The western stairs of the Pyramid of the Magician are among the steepest in the Maya world and lead up to the gaping mouth of a monster-mask temple (known as Temple IV), more typical of the Chenes and Río Bec regions in the neighboring state of Campeche. This temple may have once crowned the top of the pyramid but, for some reason, rather than be buried by later expansions as was customary, this temple was kept visible, even as the pyramid continued to grow, eventually becoming capped by a larger, purely Puuc temple that sits above and behind this earlier temple.