Carving at the base of the pyramid representing Kukulkan, also known as Quetzalcoatl, the Feathered Serpent

To make it more aesthetically pleasing, they took significant liberties with the design, particularly with the decorative elements. Much of the original stone had been long since hauled away and used locally as building material, so they had to cut new limestone for the steps and balustrades, along with hundreds of newly cut flat slabs, which were used to create the facing that joins together so smoothly.

Two sides of the Castillo were reconstructed using newly cut stone

The Great Ceremonial Ball Court, largest ever found

Several other structures were given the same sort of rebuild using newly cut stone, most notably the Temple of the Warriors and the Great Ball Court. These reconstruction efforts were quite successful, and the millions of tourists who visit the site every year are, for the most part, none the wiser. Chichén Itzá is widely praised for its remarkable state of preservation, never mind that so much of it isn’t really old.

One question: if the Castillo is really just a modern reconstruction of a crumbling pile of rubble, why should it be considered a “Wonder of the World?” That would be because the winners of that competition were chosen, not by historians, but by internet users. Anyone with internet access was allowed to vote, and there were no restrictions on how many times you could vote. The methodology was so woefully unscientific that many countries boycotted the competition in protest, while others, like Mexico and Brazil, embraced it as an opportunity. Media campaigns were organized to get out the vote, and the response was big enough to propel the Castillo to an easy win. The real prize in the contest was tourist dollars. Calling the Castillo a “Wonder of the World” brings in more business than ever!

The location of Chichén Itzá and Cancun

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Cancún was a planned city, built from scratch on a section of coast that was previously undeveloped. The goal of the project was to create jobs and a new flow of tourist revenue, but first, they had to attract outside capital, to create all the necessary infrastructure. Investors were leery of risking their money on an area nobody had ever heard of, so the Mexican government stepped up and provided financing for the first nine resort hotels. That got the ball rolling, but there were still no guarantees. The sparkling new venue had competition from every country that touches the Caribbean. They all had beautiful beaches, and they were all eager to attract free-spending tourists, so Cancún’s promoters realized they needed something that would give them an edge. What did their new Caribbean resort have that couldn’t be had just as easily in the Bahamas? Someone suggested Mayan ruins, so Advertising experts built a campaign around the idea. Travel agencies (anyone remember travel agencies?) put posters on display showing palm trees, beaches, and that perfect Mayan pyramid, the Castillo at Chichén Itzá. The rest, as they say, is history.

HISTORY OF CHICHÉN ITZÁ

Cenote Sagrado at Chichén Itzá

There is no other surface water in the Yucatan. No rivers, streams, lakes, or ponds, so the Cenotes were precious beyond measure to the ancient Maya, providing the only reliable source of the water required to sustain communities with populations that often numbered in the thousands. The most powerful clans controlled access to the wells, one of many ways that the upper class of Mayan society dominated the lives of the common people.

The settlement that ultimately became Chichén Itzá was established in the vicinity of five cenotes, one of which was later buried beneath the massive bulk of the Castillo. The largest of those natural wells, the Cenote Sagrado, pictured above, was considered a sacred portal to the underworld, and as such, was frequently used as a receptacle for sacrificial offerings, including human sacrifice. This was confirmed when land owner Edward Thompson dredged the cenote, early in the 20th centry, and recovered human remains from the muck at the bottom, along with precious artifacts made of gold and jade. The importance of the Cenote is underscored by the name of the city, Chichén Itzá, which means, “at the mouth of the well of the Itzá.”

The Maya were never a single unified cultural entity. There were dozens, if not hundreds of different ethnic divisions, ranging in size from isolated clans with a few dozen members to sprawling cities with tens of thousands of citizens. There were scores of different Mayan dialects, countless unique oral traditions, and endless variations in the style and pattern of dress. The common element that most directly bound them as a people was their religion, an animistic belief system that deified every important aspect of their environment, while holding their kings, nobles, and priests above the level of the common man, more closely akin to the gods, to be worshipped, as well as obeyed.

The Itzá were one of the most prominent of those many ethnic groups, with roots in the Peten region of Guatemala, dating back thousands of years. When their population grew too large in the south, a number of them migrated north into the Yucatan, where they established the city of Edzná, (First House of the Itzás). Several hundred years later, they spread even further north, to the city beside the sacred well. The city that still bears their name.

The earliest version of Chichén Itzá was founded in the mid-fifth century, around 450 A.D., during what’s considered the Early Classic period of Mayan history. During that era, the largest, most significant Mayan centers, such as Tikal and Palenque, were all in the southern highlands, so the newer communities in the Yucatan were almost like outposts on the frontier, important as trading hubs, but not particularly powerful.

In the middle of the 9th century, there was a mysterious collapse of the socio/political structure in those southern kingdoms, leading to the abandonment of many the most populous Mayan cities, including Chichén Itzá. The most probable culprit was climate change, in the form of an extended drought that would have made it impossible to raise enough food to sustain so many people in one spot. There would have been famine, and many would have starved, while the survivors broke up into smaller bands, spread out across a wider area. A hundred years later, around 950 A.D., the drought had ended, but the southern kingdoms were slow to recover. Another group of Itzá from the Peten migrated into the lowlands, and when they reached the northern Yucatan, they claimed the city by the sacred well as their own.

There is some disagreement among scholars as to exactly what happened next, the timing and the sequence of events, but it was around this time that a contingent of Toltecs from Central Mexico, ostensibly led by their King, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, invaded the Yucatan, and placed themselves in charge.  

The primary focus of these Post-Classic Maya was war. Neighbor fought neighbor, king against king, in battles waged for the express purpose of taking captives. The captives provided the slave labor required for the building of pyramids, and they also provided a steady supply of the sacrificial victims required by the Feathered Serpent and his bloodthirsty priesthood.

Chichén Itzá was the dominant force in the Yucatan for at least 100 years. They formed a military alliance with the cities of Mayapan and Uxmal, and remained at the head of it, but only until the rulers of Mayapan tired of the arrangement, and rebeled against them. Mayapan conquered Chichén Itzá, and replaced them as leaders of the coalition, known to history as the League of Mayapan. The cycle of conquest and the taking of captives continued, but war and the building of stone monuments are hugely expensive endeavors that eventually became unsupportable, so monumental construction ceased after the 13th century. The flow of human blood required to slake the thirst of the mighty Feathered Serpent slowed to nothing, and the great cities of the Yucatan went into decline.

By the time the Europeans arrived in the area, early in the 16th century, most of the population had abandoned the elaborate, high maintenance ceremonial centers, in favor of a simple existence as subsistence farmers, living in scattered villages and homesteads. Exposure to the old-world diseases brought from Europe on the Spanish ships decimated what was left of the Mayan population, and the stratified social structure of of modern Mexico, rigidly biased against native cultures, has kept them repressed. The Maya are a resilient, and very patient people, with roots in their homeland dating back thousands of years. Who’s to say that they’ll never rise again? 

ZAPATISTAS: 21st CENTURY MAYA

In the forested hills of Chiapas (well south of Chichén Itzá), descendants of the Maya make up most of the population, but extreme poverty makes their lives extremely difficult. The Zapatista Movement, a coalition of indigenous political activists, encourages protests that block highways. They’ll deliberately stall commerce for days at a stretch, for the purpose of calling attention to their demands. According to this sign posted on the highway (see below), they want the government to put a stop to arms trafficking, to drug trafficking, and to illegal logging that destroys their natural environment. They control the main roads in the State of Chiapas, and they don’t hesitate to leverage that fact to press their cause.

Descendants of the Maya live traditional lives in the forested hills of Chiapas. On occasion, they block the highways through their territory as a form of protest.

VISITING CHICHÉN ITZÁ

If bus tours aren’t your thing, it’s simple enough to rent a car and drive yourself to Chichén Itzá. Starting from Meridá, MX 180 runs due east to the ruins. The highway splits at the small town of Kantunil, offering a choice of MX 180 and MX 180D. The “D” indicates a Cuota, or toll road, an alternative to the “libre” (free) State Highways. In Mexico, it’s almost always better to choose the toll roads, which are better maintained, less congested, and significantly faster than the state roads, which pass through the center of every small town along the  way. Coming from Cancun, you’ll take MX 180D for the whole distance of 200 km, a drive that takes about 2.5 hours. It’s a largely rural area, so traffic is never a problem.

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The Chichén Itzá Archeaological Park as it exists today.

THE CASTILLO

The Castillo at mid-day in mid-October, nominally the “off” season

The perfect Mayan pyramid, the Wonder of the World, looks exactly like every photograph you’ve ever seen of it: Nine tiers topped by a stone temple, rising almost 100 feet from its base, with huge stone staircases climbing each of the four sides. If you’re there during the day, especially in peak season, there will be people everywhere in this section of the park. That’s good for providing a sense of scale, tiny tourists with the massive pyramid in the background, but it does tend to spoil the whole “Indiana Jones” ambience. If you’d like to see Chichén Itzá without the crowds, get there when they first open!

Many of the largest structures in the Mayan cities were built atop older buildings, and the Temple of Kukulkan is no exception. Excavations sponsored by the Mexican government back in the 1930’s revealed a staircase below the north side of the pyramid, which led to the discovery of a smaller, older temple beneath the big one. Inside the smaller temple was a hidden chamber containing a Chacmool statue, along with a throne in the shape of a jaguar, painted red, with jade inlays representing the spots. The remarkable chamber was open to the public until 2006, and until 2008, tourists were still allowed to climb the pyramid, which they did, in great numbers. At any given moment, there were steady streams of people moving up and down, everyone eager to check out the view from the top. All of that changed when an elderly woman from the U.S. slipped and fell down the steep staircase to her death. Today, everything is roped off, out of concern for damage to the structures, as well as visitor safety.

Serpent of light and Shadow © Public Domain

Studies have shown, however, that the effect is visible on a number of different days, before and after the actual equinox, so it could not have been used to pinpoint the date with any precision. (That, plus the fact that the whole south face of the pyramid was rebuilt using new stone, less than a hundred years ago.) Believers will always believe, and the crowds will continue to show up every spring, but in all likelihood, the whole business is nothing more than a well-timed coincidence. 

THE GREAT BALL COURT

Carved reliefs along the base of the walls commemorate important victories. Players are shown wearing the leather armor that protected them from being injured by the heavy rubber ball.

TEMPLE OF THE SKULLS

When warriors from the Toltec kingdoms in the highlands of central Mexico invaded the Yucatan in the 10th century, they introduced the practice of human sacrifice. Captives taken in battle were grist for the grisly mill, splayed on altars at the tops of the pyramids, their still beating hearts cut from their chests and offered to Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent. In exchange for copious amounts of blood, there was a promise of rain, bountiful harvests, and victory over the city’s enemies. The human skull became a decorative motif, celebrating the concept of death by sacrifice. Also known as the Tzompantli, this platform adjacent to the Ball Court features hundreds of carved craniums.

PLATFORM OF VENUS

The Platform of Venus, decorated with serpent heads and hieroglyphic carvings

TEMPLE OF THE WARRIORS

Just beyond the Platform of Venus, on the east side of the main plaza, the second largest building at Chichén Itzá dominates your view. Known as the Temple of the Warriors, it is a large stepped pyramid, topped by shaped pillars and a statue of a reclining Chacmool. In front of the pyramid, alongside it, and to the rear, the structure is surrounded by free standing pillars said to represent Mayan Warriors. This configuration is quite similar to one of the temples at Tula, the Toltec capital in Central Mexico, and is considered further evidence of the undeniable connection between the two cultures.

Several views of the Temple of the Warriors. The sepia tone “long shot” was taken from atop the Castillo in 1970; original photograph © Carl Duisberg. (Note that this viewpoint is no longer accessible to the public!)

GROUP OF A THOUSAND COLUMNS

The Group of a Thousand Columns 

TOMB OF THE HIGH PRIEST

Sometimes called the Ossuary, this seven-tier step pyramid was first excavated by Edward Thompson, who was, at one time, the owner of the land on which the ruins of Chichén Itzá are located. Thompson discovered several sets of skeletal remains inside a cave at the center of the pyramid, and for that (and no other) reason he called the structure the “Tomb of the High Priest.” Later studies concluded that the pyramid was not actually a tomb, and there was no evidence that the individuals whose remains were found beneath it had ever been priests. Thompson’s name for the structure seems to have stuck, despite those findings. Regardless of what you call it, it’s a marvelous monument, featuring carved serpent heads at the base of the steps, like a smaller version of the Castillo.

Moving on from the Tomb of the High Priest, you enter what’s known as “Old Chichén,” where some of the oldest, most interesting buildings in the city are located.

CARACOL (THE OBSERVATORY)

LA IGLESIA (THE CHURCH)

Mayan cities were built over long spans of time, spans measured in hundreds, if not thousands of years, and they tend to feature a range of different architectural styles. Nowhere is this more apparent than at Chichén Itzá. The Toltec influence on some of the best known structures is inescapable, pyramids with extra broad staircases being the most obvious examples, but in the section of the park known as “old Chichén,” there is a group of buildings that is very obviously different. These structures feature elaborate friezes on the outer walls, and on a cornice that wraps around the upper section of each building, just below the roof. The friezes are mosaic art, assembled from cut stone that forms fascinating geometric patterns, including numerous depictions of Chac, the rain god, with his prominent hooked nose.

These heavily decorated buildings were constructed in what’s known as the Puuc Architectural Style, which had its origins in the Puuc Hills of the southwestern Yucatan. Uxmal, at one time a rival to Chichén Itzá, showcases the most elaborate examples of Puuc Architecture, but these buildings in old Chichén most certainly have their merits.

The first is a rectangular temple known as the Iglesia, the church. Early Spanish colonists, first to explore the ruins, assumed that this whole group of buildings had a religious function. They thought the larger structure was a residence for nuns and that this free standing smaller building must be a church.

Several views of the Iglesia, with closeups of the mosaic frieze, highlighting numerous depictions of big-nosed Chac

THE NUN’S HOUSE

CHAC

In the dryest parts of the Yucatan Peninsula, the Maya depended almost entirely on rain water, which they collected, very efficienty, and stored in large underground cisterns. To insure adequate rainfall, they venerated a god they called Chac, and they adorned every important building with his image. His toothy grimace and the protruding hook of his nose can be spotted on every corner, often stacked three high. In a downpour, those hooked noses would have channeled rainwater pouring off the roof, like so many downspouts.

SMALL BALL COURTS

The Great Ball Court with it’s high vertical walls is unlike any other in the Mayan World. A normal court had much lower sloping walls, built at angles that would have made it much easier to knock a ball through the goal ring. There are several smaller ball courts at Chichén Itzá, built in the more traditional style. These may have been practice courts, or perhaps they were used for lesser matches. Either way, they are centuries older than the super-sized court near the entrance to the park.

An older, smaller ball court in old Chichén, missing its goal rings. When in use, the sloping sides were smoothly stuccoed.

MAYAN ARCH

A proper load bearing arch requires a keystone, a block that’s specially carved to fit like a puzzle piece, and bear the weight from two directions at once. The Maya built plenty of arches, but they never quite figured out the keystone business, so Mayan arches are what’s known as corbelled arches, built from two stacks of blocks that lean closer and closer together until they meet at the top. Many of these Mayan arches are so solid, they’ve outlasted the walls or the buildings to which they were once attached.

The remains of several Sacbés can still be seen at Chichén Itzá, including this one (above) that leads from the main plaza to the Observatory.

CHACMOOL, AND OTHER CARVINGS

Prominently featured atop the Temple of the Warriors, and at several other locations in Chichén Itzá, there are carved statues known as Chacmools. These are reclining figures, propped up on their elbows holding a bowl in their laps, with their heads swiveled 90 degrees to one side. Some are very realistic, others more primitive; details vary, but the basic configuration is always the same, a reclining figure gazing off to the side. Figures just like this are found all over southern Mexico, including in the Aztec cities in the central highlands. Among the Aztecs, the bowl held by the Chacmool was a receptacle for the hearts cut from the chests of sacrificial victims. In other locations they held more prosaic offerings, such as tamales, feathers, and incense. The commonality is sacrifice: the carvings were used by the Mayan priests in the performance of sacrificial ceremonies, serving as an altar that helped bridge the gap between the human realm and that of the gods. It’s commonly believed that the Chacmool may have originated at Chichén Itzá, as the examples here are among the oldest ever found. 

A jaguar throne. A similar carved throne, but painted red, with jade inlays for spots, was found inside the Castillo

Every Mayan ruin that we stopped at, from the large, crowded sites like Chichén Itzá to the smaller sites like Edzná, all had one thing in common: they’re crawling with Iguanas! Mexican Spiny Tailed Iguanas, Black Spiny Tailed Iguanas, and Yucatan Spiny Tailed Iguanas, just to name a few. When the Mayans moved out, the Iguanas moved in, and they’ve made themselves very much at home among the ruins.

The birds of Chichén Itzá: life among the ruins

Chichén Itzá is a fascinating place to visit, despite all the hype, and the reconstructed pyramids, and even despite the crowds. It is the “Quinn-tessential” Mayan ruin (pun intended), so if you’re visiting the Yucatan, even if your only interest is the beaches, you owe it to yourself to climb on a bus, or rent a car, and see the place in person. We can only imagine what it would have been like when it was still in use, with all the sights, sounds, and smells of a living city teeming with people, with the kings and nobles in their palaces, and the priests in their temples. All of that was very real, and not so very long ago. The feathered serpent with the unquenchable thirst for blood may be gone now, or at least fallen out of favor, but as long as the ruins of this ancient city remain standing, he won’t be forgotten.

The photographs in this post were taken during a two day visit to Chichén Itzá in October of 2015. The black and white images attributed to Carl Duisberg were taken in the summer of 1970.

If you’re planning a trip of your own to Chichén Itzá, and you’d like some tips on how to capture the place in photographs, see my previous post: Photographer’s Assignment: Chichén Itzá

Unless otherwise noted, all of the photographs on this site are my original work, and are protected by copyright. They may not be duplicated for commercial purposes.

In conclusion, a little something extra:

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IN THE LAND OF THE MAYA

ON THE ROAD IN MEXICO

Mexican Road Trip: Campeche, Edzna, and La Guaranducha

(This post is a work in progress. Anticipated publication: April 2024)

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