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Chichén Itzá - Introduction
Chichén Itzá
I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that mind could comprehend it.
Mystery of Life, Harry Emerson Fosdick
Area Information
The enigmatic ruins of Chichén Itzá ('Mouth of the Well of the Itzás') have intrigued and baffled archeologists and historians since they were first described by Bishop de Landa in the late 16th century. Nineteenth - century books by author and adventurer John Lloyd Stephens and British artist Frederick Catherwood, as well as some by Augustus Le Plongeon and his wife, Alice, fueled imaginations about the mysterious civilization that simply seemed to have 'disappeared' into the remote jungles of Mexico and Central America.
Today there is no living city. The closest town to the ancient ceremonial center is Piste, 11/4 miles (two km) west. If you're looking to stay overnight nearby to see the light show (in Spanish at 7 pm and English at 8), or just spend more time at these exceptional ruins, the better hotel choices include three in the archeological zone itself and one just outside. Every resort travel agency hawks one-day tours of the ruins.
TIP
While it is possible to see the ruins in one long day (open 8 am to 5 pm), you may prefer to stay overnight - if only to get there early in the day, before the crowds arrive, or late afternoon, as shadows begin to fall and the sun's glow illuminates the magnificent restored structures.
The site occupies nearly four square miles (10 square km), and to fully appreciate it will take some time. Guides are available (try joining or forming a group) at the new visitors center that's complete with bathrooms, gift shops (with surprisingly reasonable prices), a bookstore, museum and an excellent food court.
The social catastrophe in the ninth century that caused the demise of the southern Classic Maya cities resulted in Chichén Itzá's gradual rise to rule the northern Yucatán. It was believed to have been settled during the Late Classic period based on the architectural similarities of the 'old' part of the city, Chichén Viejo, to the 'Puuc' area style. This part of Chichén was abandoned along with the rest of the Classical cities, but it was resettled by Chontal Maya, or Itzás, a seafaring tribe who invaded the northern Yucatán in the Early Post-Classic period. These people, whom the locals considered barbarians, were in turn culturally absorbed by the Yucatecan Maya. Prior to the Terminal Classic period, influences from central Mexico culture had already permeated Maya culture. One of those influences was the cult of Quetzalcóatl, the king/god whom the Maya called 'Kukulcán.' The building boom over the 300 years of Chichén's dominance resulted in stunning architectural projects decorated with Chac rain god images and Kukulcán, the plumed serpent.
The eventual downfall of Chichén, in A.D. 1221, at the hands of a rival city-state, Mayapan, purportedly involved the kidnapping of the bride of the king of Izamal. Hunac Ceel, the ruler of Mayapan, engineered a plot whereby he pitched Izamal against Chichén, which resulted in the downfall of both. Montejo briefly tried to found a Spanish city here but, luckily for archeology, found local resistance too fierce.
Attractions
El Castillo
The 82-foot-tall (25 meters) Temple of Kukulcán, known as El Castillo, the 'Castle,' dominates the view as it rises majestically in the apparent center of the ruins. Built before A.D. 800, the pyramid is a mute but eloquent statement of engineering genius and an elegant highlight of a mighty city that stretched at least 10 square miles (25 square km) beyond its wide central plazas. The view from the top is delightful and worth the steep climb.
The impressive structure you view covers a smaller, older one that can still be seen by entering a narrow stairway at the western edge of the north staircase (11 am to 1 pm and 4 to 5 pm). Inside, archeologists found a Chac Mool (a reclining statue that holds a bowl over its stomach, thought to be where hearts cut from sacrificial victims were offered to the gods) and a red jaguar altar with inlaid eyes of shimmering jade.
WARNING
It is often hot, crowded and humid inside El Castillo, not recommended for claustrophobics.
The construction of this temple encompassed the engineering, mathematical and celestial reckoning abilities of the ancient Maya. In some ways it is the Maya calendar embodied in stone. There are 364 steps, plus a platform, which equal the 365 days of a year. The 52 panels on each side represent the 52-year cycle of the calendar round. Nine terraced levels on either side of the stairways total the 18-month Maya solar calendar. El Castillo's axis are so perfectly aligned that the shadows of the rounded terraces fall on the side of the northern staircase where they form the image of an undulating serpent. During the Spring Equinox (approximately March 21 each year) the serpent appears to be slithering down the stairs, while in the fall (September 21) it reverses and climbs the pyramid. The clever optical illusionists who built it also made the edifice seem taller than it really is. You'll wonder how such diminutive people as the Maya could climb such tall steps. Coming down is more difficult than going up. Even using the rope aid, you may have to walk down almost sideways. Some speculate that the steps were designed this way to ensure that you never turn your back on the temple of Kukulcán that crowns the pyramid's top.
Ballcourt
Ballcourt
The largest and best-preserved ballcourt in all Mesoamerica is located here, just northwest of Kukulcán's pyramid. This is one of nine ballcourts built in the city, emphasizing the importance of the ceremonial game the Maya called Pok-Ta-Pok. The game was a religious rite more than a recreational game. Carvings on both sides of the walls show scenes of players dressed in heavy padding (they struck the ball with their hips and body, never their hands or feet). The object was to get the leather ball through one of two carved stone rings placed high at the center of opposite walls. A carved relief also shows a player holding the head of another player kneeling next to him, blood spurting out of the lifeless body.
The site's fantastic acoustics allow you stand at the Temple of the Bearded Man and, speaking in normal tones, your voice will be heard clearly over 500 feet away at the southern wall. Above the southeast corner of the court is the Temple of the Jaguars with serpent columns and carved panels. Inside the temple are polychrome bas-reliefs recounting a battle with a Maya village, a vault in good condition and a sculpture of a jaguar, possibly a throne.
Located to the right of the ballcourt is the Temple of the Skulls, where rows of skulls are carved into a stone platform. Here, heads of sacrificial victims were put on a pole for display. Eagles tear the hearts from the bodies in another V-for-violence-rated carving. The platform due north of El Castillo is the Temple of Venus. Rather than a voluptuous woman in a diaphanous gown, the Maya depicted her as a feathered monster with a man's head in its mouth. Hmmm. This structure is also named Chac Mool, because his image was discovered buried inside.
The sacred cenote, Cenote of Sacrifice, is a hike (about a fifth of a mile long) up an original sacbé to the north. Two hundred feet across and 115 feet deep, the well was used for ceremonial purposes, not for drinking. To this end, the Maya paid tribute to Chac with gifts of various artifacts and sacrificial victims. Bones of 50 children, men and women have been discovered here. Original dredging was done in the late 1800s and early 1900s by American Edward Thompson, who owned the Hacienda Chichén. He sent a huge cache to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University, much of which is still on display. The National Geographic Society and CEDAM, the Mexican diving association, pulled thousands more pieces from the well in the 1960s.
Group Of A Thousand Columns
The complex east of the pyramid is named after the many rows of columns, once roofed over, that form a colonnade around the courtyard. Almost Greek or Roman in appearance, the imposing Temple of the Warriors, a huge three-tiered platform with a temple on top, approached by a staircase on the west, dominates the surrounding buildings. There is a large colonnade of stone pillars carved with figures of warriors at its base and a reclining Chac in the temple at the top. Columns wrapped with carvings of serpents served to hold up the roof, now long gone. The temple was built over an earlier one, the inner temple with pillars sculpted in bas- relief that retain much of their color. Murals are painted on the walls. The courtyard to the south contains the Steam Bath (No. 2; under restoration), believed to be a Maya ceremonial sweathouse, and a platform at the south end known as the Market. Neither of these is in good condition.
South Chichen
The trail south from the El Castillo pyramid leads to an area often less crowded with tourists. The first structure you come to is the Ossuary, or Grave of the High Priest, now being actively restored. A similar design to El Castillo - on a less significant scale - this pyramidal base covers a natural grotto cave in which bones of a man were found. A small temple farther down the trail is the Red House, or Chichán-Chob, meaning 'small holes,' probably referring to the latticework in the roof comb. With a pleasing view of the other structures, this building is in the Puuc Late Classic style, dated by a glyph at about A.D. 869.
The trail then leads to El Caracol, one of the most fascinating structures on site. The name means 'Snail' or 'Conch' in Spanish, alluding to the spiral staircase found inside (off limits). The round structure, the only one of its kind at Chichén, is the celestial observatory once used by the Maya to check the heavens. The slits in the dome and walls aligned with certain stars. Chac masks over its four doors face the cardinal directions. The cenote up a path to the northeast leads to Chichén's former water supply, the Cenote Xtoloc, 'Iguana.' Due south is the Temple of Sculptured Panels, a good spot for photos of El Caracol.
The Nunnery, or Las Monjas, is next, an impressive 210 feet long (62 meters), 105 feet wide (31 meters) and more than 50 feet high (15 meters). The resemblance of the myriad rooms to European convents gave it its name. A doorway in the Annex next to it forms the open monster mouth associated with the Chenes architectural style. Near the Annex is the tiny La Iglesia, whose upper facade and roof comb are a riot of Chac masks and animal gods - bacabs. Another building, down a dusty foot trail east of the Nunnery, is the plain Akab- Dzib, 'Obscure Writing,' named for some undeciphered hieroglyphics on its lintel.
Old Chichén
A third section of the ruins lies scattered in the brush. It is connected by trails south of the Hacienda Chichén hotel.
TIP
Unless you fancy yourself an explorer, it's probably best to hire a guide to see these structures. You might pick up a good local guide less expensively than at the main ruins in nearby Piste. Wear slacks and insect repellent; take water and a hat.
The most noteworthy of these ruins is the Temple of Three Lintels, dated A.D. 879, in the Classic Puuc style.
Grutas De Balankanche (side-trip)
The caverns of Balankanche, 3.7 miles (six km) east of Chichén's ruins, were a center for the worship of the gods Chac, Tlaloc and Kukulcán during the 10th and 11th centuries. Artifacts, sculpture and pottery are found at the crowning attraction of the caves - a thick stalagmite which the Maya believed to be the trunk of a Ceiba tree that led to the underworld. Open from 9 am to 4 pm. Guided tours are the only way to see the caves (relatively large and open). Spanish-language tours are at 9 and noon; there's a French one at 10 am; English- language tours are at 11 am, and 1 and 3 pm. If you get here early, hang out in the cool, inviting botanical gardens, with flora identification signs in English and Spanish. Admission: US $3.
Hotels
Area Information
There are three major hotels in the hotel zone (close to the ruins) and one just outside the hotel zone on the Mérida Libre. All of them are excellent and make for a comfortable stay.
Hacienda Chichén
Mayaland
Villas Arqueológicas - Chichén Itzá
Dolores Alba Chichén
History
Queen Moo & The Egyptian Sphinx
An investigation into the history of archeology in the Yucatán will eventually lead you to Augustus and Alice Le Plongeon, referred to as either crackpots or important contributors to the understanding of the lost Maya.
In 1873, Augustus and his young wife landed in the Yucatán to study and document Maya civilization using glass plate photography. He and Alice first stirred up controversy when, in an effort to protect Uxmal from looters, he placed an advertisement in a Mérida newspaper claiming to have set dynamite booby-traps around the ruins. It was to prevent destruction, Alice later explained to the New York World, 'not at the hand of Indians, who stand in awe of the effigies of the ancient rulers of the country, but the very administrator who is destroying these monuments, by order of the master, to use the stones in the building of his farmhouse.'
Although it temporarily stopped the plundering of Uxmal's stones, the ploy blew up in the face of the Le Plongeons when it became a false but oft-repeated story that he had used dynamite to excavate buildings at Uxmal and Chichén Itzá.
But the nail in the coffin of the Le Plongeons' credibility came from their own ill- conceived speculations of Maya history. Augustus and Alice believed the Maya to be descendants of the Atlantis civilization. In their recreation of the story, Queen Móo, leader of the Maya and builder of some of Chichén's marvels, traveled to Egypt where she was welcomed as the god Isis.
Unfortunately for the Le Plongeons, they were attacked in professional circles by jealous archeologists who ridiculed both the conclusions they reached as well as them personally. Lost in the insults from critics was the Le Plongeons' ground-breaking work and professional methods of excavation - as good as if not better than their trained contemporaries - and the important find of Chac Mool at Chichén Itzá.
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