many plans and drawings that they could be used to construct a duplicate of the ancient city (unfortunately most of the drawings are lost).) D�sir� Charnay took a series of photographs of Uxmal in 1860. Some three years later Empress Carlota of Mexico visited Uxmal; in preparation for her visit local authorities had some statues and architectural elements depicting phallic themes removed from the ancient fa�ades.
Sylvanus G. Morley made a map of the site in 1909 which included some previously overlooked buildings. The Mexican government's first project to consolidate some of the structures from risk of collapse or further decay came in 1927. In 1930 Frans Blom led a Tulane University expedition to the site which included making plaster casts of the fa�ades of the "Nunnery Quadrangle"; using these casts a replica of the Quadrangle was constructed and displayed at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois. Unfortunately, the plaster replicas of the architecture were destroyed following the fair, but some of the plaster casts of Uxmal's monuments are still kept at Tulane's Middle American Research Institute. In 1936 a further Mexican government repair and consolidation program was begun under Jos� Erosa Peniche.
Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited on 27 February 1975 for the inauguration of the site's sound & light show; when the presentation reached the point where the sound system played the Maya prayer to Chaac (the Maya rain deity), a sudden torrential downpour fell upon the gathered dignitaries (including Gaspar Antonio Xiu, descendant of noble Maya Lineage, the Xiu), despite the fact that it was the middle of the dry season.
Three hotels and a small museum have been built within walking distance of the ancient city
