The Temple of the Magician is a masterwork of Puuc Maya architecture. While the apex has a rectangular border, the sloping corners round off towards the bottom until the temple's base is an oval.
Legend holds that a dwarf magician built the temple in a single night.
U Palace of the Governor Many Mesoamerican cities have building schematics coordinated to astronomical patterns. The Palace of the Governor, believed to have been built around the tenth century A.D., is first impressive because of its size and the precision in its plain rectangular shape. With seven major entrance halls and four along the periphery, the palace's main face points southeast. It is now known that the center niche was aimed directly to face Venus during the planet's southernmost descent. On the right is a close-up of part of the southeastern facade.