Chichen Itza: The Mayan Metropolis
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| Chichen Itza |
The Journey
So we left
Merida in the morning after saying goodbye to yet another dog friend. We've significantly cut down our travel times (like the 20 hour journey to
Bogota or what would have been 16 hours if we hadn't flown to
Cartagena). So thankfully we only had about 2 hours on the bus. Our destination was Chichen Itza one of the Seven Wonders of the World and the fourth one we would see on our trip. We have seen the
Great Wall in China,
Christ the Redeemer and it's stunning view in
Rio,
Macchu Picchu, the lofty mountain citadel in
Peru and now Chichen Itza, the mighty metropolis of the Mayan Empire.
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| Akab Dzib |
We arrived at the entrance to Chichen Itza and found a taxi to our accommodation about a mile away. We were staying in a place called Dolores Alba which would provide us with transport to explore Chichen Itza the next day. After a surprisingly easy journey we were at our destination and still had most of the day left.
Cenote Ik-Kil
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| The Ik-Kil Cenote |
With so much of the day left we decided that we would head across the road where there was an infamous cenote that we had seen advertised throughout our time in
Merida. This cenote is called the Ik-Kil Cenote. A cenote is a limestone sinkhole which is found all across the Yucatan peninsula, apparently in quantities of about 4000, and are considered sacred by the Mayans. The area has very few rivers and the water table (the place where all the water is found underground) is generally a bit too low for digging a well without modern digging equipment. Therefore when the ground opens up and you have a naturally occurring well it must feel like a god send.
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| All the Swimmers lining up |
The cenotes were therefore considered to be places that you could communicate with the gods in and send them sacrifices, a portal into the heavenly realm if you wish. So what the Mayans would do is send sacrifices to the Gods through the Cenotes. In Chichen Itza there are four cenotes (and a secret fifth which I'll tell you about soon). In the Sacred Cenote artifacts have been found consisting of Gold, Jade (which was interestingly sacred in
New Zealand and
China as well) pottery and incense. More disturbingly human remains that have wound that resemble human sacrifice have also been found. Namely stabbed in the heart and thrown in the god well. The water was so important that it is featured in a lot of Mayan artwork and the lords controlled it in return for labour and other tributes during the dry season.
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| Cenote Hole |
The Ik-Kil cenote however is a little different from other cenotes and actually works a little bit like a waterpark. You pay an entry fee and then you can go and swim in this magnificent cenote complete with hanging vines and a jumping off platform (take a look at our jumping videos
here, if you're interested the lady in front hesitated and then turned to the man and said 'I'm scared, can you push me in?'). The cenote is 150ft deep so is quite used to people jumping in it, It is even used for the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series which also uses the bridge in
Mostar that we saw (alongside
Cartagena and
Dubrovnik). So bus loads of people would randomly get dropped after Chichen Itza for a 30 minute stop, but we got to enjoy the entire afternoon there.
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| The Hanging Vines |
By now I'm sure you're wondering whether there was any gold in the bottom of the Ik-Kil Cenote or if it is connected to anything religious. Well the 150ft depth made it difficult to reach the bottom, but google works wonders. Ik-Kil was indeed considered sacred and a hommage to Chaac who is the big nosed Mayan god of rain. Pieces of jewelry have indeed been found at the bottom and more worryingly human remains, I just thought the catfish were the things to worry about. But we didn't know this so enjoyed it, until Olivia found out about the catfish. From then on every bit of grass that touched your foot could be the catfish that could eat you.
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| Swimming in the Cenote |
El Castillo
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| The impressive Castillo |
El Castillo is the infamous building that is synonymous with the words Chichen Itza. It is a massive nine tiered pyramid located at the heart of the ancient citadel. The pyramid was constructed in honour of Kukulkan (who was also known as Quetzalcoatl by the Aztecs). We learned about him in our cacao workshop in
Merida, he is a pretty great guy and gave the world chocolate and all sorts of good things. He is represented in many ways, from wind like swirls, a man, monkeys and all the way to a feathered serpent, a common motif throughout the Chichen Itza site.
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| One of the many snakes |
The story goes that the Feathered Serpent existed in the beginning with the Maker and they joined their thoughts together and the world came into being. Basically whatever they said there should be, there was. They found that the animals they created could not speak (thus not being able to worship them), so remade creation, but decided the animals should be lowly. On a side note, his mother Coatlicue was terrifying and had a belt of skulls, never complain about your mother again! But anyway, many years later his twin brother Xolotl got him drunk so he did terrible things and then showed Quetzacoatl what he did in a magic obsidian mirror. In despair Queztacoatl left on a boat and said he would return one day. The Mayan's believed in him as the morning star or Venus so there were lots of Venus shrines in Chichen Itza. It is also worth noting here that due to his whiteness and coming on a ship this is why many Aztecs thought Cortez was Quetzacoatl (that and a rather douchy emperor who helped convince the people in order to save his skin).
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| Now Chichen Itza is home to many Iguanas |
A rather fascinating oddity about the temple is found when you clap at the bottom of the pyramid. It seems slightly uncertain as to whether it was deliberate or not. According to David Lubman (a historian), he doesn't think they were able to predict the noises, but did built it in the hope of making strange and wonderful sounds. When you clap at the bottom you can hear the echo come back in the sound of a chip which apparently resembles the Quetzal bird. You have have a listen to the queztal bird
here and the hand clap
here and see for yourself.
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| One of the many shrines |
Another interesting thing about El Castillo is that there is a snake that runs down the stairs. Unlike many other pyramids El Castillo is slightly skewed from being on cardinal points. So most Mayan pyramids had corners that pointed north, south, east and west. Some people say that this is so that it aligns with the cenotes that are on site (the gateways to the gods) and interestingly a hidden cenote has been found underneath El Castillo. Others say that it is for a phenomenon that occurs every equinox (They happen in Spring and Autumn and it is when you have equal parts day and night). When the sun moves through to sunset at the equinox it is possible to see the shadow running down the stairs and giving the illusion that the snake is slithering down from the heavens. You can take a look at this phenomenon in a time lapse
here. Interestingly because of this there are people who believe in the Ancient Astronaut theory who think this is evidence of aliens creating the world, much like the
Nazca Lines, have a look at an explanation
here. Now I don't know why it was originally built or if it was coincidence that this occurs every equinox, but a lot on site is built to reflect the heavens (including an observatory), so it may well be the case. It's also interesting to note that the Spring Equinox or the Vernal Equinox is important in the west as it is how we calculate when Easter should fall (the first Sunday after the first full moon of the vernal equinox).
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| The Sacred Cenote |
Chichen Itza
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| Some of the ruins at Chichen Itza |
The rest of Chichen Itza is definitely a marvel to see. It rose to prominence around 600AD in what was known as the early classic period. A lot of the central site was then developed during 750-900AD and then the rest developed afterwards. No one quite knows when it declined, but it was in decline when the Spanish invaded, despite losing the battle several times and then being overthrown they finally claimed Chichen Itza which was renamed the Ciudad Real and became a cattle farm in 1588.
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| Skull carvings |
In the modern day Chichen Itza first became famous thanks to two travel writers from their trip to the Yucatan in 1823. John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood (who provided the drawings) released a book called Incidents of Travel in Yucatan. It is also thanks to them that
Tulum's ruins is so famous. They surveyed the site and bought it to the public eye where American Archeologists petitioned digging the site.
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| Temple of 1000 Warriors |
Today Chichen Itza mostly consists of the large temples as the homes would have been made out of perishable things such as palm leaves and wood. The site is vast and split into different areas. We found that it was a little bit crowded as there were street sellers everywhere. It was difficult to tell if we were visiting a ruin with a market or a market with a ruin as there were so many people. Many of the sellers also sell jaguar whistles which make noises like jaguars, this was kind of scary. Apparently those would have been used to disorientate and confuse the enemies, I can understand how. More terrifyingly the Aztecs would use death whistles which were similar but sounded like death cries and screams. The venders really detracted from the site, but it is still worth seeing so they didn't ruin it.
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| La Iglesia, the Church |
The ruins are amazing and there was so much intricate carving. My favourites of these was the church which is a Mayan building that is so beautifully decorated that it is referred to as the church. The carvings are amazing and you can see a lot of detail from it. My other favourite building was called the temple of warriors. This temple consists of thousands of columns intricately carved with a warrior on each one.
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| The Ballcourt |
We also quite enjoyed seeing where the ball court was. I think this was particularly fun because we had seen the game being played beforehand in
Merida. Olivia even decided to have a little try. What really surprised us is how long the games lasted (more than 1 day sometimes) and how high the hoops were.
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| Olivia trying Pok ta Pok |
The other building of note is the observatory. As said with the section on the Castillo the stars and heavens were important to the Mayans. The observatory contains a spiral stair case so is often called the Snail or El Caracol. This temple was important as it helped the Mayans calculate the movements of Venus and also to develop their calendars. They calculated that Venus took 584 days to do one cycle (the journey from western to eastern horizon). Archaeologists and Astronomers reckon that the building is so important because out of 29 astronomical sights considered important to the Mayans 20 can be seen from the observatory. However a section of the tower is missing, so there is potential that the other 9 could have been seen.
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| Stargazing at the Observatory |
So that was our time in Chichen Itza and around. It was actually really great and now we're off to
Tulum. Tulum is an old Mayan city by the sea that was made famous in the aforementioned Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, this looks like a fascinating book with really amazing drawing in them. Christmas is coming after all so if you're feeling generous you could always buy me one! 😉
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| The Temple of 1000 Warriors |
See some more of our posts
Have a look at some more photos
here
Want some more information?
- Bit confused about the difference between Olmecs, Mayans and Aztecs? Take a look here for a brief history of Mexico which explains a lot.
- You can also take a look here. This explains the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas.
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