---
node: spot_merida_dzibilchaltun
type: spot
slug: dzibilchaltun
destination: dest_merida
title: "Dzibilchaltún"
lead: "Dzibilchaltún is a Maya city fifteen kilometres north of Mérida, occupied for more than two thousand years — one of the longest continuous occupations known in the Maya area. On the equinoxes the sun rises directly through the doorway of its Temple of the Seven Dolls."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_merida_dzibilchaltun.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dzibilchaltun_Arco.jpg"
image_author: "scanudas"
image_license: "CC BY 2.0"
---

## Overview

The site's cenote, Xlacah, is over forty metres deep and yielded thousands of offerings when it was dredged in the 1950s; you can swim in it. A sixteenth-century Franciscan chapel stands in the main plaza, built when the Spanish established a mission on the still-occupied city. The seven crude clay figures found buried under the temple floor gave the building its name.

## Highlights

The equinox alignment draws a crowd on 20 March and 22 September; the effect is visible for several days either side with almost nobody there. The cenote is the reason to bring a swimsuit and is at its best before the heat. It is half an hour from Mérida and combines with the Progreso coast in one trip.