Chichen Itza, one of the “new” 7 wonders of the world, has been on my bucket list for a long time. It’s creators, the Mayans, caused the apocalypse fears Dec 2012. Lucky for us, that didn’t happen and finally, after 2 unsuccessful attempts to visit this part of the world, we finally made it in Winter of 2017.
Chichen Itza is the holy grounds upon which many Mayan temples and structures are located. Most incredible and widely recognized is the pyramid i.e. The temple of Kukulkan.
It’s the first structure one sees after entering the Chichen Itza compounds. It’s an awe-inspiring structure not for its shape or size but because it embodies acoustics and astronomical genius of the Mayans. Clapping at specific places on each side of the pyramid, instead of an echo, one hears is a bird-like chirping sound from the room at the top of the pyramid. It’s incredible. See the video below.
Likewise, the temple has 91 steps on each side and 1 platform at the top making it 365 – one for each day of the year. There are 18 terraces, one for each of the Mayan calendar month. On Spring Equinox the terraces cast a shadow on the steps which looks like a serpent, Kukulkan, descending from the skies. How they got such complex calculation right is beyond belief!
Chichen Itza was used for ceremonial purposes and worship; Mayans didn’t actually live here. There are other structures with different purposes and which are in various degrees of dilapidation. Like the Venus platform opposite pyramid was used to stage celebrations and offering for Kukulkan. The Jaguar platform was used to hold severed heads of enemies as a warning to other tribes. The war council met at the Warrior’s temple & the 1000 column structure was used as a market and place to hold enemy soldiers captured during wars. Carving on these structures are worn out but still visible. Incredibly, on some structure, even faded shades of colors originally painted by Mayan’s can still be seen
Amongst these peripheral structures, the grandest structure is that of the Ball Court. It’s a large open structure to play a Mayan game with a bloody ending: the winning captain was sacrificed as an offering to the gods. Life can be cruel that way!
Apart from these structures, there are plenty more to explore but 2 hours is not enough and we just ran out of time. We had to go to our next destination – Ek Balam, more on that in a separate blog. And thanks Mayans for getting the end of the world incorrect.
Tips for Travelers:
(1) Go early. When we reached 10am, the vendors were still setting up shop and there were only a few people inside. It quite and calm. By noon, the place was teeming with people from bus tours.
(3) Instead of a tour guide, we used an app MExplorer app to guide us around Chichen Itza for the bargain price of $0.99. The app’s tour has just enough detail to keep it interesting & I still remembered everything an hour after leaving Chichen Itza which almost never happens to me after a tour with a professional guide. The details are soon gone from memory.
My Pravas 