Chichén Itzá
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What is Chichén Itzá?
Chichén Itzá is a ruined ancient Maya city in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Thought to have been a religious, military, political, and commercial hub, it may have housed 35,000 people at its peak. The city likely saw its first settlers around 550 CE, who were drawn to the area because of its easy access to water via cenotes, sinkholes in limestone formations.
The site contains many structures, including El Castillo (a pyramid that rises 79 feet above the Main Plaza) and the largest ball court in the Americas. Chichén Itzá was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.
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Where is Chichén Itzá located?
Chichén Itzá is a ruined ancient Mayan city in south-central Yucatán state, Mexico. It is located roughly 90 miles (150 km) east-northeast of Uxmal and 75 miles (120 km) east-southeast of the modern city of Mérida. The city was founded around the 6th century CE and was likely settled due to its accessibility to water via caves and sinkholes, called cenotes. In 1988, Chichén Itzá was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.
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Who built Chichén Itzá?
Chichén Itzá was founded around the 6th century CE, most likely by Maya peoples from the Yucatán Peninsula. In the 10th century, the city was invaded by foreigners, possibly Maya speakers influenced by the Toltec culture of central Mexico. These invaders may have been the Itzá, the Maya tribe for whom the site was named.
The invaders were responsible for constructing buildings such as El Castillo, a pyramid rising 79 feet above the Main Plaza. The city appears to have been eclipsed by Mayapán around 1200–1540 CE. By the 16th century, when the Spanish arrived, the major cities, including Chichén Itzá, had been largely abandoned.
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What was the purpose of Chichén Itzá?
Chichén Itzá, a ruined ancient Mayan city in Mexico, served as a religious, military, political, and commercial hub, potentially housing 35,000 people at its peak. Settlers were drawn to the area around 550 CE due to the easy access to water from caves and sinkholes known as cenotes.
The city features notable structures such as El Castillo, a pyramid with 365 steps representing the solar year, and a large ball court for the ritual game tlachtli. The site also contains temples, including the Temple of the Warriors and the High Priest’s Grave. A legendary tradition, the Cult of the Cenote, involved human sacrifice to the rain god Chaac.
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What are some famous structures at Chichén Itzá?
Chichén Itzá, a ruined ancient Mayan city in Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, flourished between the 9th and 10th centuries CE. Among its famous structures:
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El Castillo: Also known as "The Castle," this stepped pyramid rises 79 feet above the Main Plaza. Its 365 steps mirror the solar year's days. During the spring and fall equinoxes, the setting sun casts shadows that make it look like a serpent slithering down the north stairway.
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The ball court: The largest tlachtli (sporting field) in the Americas, measuring 545 feet long and 223 feet wide.
Other notable structures include the Akabtzib ("House of the Dark Writing"), the Chichanchob ("Red House"), the Iglesia ("Church"), the Casa de las Monjas ("Nunnery"), the observatory El Caracol ("The Snail"), the High Priest’s Grave, the Colonnade (Thousand Columns), and the Temple of the Warriors.
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Why is Chichén Itzá important to Mexican history and culture today?
Chichén Itzá is an ancient Mayan city located on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula that thrived between the 9th and 10th centuries CE. It is thought to have been a religious, military, political, and commercial center that at its peak would have been home to 35,000 people. Today, Chichén Itzá is important to Mexican history and culture because the city was home to a number of significant monuments and temples built by the Mayan tribe Itzá, who were heavily influenced by the Toltecs. One of the most notable is the stepped pyramid El Castillo, which rises 79 feet above the Main Plaza.
Excavation began in the 19th century, and the site became one of Mexico’s prime archeological zones. In 1988, Chichén Itzá was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site and was selected as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
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Chichén Itzá, ruined ancient Maya city occupying an area of 4 square miles (10 square km) in south-central Yucatán state, Mexico. It is thought to have been a religious, military, political, and commercial center that at its peak would have been home to 35,000 people. The site first saw settlers in 550, probably drawn there because of the easy access to water in the region via caves and sinkholes in limestone formations, known as cenotes.
Chichén Itzá is one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. What are the other six?
Chichén Itzá is located some 90 miles (150 km) east-northeast of Uxmal and 75 miles (120 km) east-southeast of the modern city of Mérida. The only source of water in the arid region around the site is from the cenotes. Two big cenotes on the site made it a suitable place for the city and gave it its name, from chi (“mouths”), chen (“wells”), and Itzá, the name of the Maya tribe that settled there. Chichén Itzá was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1988.
Chichén was founded about the 6th century ce, presumably by Maya peoples of the Yucatán Peninsula who had occupied the region since the Pre-Classic, or Formative, Period (1500 bce–300 ce). The principal early buildings are in an architectural style known as Puuc, which shows a number of divergences from the styles of the southern lowlands. These earliest structures are to the south of the Main Plaza and include the Akabtzib (“House of the Dark Writing”), the Chichanchob (“Red House”), the Iglesia (“Church”), the Casa de las Monjas (“Nunnery”), and the observatory El Caracol (“The Snail”). There is evidence that, in the 10th century, after the collapse of the Maya cities of the southern lowlands, Chichén was invaded by foreigners, probably Maya speakers who had been strongly influenced by—and perhaps were under the direction of—the Toltec of central Mexico. These invaders may have been the Itzá for whom the site is named; some authorities, however, believe the Itzá arrived 200 to 300 years later.
In any event, the invaders were responsible for the construction of such major buildings as El Castillo (“The Castle”), a pyramid that rises 79 feet (24 meters) above the Main Plaza. El Castillo has four sides, each with 91 stairs and facing a cardinal direction; including the step on the top platform, these combine for a total of 365 steps—the number of days in the solar year. During the spring and autumnal equinoxes, shadows cast by the setting sun give the appearance of a snake undulating down the stairways. A carving of a plumed serpent at the top of the pyramid is symbolic of Quetzalcóatl (known to the Maya as Kukulcán), one of the major deities of the ancient Mesoamerican pantheon. Excavations within the nine-platform pyramid revealed another, earlier structure containing a red jaguar throne studded with jade.
The ball court (for playing the game tlachtli [Mayan: pok-ta-pok]) is 545 feet (166 meters) long and 223 feet (68 meters) wide, the largest such court in the Americas. Six sculpted reliefs run the length of the walls of the court, apparently depicting the victors of the game holding the severed head of a member of the losing team. On the upper platform at one end of the court stands the Temple of the Jaguars, inside of which is a mural showing warriors laying siege to a village. Standing on the platform of the temple to the north of the court, it is possible to hear a whisper from 150 feet (46 meters) away.
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Other structures include the High Priest’s Grave and the Colonnade (Thousand Columns) and the adjoining Temple of the Warriors. Most of these buildings probably were completed in the Early Post-Classic Period (c. 900–1200). In the Late Post-Classic Period (c. 1200–1540), Chichén appears to have been eclipsed by the rise of the city of Mayapán. For a time Chichén Itzá joined Uxmal and Mayapán in a political confederacy known as the League of Mayapán.
About 1450 the League and the political supremacy of Mayapán dissolved. When the Spanish entered the country in the 16th century, the Maya were living in many small towns, but the major cities, including Chichén, were largely abandoned.
Long left to the jungle, Chichén Itzá remained sacred to the Maya. Excavation began in the 19th century, and the site became one of Mexico’s prime archaeological zones.
A legendary tradition at Chichén was the Cult of the Cenote, involving human sacrifice to the rain god, Chaac, in which victims were thrown into the city’s major cenote (at the northernmost part of the ruin), along with gold and jade ornaments and other valuables. In 1904 Edward Herbert Thompson, an American who had bought the entire site, began dredging the cenote; his discovery of skeletons and sacrificial objects confirmed the legend.