X-ray absorption spectroscopy has been employed to assess the degree of similarity between the oxygen-evolving complex (OEC) in photosystem II (PS II) and a family of synthetic manganese complexes containing the distorted cubane [Mn4O3X] core (X = benzoate, acetate, methoxide, hydroxide, azide, fluoride, chloride, or bromide). These [Mn-4(mu(3)-O)(3)(mu(3)-X)] cubanes possess C-3 nu symmetry except for the X = benzoate species, which is slightly more distorted with only C-s symmetry. In addition, Mn4O3Cl complexes containing three or six terminal Cl ligands at three of the Mn were included in this study. The Mn K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) from the oxygen-ligated complexes begin to resemble general features of the PS II (S-1 state) spectrum, although the second derivatives are distinct from those in PS II. The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) of these Mn compounds also displays superficial resemblance to that of PS II, but major differences emerge on closer examination of the phases and amplitudes. The most obvious distinction is the smaller magnitude of the Fourier transform (FT) of the PS Il EXAFS compared to the FTs from the distorted cubanes. Curve fitting of the Mn EXAFS spectra verifies the known core structures of the Mn cubanes, and shows that the number of the crucial 2.7 and 3.3 Angstrom Mn-Mn distances differs from that observed in the OEC. The EXAFS method detects small changes in the core structures as X is varied in this series, and serves to exclude the distorted cubane of C-3 nu symmetry as a topological model for the Mn catalytic cluster of the OEC. Instead, the method shows that even more distortion of the cubans framework, altering the ratio of the Mn-Mn distances, is required to resemble the Mn cluster in PS II.