would be "Bound by the Dancing Pyramid" or "tied to the Mound of dances".

History

Antiquity

Before the 9th century, the site of K'alak Muul was mostly flat marshlands. It was inhabited by K'ol people who built canals and raised fields to practice agriculture in this environment and transport their production to the nearby bay of Chaak Muknal following the natural rivers and streams that tied the many lakes of the region together. They lived in small hamlets built on top of natural or artificial elevations and linked together by canals or raised causaways Sakb'e. The colonisation of these marshlands was progressive, from the edges to the center, spread over centuries. During the Paol'lunyu Dynasty, the Mant'e K'ol only really inhabited and exploited the northern shores of the Bay, the marshlands deeper inlands remaining inexploitable beside as hunting grounds. After the Mant'e submitted to the Chaan Dynasty in 293 BCE, agricultural expansion accelerated but were limited by the situation of the region as a borderland of the Mutul.

K'uy Dynasty

The Maize Bread Rebellion of 515 would motivate the ruling K'uy Dynasty to promote the clearing and colonisation of the Mant'e Marshlands to compensate for the lacking food production in the Mutul' traditional breadbasket regions. The process led to the creation of vast latifunda owned by a small number of local notaries who used slave labour to produce corn, gourds, beans, cotton, sugar, spices, and fishes. It was the strengthening of the "inland K'ol" local leadership relative to the "coastal K'ol" leadership from P'uy and other urban settlements who had made their wealth through trade with other regions of the Mutul. The latter remained the dominant aristocracy of the K'ol, but the former had become forces to deal with.

Demographic and economic growth of the Mant'e interior would be the trend for the next two centuries until the Kayamuca Wars began. The region became a target of raids and piracy from the new sea empire, driving people away from P'uy and other coastal cities and leading to the construction of fortifications and protections against potential invaders. The process accelerated further when in 810 the Mutulese fleet was defeated and destroyed, leading to annexion of almost the entirety of the Xuman Peninsula' east coast. Mant'e was now once again a borderland.

To protect this borderland, a "K'aloomt'e of the K'ol people" was given administrative and military power over the Ch'ak Muknal Bassin, the K'ol mountains, and the marshlands of Mant'e. When the K'uy dynasty ended, the K'ol K'aloomt'e Nuhn Kan Mah would proclaim himself K'uhul Ajaw and create his own Dynasty that would take an active role in the Cousins Wars until its last ruler surrendered to the K'iche people, sparing his state from a violent conquest.

By 1100 all of the K'uy successor states had been conquered by the K'iche people. Mant'e was integrated into a larger Northern Viceroyalty. It's then that, in the heart of the marshlands, a local clan leader, known only today as "Aj Kawkaw", was declared Halak Winik or "Count" of the K'ol. He rebuilt the network of fortifications and canals of his province and in 1101 erected a new artificial mound near three renewed retention bassins. On top of it, he built a fortified marketplace, with residences for artisans, hotels for travellers, granaries, garrisons for the guardsmen, and a palatial complex dominating this elevated position. It became known as the Dancing Mound: Akmul.

Capital of the Mutul

After his death, temples to a deified Aj Kakaw were erected in the market plaza. Akmul would remain a secondary residence for the K'ol Hakak Winik until 1318 when the K'uhul Ajaw Tekun Uman II decided to move his capital northward to better face the Latin crusaders menacing his realm and saw the strategic potential of the city. New mounds and raised fields were erected, the old palatial complex was turned into a Necropolis for the K'uhul Ajaw and his descendent and a new royal residence was built on the other side of the market plaza. Temples and Pyramids were built as well, often forming entire religious complex, and private elite residences multiplied for the courtiers and their families that followed the Divine Lord northward. Many religious orders, dedicated to the creation of books, calendars, sculptures, paintings, and other luxury goods also installed themselves within the new capital. It's in this new, rapidly growing, urban center that the Mutul saw most of its 15th century artisanal revolution with the introduction of glass and steel to the Divine Kingdom, the invention of the printing press, of paper money, reinforced concrete, gunpowder... through this influx of specialists, clercs, scribes, and other artisans attached to the court or not, the city now known as K'alak Muul became a showcase for Mutulese art and science, gaining a reputation for its book production, mathematical and astrological calculus, and architectural innovations.

Itzamnaaj Reform

After the Sajal War, Itzamanaaj B'alam appointed Muwan Chih K'in as Viceroy of Chaknal. Muwan Chih K'in had been the Commissary General of Itzamanaaj during the civil war, where he proved himself as an invaluable logistic officer who rationalized the Royalists' war effort. Through the Viceroyalty, he received almost complete control over the capital and its hinterlands but also a mission : to rebuild and restore K'alak Muul, which had been for the most part destroyed during the Sajal War and its siege.

Muwan Chih K'in took the opportunity to apply his own theories in urbanism. Succintly, he estimated his contemporary industrial cities to be untenable in the long run. Instead, he defended the idea that "low density agragian cities" were the only way for a millenium-long empire like the Mutul to last even longer.

To do so, Muwan Chih K'in and his engineers spent a year carefuly plannifying their future city depending on the topography and the movements of celestial bodies. He kept the core of the old city: the Divine Hill, the Primordial Hill, and the Cathedral District. He divided the rest of the city into twenty districts known as Wards or Nalil each with their own dedicated temple and school. To populate this city, beside the ancient inhabitants of K'alak Muul from before the war who were allowed to return, Itzamanaaj B'alam offered residences to some of his loyalists such as the New Houses of the Mutul, the Ikaiche from Kehkal, and the Ixkanha from Saklamak. A great number of Achi veterans were settled there, alongside other people considered loyal. To further increase the population, it was declared that no slave would be permitted within K'alak Muul: all slaves who participated in the construction of the city were bought, freed, and allocated an household. People could still be enslaved in the city, but had to serve in other parts of the country.

Geography

the Dry Season in the suburbs of K'alak Muul

K’alak Muul is located to the south of the Xuman Peninsula, north to the bay of Chaak Muknal. The oldest part of the city was built over two mounds, K’uhul Mul and Yax Mul, and slowly expanded around them. The flatlands around the city being void of rivers, which is true for all of the Xuman Peninsula, the city grew around the natural wells, the Cenotes, following the natural topography, giving to the Historic District it’s distinct triangular shape.

Today, the larger urban area of K’alak Muul can be described as an arrow pointing northward, with the fletching being the port of Yax K’uhul Pasil, and the arrowhead being the triangular Old City, up to the Northern Expand. Linking the two is the historic railroad and the MSB1 Highway, around which many towns and neighborhoods appeared, until they formed a continuous agglomeration. While Yax K’uhul Pasil is still considered as an independent city, the Motorway Boroughs have been officially integrated to the city of K’alak Muul since 1983.

Climate

Incoming Monsoon clouds over the Northern Expand

K’alak Muul has a Tropical Monsoon Climate, with less pronounced dry season. It see very little change of temperature through the year, with no winter or summer, but it does possess a dry and wet season. The dry season generally start after the Winter Solstice, when the offshore air flow is proeminent, with the winds circulating from the Central Highlands toward the sea. The wet season happen because of a change in the circulation, with the air now flowing from the sea to the continent. The change in direction is due to the difference in the way water and land heat. The Monsoon gave its name to the Chac Muknal Bay, the Tomb of Chaac, from which he resurrect every year, provoking the Monsoon.

As a result, K’alak Muul is considered as both hot and humid all year long, with temperature never falling under 18 °C, and with only the driest months seeing less than 60mm of precipitation.

Administration

City Government

The Ch'aki Chan Kuchnah, headquarter of the Capital's Holpop

Like every other large urban area in the Mutul, K'alak Muul is led by a Batab who coordinate the city-wide administration. As the capital of the Divine Kingdom however, K'alak Muul is special in that its Batab is not appointed by the Halak Winik but by the Divine Throne directly. The Batab preside over the Holpop, or "Municipal Council", composed of the Aj Kuchkalob or "submayors" of each of the capital's districts, the Nalilob. Contrary to the Batab, an Aj Kuchkal is not appointed but elected by his Nalil's triple council ("Ox Ch'ob").

A Nalil Ox Ch'ob represent all of the local Estates of a District. The number of seats in these councils can vary from 3 to 18, depending on the size of the Nalil they represent. Seats are reserved to all adult nobles with their main residence registered in the District, and to the Head Priests of local temples. The rest of the seats are filled by the Elders, the official representatives of the third estates, elected by the residents of their Nalil, and serving for 3 year long mandates. One need to be over 50 years old to candidate for the position of Elder, to have his main residence in the Nalil they are running in, and to own said residence, not rent it.

The Holpop's role is to scrutinises the Batab's decisions. Notably, they can accept, amend, or reject the mayor's budget proposals each year. Their headquarter is the Ch'aki Chan Kuchnah. They also advises the Batab, and have authority over various matters that requires the cooperation of multiple Nalilob, such as transport and Waste collection. Individualy, each Aj Kuchkab is responsible for most local services in his Nalil, such as local planning, schools, social services, local roads and refuse collection.

National Government

As the capital of the Mutul, K’alak Muul is the seat of the Government, called the Divine Throne. The K’uhul Ajaw officially live in the Chak Yaxnah Ho’kan, the Royal Acropolis. The ministries, the highest courts of justice, and the National Assembly, when the K’uhul Ajaw summon it, all have their own buildings in the city, mostly concentrated in the Historic District, especially the boroughs of K’uhul Mul, Yax Mul, Ol K’iwik, and K’ojmakal.

Police Force

The security of K’alak Muul is mainly the responsibility of the K’alak Muul Tupilal, a subdivision of the Ministry of the Interior. It supervises the units of the Tupilob who patrol the city. It is also responsible for providing emergency services, including the Fire Brigade. Its headquarters is the High Shield House ( B’ah Pakal Nah ) in the K’uhul Mul.

There are 30,000 officers under the Tupilal, and a fleet of more than 6,000 vehicles, including police cars, motorcycles, fire trucks, boats and helicopters. In addition to traditional police duties, the local police monitors the market prices and the number of discount sales held by stores, and check that there’s always one pharmacy and one food store open in every neighborhood during holidays, such as the Wayeb Days.

Cityscape

Urbanism and Architecture

An example of a Puk Arch

Since K'alak Muul became the capital of the Ilok'tab Dynasty, almost all K'uhul Ajaw made a point of leaving their mark on the city. In modernising its infrastructure through the centuries, K'alak Muul has preserved even its earliest history in its street map. At its origin, the city was organised around the three main plazas of the Divine and Holy Hills, plus the Northern Plaza, linked together through three important Sacbe. Multiple smaller, artificials, mounds had been built over time to serve as the basis of new fortifications, but all of them have been destroyed since then to make way for the expansion of the city.

Because of its long history, K'alak Muul possess multiple examples of many, if not all, of the architectural styles of every periods of the Mutul since the rule of Kanib K'eh. The oldest temples and palaces wings still standing today are built in the Ol Winik style of architecture, characterized by tall pyramids supporting a summit shrine adorned with a roof comb, and accessed by a single doorway. Additional features are the use of stela-altar pairings, and the decoration of architectural façades, lintels, and roof combs with relief sculptures of rulers and gods. It's only soon before K'alak Muul become the royal capital that it's monuments and buildings start to be built in the Puk Style that had emerged from northern and western Xuman. Puk style replaced rubble cores with lime cement, resulting in stronger walls, and also strengthened their corbel arches. This allowed Puuc-style cities to build freestanding entrance archways. The upper façades of buildings were decorated with precut stones mosaic-fashion, erected as facing over the core, forming elaborate compositions with characteristic figures such as the rain god Chaac, birds, and trees. The motifs also included geometric patterns, lattices and spools, possibly influenced by styles from the Nuu Davi highlands. In contrast, the lower façades were left undecorated. Roof combs were relatively uncommon. A contemporary style to the Puuc is the Chene style, which is very similar but feature fully adorned facades on both the upper and lower sections of structures. Some doorways are surrounded by mosaic masks of monsters representing mountain or sky deities, especially for temples or private rooms reserved for the cult of the ancestors.

Plan of a typical Neo-Puk style church

The limestone used for construction was local and quarried on-site. The depressions formed by the extraction of stone for building were plastered to waterproof them and were used as reservoirs, together with some waterproofed natural depressions. The main plazas were surfaced with stucco and laid at a gradient that channelled rainfall into a system of canals that fed the reservoirs. The K'uhul Ajaw since the Paol'lunyu Dynasty have taken their legitimacy from the control of the water system and the correct distribution of this ressource, and this is especially visible in K'alak Muul, which has been doted of many impressive reservoirs, canals, aqueducs, and even sewers, that were lavishly decorated with stucco figures and paint, if they were visible. The old sewers and canals systems are still in use to this day, even if they have been extensively modernized, and the few reservoirs that haven't been filled to build new houses over them are still in use, generally freely accessible by the population and in the middle of their own plazas.

During the post-crusades era, the new palaces and temples of K'alak Muul being built or rebuilt were done in what has been called the Neo-Puk style. It is notably characterized by domes and round buildings making their apparition. While some round buildings had been built prior to the emergence of Neo-Puk, they were mostly reserved to observatory and rectangular-shaped buildings and rooms were the norm. The Yoko-Temple were designed with a large central space, where the worshippers could be close to the altar, with a dome or cupola high overhead, allowing light to illuminate the church below. The inside of the cupola was lavishly decorated with paintings of gods and heroes, and with stucco statuettes of mythological figures looking down below. The interior of these temples became more and more ornate with time, usually with a strong focus on the altar that became the center of the temple. It's during the Yoko period that a rule of Mutulese architecture, Wall paintings inside / Mosaic outside, appeared. The painting themselves started to enrich themselves with techniques and styles imported either from Belisaria or Ochran, and often merged together with traditional Mutuleses representations and figures. Column started to twist, and forced perspective and tromp-l'oeil were used to give a sense of movement and flow to the buildings. The Yoko style is generally considered to be a period of transition between classical and neo-classical / post-classic architectures of the Mutul, two architectural school of thoughts that competed inside K'alak Muul with many consequences for the styles of the Mutul's temples, palaces, and buildings as a whole.

K'alak Muul districts

K'uhul Mul

The Chak Yaxnah Hokan, the seat of the Divine Throne

At the heart of the city is the K'uhul Mul, the Divine Hill, the political, administrative, and economic core of the city. The urban layout of the district has been organized around the Old Market Plaza at the top of the hill. The southern side of the Plaza is delimited by the colorful northern facade of the Chak Yaxnah Ho’kan, the Royal Acropolis, which was built on a west-east axis. Facing the Acropolis, on the northern side of the Plaza, is the Royal Necropolis which was both a place of worship and of rest of the Royal family and also a museum, a research center in history and archeology, and the temporary residence of the Divine Queen when she's pregnant.

The Old Market Plaza is also flanked on its west and east by two great temple-pyramids. First to its west is the Aj Kakaw K'uhnah, a 48 meters tall stepped pyramid topped by a funerary shrine dedicated to Aj Kakaw, first Xuman Yajaw and ruler of the city when it wasn't yet the royal capital but a provincial administrative center. Aj Kakaw built this temple-pyramid for himself and his family and, beside himself, the tombs of his wife, his son, grandson, and great-grandson. The Xuman Yajawob stopped being buried there after 1318 when the city became the capital of the Ilok'tab Dynasty. During the 16th century, a smaller shrine was added in front of the pyramid, dedicated to Ex Chuah the merchant deity of the White Path following the official divination of Aj Kakaw as an aspect of the god. The roof comb of the pyramid is dominated by the statue of Aj Kakaw transfigured as Ek Chuaj.

To the east, it's the Ix Kalajuun K'uhnah, a 37 meters tall stepped pyramid, also topped by a funary shrine whose roof comb depict the World Tree and the Tonsured maize goddess meditating under it. it was built as a shrine and mausoleum for Ix Mun, Aj Kakaw's step daughter, who was famed for her status as a divineress. While she never reached godhood, she is nonetheless often summoned by the K'alak Muul clergy as an intermediary to contact the Maize God. In 1542, the pyramid became part of the K'uhul Mul Chilam Seminar that was at the origin of the K'uhul Mul Chilam Order before becoming a school for the Clergy and then the house of the Treasury in the modern days.

Other important buildings present at the top of the K'uhul Mul include the K'uhul Wayib' K'iwik.

Directly south of the Chak Yaxnah Ho’kan and the foot of the Divine Hill is the Old Reservoir Plaza. The Tzikanbe (New Precious Road) link the two plazas together. This street boast numerous stores specialising in high fashion as well as jewelers, and both the Huakanbe and the Old Reservoir are considered to be some of the most fashionable and luxurious parts of the city, with luxury shops, five stars hotels, restaurants, coffee shops, tea houses, chocolatiers, and theaters. It remains one of the most expensive area of the Mutul, with prices reaching 40,000 Baats/m². The Old Reservoir is also the location of the Yax Ch'ak Nah (First House of Ch'ak), a 50 meters tall pyramid built on top of an artificial plateform, the biggest pyramid of K'alak Muul until the title was taken back by the Hokal Ch'ak Nuk k'uhnah. In fact, since the Hokal Ch'ak Nuk k'uhnah became the main center of the cult to the rain god, the Yax Ch'ak Nah fell in disuse, until in 1736 a school was opened beside the pyramid which was then associated to it while preserving its pre-classical characteristics, such as its rounded corners. Since then the school has closed, but is still in use as a merchant gallery and as one of the city's tramway stop. The House of Ch'ak nonetheless continue to serve for rituals involving the entire district.