by Pat Tyson

photos Courtesy Traveler Publications

 The large sacred Pre-Colombian archeological site of Chichen Itza, was one of the greatest Mayan centers of the Yucatan peninsula.  Throughout its nearly 1,000-year history, different peoples have left their mark.  The Maya, Toltec and Iztec vision of the world and the universe is revealed in their stone monuments and artistic works.  

This ancient city, whose name means “at the mouth of the well of the Itzá” was, at the height of its greatness – between 800 and 1200 A.D. – the center of political, religious and military power in Yucatan, and possibly all of south-eastern Meso America.  The city is divided into two principal areas.

First was Chichen Viejo or “Old Chichen,” the nickname for a group of structures to the south of the central site founded around 400 A.D. by the Maya and governed by priests.  It includes the initial Series Group, the Phallic Temple, the Platform of the Great Turtle, the Temple of the Owls and the Temple of the Monkeys. Here, the architecture is characterized by many representations of the god Chaac, the Maya rain god.   Northern Yucatan is arid and the interior has no aboveground rivers.  There are two large natural sinkholes named “Cenote” that could have provided plentiful water year-round at Chichen, making it attractive for settlement.  

Of the two cenotes, the Cenote Sagrado (Sacred Cenote) is the more famous.  According to post-Conquest sources – Maya and Spanish – pre – Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to Chaac.  In the early 1900s, the cenote was dredged and human remains were found, as well as artifacts of gold and pottery.  A recent study of the human remains found that they had wounds consistent with human sacrifice.   The ascension of Chichen Itzá roughly correlates with the decline and fragmentation of the major centers of the southern Mayan lowlands.  

Next came Chichen Nuevo (New Chichen) about 850 A.D. with the arrival of the Itzá from Central México.  Chichen Itzá rose to regional prominence toward the end of the period and into the early part of the Mesoamerican era.  The site became a major regional capital, centralizing and dominating political, sociocultural, economic and ideological life.  At its highest point, Chichen Itzá was a major economic power in the northern Maya lowlands.   When the city was rebuilt, it was characterized by images of the god Kukulcán, (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl) the plumed serpent.  Around 1150 A.D. a new wave of Itzá took over the city and ruled for another 150 years, until Chichen Itzá was finally overtaken by the rival city of Mayapan.

It is possible to observe the gradual change in architectural technique, starting with the Puue style – found among the Puue Maya of the Northern lowlands – also shared with Uxmal and other sites in the Peninsula and concluding with the so-called Mayan Toltec style.  This was the result of architectural similarities with Tula, capital of the ancient Toltecs, and with other sites in Central México, such as Oaxaca and the Gulf Coast.  The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration, or even conquest, from Central México, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion.

The fusion of Mayan construction techniques with new elements from central México make Chichen Itzá one of the most important examples of the Mayan-Toltec civilization in the Yucatan.  Several buildings have survived, such as the Warriors Temple, El Castillo and the circular observatory known as El Caracol.  The Itzá were politically and commercially more aggressive than the earlier Maya rulers and the city under their rule was marked by many bloody battles.  East of the site of El Castillo are many fine stone buildings in various states of preservation; the buildings were formerly used as temples, palaces, states, market, baths and ball courts.

Dominating the center of Chichén is the temple of Kukulcan, often referred to as El Castillo (the castle).  This pyramid comprises square terraces and a stairway up each of the four sides to the temple on top.  During the spring equinox the structure casts a shadow in the shape of a plumbed serpent, Kukulcán (the feathered serpent-god of the wind and learning), along the side of the north staircase.  In the Mid-thirties, the Mexican government sponsored an excavation into El Castillo and, after several false starts, they discovered a staircase under the north side of the pyramid.  

By digging from the top, they found another temple buried below the current one.  Inside the temple chamber was a Chac Mool (term used to describe all types of this statuary found in Mesoamerica) statue and a throne in the shape of a jaguar, painted red with spots made of inlaid jade. 

The Temple of the Warriors consists of a large stepped pyramid, bordered by rows of carved columns representing warriors.  It is larger than, but similar to Temple B at the Toltec capital of Tula, indicating some form of cultural contact between the two regions. Near the Warriors, surrounded by pillars, is a large plaza called “The Great Market.”

Of the seven courts for playing identified by archaeologists, the Great Ball Court northwest of the Castillo is by far the most impressive.  It is largest ball court in ancient Mesoamerica, measuring 166 by 68 meters, or 545 by 232 feet.  The imposing walls are 12 meters high and in the center, high up on each of the long walls, are rings carved with intertwining serpents.  At the base of the high interior walls are slanted benches with sculpted panels of teams of ball players.  In one panel, one of the players has been decapitated and from the wound flows seven streams of blood; six become wriggling serpents and the center becomes a winding plant.

At one end of the Great Ball Court is the North Temple, called the Temple of the Bearded Man.  On the inner walls is detailed bas-relief carving, including a central figure with carving under his chin that resembles facial hair.  To the south lie the ruins of another, much bigger temple.  Built into the east wall are the Temples of the Jaguar; the upper temple overlooks the ball court and has an entrance guarded by two large columns carved in the familiar feathered serpent motif.  Inside is a large, much destroyed mural depicting a battle scene.

The entrance to the Lower Temple of the Jaguar opens behind the ball court where sits another jaguar throne, similar to that in the inner temple of El Castillo, but well worn and missing paint and decoration.  The outer columns and walls inside the temple are covered with elaborate bas-relieve carvings.  Behind this platform is a walled inscription, which depicts a rack of, impaled human skulls in relief.

El Caracol, a round building on a large square platform is nicknamed “The Snail” for the stone spiral staircase inside.  This structure was an observatory with its doors aligned to view the moon’s greatest northern and southern declinations and other astronomical events.  The Maya used the shadows inside the room, cast from the angle of the sun hitting the doorway, to tell when the solstices would occur.  Placed around the edge of El Caracol are large rock cups that they filled with water and would watch the reflection of the stars in the water to help determine their complex, but extremely accurate calendar.

Chichen Itzá also has a vast number of other structures densely packed in the ceremonial center and several subsidiary sites.  The Maya chronicles record that in 1221 a revolt and civil war broke out.  Archeological evidence seems to confirm that the wooden roofs of the Great Market and The Temple of the Warriors were burned around that time.  Chichen Itzá went into decline as rulership over Yucatan shifted to Mayapan.  However, an enigmatic gap – between the fall of Chichen and its successor and its long-held chronology – has been drastically revised in recent years.

Nevertheless, it would appear that Chichen Itzá was abandoned suddenly around1400 A.D., perhaps because of internal fighting or for lack of food.  There are many theories, but nobody knows for certain.