Chichen Itza

Overall I was pretty impressed with the ruins. According to my knowledgeable Mayan tour guide Santos, the pyramids at Chichen Itza are just a few of 3000 on the Yucatan. That seems like a staggering number to me. All the ruins at this site were built between 400 and 1200 AD. This is me in front of the Kukulkan Pyramid (yes, I took this myself). Unfortunately they don't let tourists climb on the ruins anymore because some people decided it would be a good idea to graffiti them. That was pretty disappointing. If you stand about 30 yards in front of the stair case and clap your hands you hear a delayed echo that sounds like a bullet ricocheting. Supposedly it sounds exactly like the call of a bird from the area that the Mayans considered a messenger to the gods. When the sun sets on vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the edges of the temple create several triangles of sunlight that hit the side of the adjacent staircase. At the base of the stair case there is a serpents head which, combined with the sun light, creates a serpent that "slithers" down the side of the temple twice a year. Pretty cool. Most (or maybe all) of the buildings we visited had a special orientation. The common orientation involved the corners of the east and west staircases lining up with sunrise and sunset on the winter and summer solstices.


I would have to say the best part was seeing the court where they played the "Mayan game" (for lack of a better name). I remember learning about it in middle school and thinking how it made no sense that they sacrificed the winners. The structure at the far end of the field is where the king sat during the game (top photo). If you stand exactly in the middle and clap your hands you hear 7 echoes, which is supposed to have some significance. I'm not totally sold. When Santos did it I swear I heard 8. The little loop (bottom photo) is where they have to get the 6 pound rubber ball (don't ask me how they know it was 6 pounds) without using their hands or feet. It stands about 20 feet high. Seems impossible to me. Santos said that they still play this game (no sacrificing though).


Here's a couple more pictures. This is the natural well where they threw some of their sacrifices (gold, silver, bones, people).















This is the wall where they placed the heads of the winners of the game.















This was their observatory. This was the one ruin we were allowed to walk on.














All in all, it was definitely worth the two and half hour bus ride from Cancun.