Image: DGJ_6145 - 800 A.D. and still like new.

The ancient Maya preserved the stucco so well that no modern restoration was required. Not long after Ukit Kan Le'k Tok' was buried inside the building, it was carefully filled with powdered limestone and rocks and then the entire facade was covered with the same material.. The reason for the elaborate precautions taken by the builders to preserve this facade were revealed when archaeologists entered the inner chamber of this structure and found a royal tomb. Surrounded by ceramic vessels, once stocked with funerary offerings of food and drink for the deceased, lay the body of Ukit Kan Leuk Toku. Inscriptions from across the site have now confirmed that he was both the first and the greatest king of Ek' Balam, having come to the throne in 770 A.D. and dying around 800 A.D.

A painted capstone from the room just inside the elaborately decorated facade that framed the entrance to his tomb inform us that the name of this structure was the Sak Xok Naah, that may read "White House of Reading". Ek Balam, Mexico, Mexico.