Chichen Itza, on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, is dominated by gray limestone that was cut by hand and moved without any wheels.
Once home to 30,000 people, Chichen Itza was the last major city developed by the Mayans and was certainly one of Mexico’s grandest cities for nine centuries. It was a political, economic and religious center.
It covered six square miles with 30 major buildings including several temples that have been uncovered and restored. Others still lie buried in the jungle-forest.
Chichen Itza features columns, bas-reliefs, sculptures, stone murals, pictographs, monuments, statues and warrior images. It is a visually stunning, must-see ancient city, one of the world’s greatest archaeological mysteries, especially for its end.
Chichen Itza, about two hours from Cancun, has been named one of the Seven New Wonders of the World and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The property is owned by the Mexican federal government and managed by the National Institute of Anthropology and History. There is a first-rate visitor center and museum at the entrance.
The sprawling ruins are impressive, with numerous architectural styles and features. Still-buried ceremonial and residential complexes surround the central core of what was one of the largest pre-Columbian cities.
The older ruins lie to the south. The newer and grander ruins are to the north. The buildings are sophisticated and artistic.
The most recognizable structure is the Temple of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo, or the Castle. That name came from the Spanish.
It is a four-sided pyramid that is really a calendar made of stone honoring the feathered serpent deity. The seven-story step pyramid demonstrates the accuracy and importance of Mayan astronomy.
It dominates the main open-air esplanade at Chichen Itza, encircled by other important buildings. The plaza is generally filled with groups of tourists and guides.
The temple is only 79 feet high, but it appears much taller because the side panels get smaller as they slope up the platform atop the pyramid.
It is 190 feet on each side and there are steps on all four sides.
The temple has 365 steps, one for each day of the year. Each of the temple’s four sides has 91 steps, and the top platform makes the 365th step.
It also features 52 carved panels and 18 terraces, the number of weeks and months in a Mayan calendar year.
In the past, visitors could ascend the steps of the temple, but it is off-limits today.
Twice a year, on the spring and autumn equinoxes, a shadow falls on the pyramid in the shape of a serpent. As the sun sets, this shadowy snake descends the steps to eventually align with a stone serpent head at the base of the great staircase.
Not far from the temple is another of Chichen Itza’s other great buildings: the I-shaped Great Ball Court, the largest blood-sport stadium built in the Americas. It also features some of the most ornate carvings, structures and inscriptions.
Ball courts to play soccerlike pok-ta-pok were common in Mayan culture, and about a dozen small ones have been found in Chichen Itza, but this one is the largest. It is bigger than a football field, 554 feet long and 231 feet wide. The walls are 27 feet high on the two sides.
By its size, some believe that the Great Ball Court was more about pageant than sport. The game was a sacred event, a religious ritual, and was used to settle wars and disputes. It reveals a much deeper significance in Mayan tradition and mythology.
Games would last two to three days. There are no written records, but pictographs show participants being decapitated at the conclusion of the games. Some say the winners lost their heads and became gods. Others say it was the losers.
Nearby is the grim Tzompantli, or the Wall of Skulls, with images of armed warriors and eagles devouring human hearts. Some believe captives were sacrificed on the stone platform with their heads left on display. It is, some say, a votive building to exalt death. The stone platform is 50 yards long by 13 yards wide.
The east side of the Great Plaza is dominated by the Temple of the Warriors and the Thousand Columns.
The main building, constructed atop earlier buildings, has four stepped sections and its friezes are decorated with carved reliefs. The temple is famous for its hundreds of elaborate columns and is still covered in carvings of dramatic feather-bedecked warriors, 2,211 men marching in a procession toward the temple. They are bearing weapons, and some have suffered wounds. All are different. Some are prisoners; some are wizards.
The Mayans’ astronomical skills were so advanced that they could predict solar eclipses, and they built the impressive and sophisticated Observatory, or El Caracol (the Snail), with its circular stairway.
Chichen Itza relied on a series of sinkhole wells for drinking water. The Sagrado Cenote, with its steep walls, is about 195 feet in diameter. It is a 72-foot drop to the greenish sacred water that’s about 40 feet deep.
This is where the Mayans performed human sacrifices to please Chaac, the rain deity. Archaeologists have found the bones and artifacts of victims who died in the cenotes.
The first excavation at Chichen Itza took place in 1841.
Most visitors spend two to four hours at Chichen Itza. It can be hot, over 90 degrees. Morning visits are cooler and less crowded. Bring drinking water, hats and sunscreen.
For more information, go to www.mexico.com.
