Today Rosie and The Operator are visiting Chichen Itza, the premier Mayan ruin of the Yucatan, and guess what, its NOT raining. The day has dawned bright and clear, as a trade off to the rain the temperature is soaring to 32c today. Its our first day of sunshine on our holiday and Rosie is so excited.
As usual we head out early to complete the 45 min drive from Valladolid so we can be at the gate for the 0800 opening. We are one of the first to get our tickets and enter the grounds of Chichen Itza. Nothing is being given away as we walk along the 200 meter leafy path way towards the site and then, we burst into open ground and Rosie’s jaw drops.
In an open, grassy clearing stands the majestic El Castillo in all its gigantic perfection. It is a sight to behold and Rosie and The Operator pretty much have it all to ourselves at the moment. The ominous sky above it, the sharp true edges and the incredible feeling of standing in the shadow and the footsteps of the ancients gives Rosie goosebumps.
Chichen Tza itself was built as a community in and around 500ad – the city was overtaken, conquered and abandoned then resettled many times throughout its history before being finally abandoned in the 1400s. The site then just became a place of Mayan pilgrimage and worship centred around this amazing pyramid El Castillo aka The Pyramid of Kukulcan.
The pyramid is 25 metres tall and in perfect ancient condition for being built around 800ad. The structure is actually a massive Maya calender formed in stone. There are 365 stairs on the pyramid, on each façade of the pyramid are 52 flat panels representing the weeks of the year and the years in a Mayan calender.
The big drawcard of this pyramid is that during the spring and autumn equinoxes, light and shadow form a series of triangles on the side of the north staircase that mimic the creep of a serpent in the light. During this time thousands of people flood to the site to watch this phenomenon. Its still pretty incredible on an ordinary day, let alone a celestial one and its hard to take your eyes off the pyramid to go and visit anything else on the site.
This archeological site is nice and open with great pathways linking each ruin, lining the paths in between are market traders and hawkers who were setting up their wares for the day. It looks like you have to barrow in your stall, set it up then take it all out again everyday. For the first day in a while with no rain you would think that they would be starting a bit earlier.
Gran Juego de Pelota is the Great Ball Court, it is the biggest and most impressive in Mexico. The court is flanked with viewing temples for the priests and nobility to watch the games being played.
The game seemed to have changed over time as the relief carving on the walls show players wearing feathered head dress wearing knee pads for a soccer like version where no hands were allowed to be used.
The winning team were the first to get the ball through the circle in the middle of the court. The other version depicted in the carvings were the warriors using sticks as bats to get the ball through the hoop. It is generally thought that the loosing team was sacrificed due to the decapitation pictures also represented on the wall.
Rosie think she has made a discovery herself… this wall is tucked away and no where special, there is no explaination board telling us what it is. But it is obvious is it not? This is a noughts and crosses wall….when the ball games dragged on and the killing the loosing team took too long….they played noughts and crosses to bide the time….National Geographic is calling Rosie as we speak….awesome discovery Rosie.
The Platform of the Skulls is just that, like a large stage with the raised dais carved on all sides with skulls, this showed they meant business as sacrifices were paraded on here and then marched down to the Sacred Cenote.
Segrado Cenote was the sacred cenote – this sinkhole was thought to be the entrance to the underworld, it is 60 meters in diameter and 35 meters deep. From the Platform of the Skulls a 400 meter Mayan raised road runs to the cenote, sacrificial victims were marched from the Platform to the cenote and made to jump into the eternal underworld as sacrifice. Hundreds of human bones have been dredged from this cenote as well as other treasures.
Standing on the edge of this cenote looking in, Rosie never realised how perfectly round it was…..until she looked at the photos afterward. It appears to be crazy symmetrical but I never got a sense of that on the ground.
The Group of a Thousand Columns is a sea of columns, each one carved representing a ‘whose who’ of Gods and the famous in Mayan life.
The Temple of the Warriors has a famous warrior carved onto each of the pillars of this temple. This temple is carved with eagles and jaguars, both revered animals which are symbols of agility and strength.
The other most amazing site after El Castillo is El Caracol (The Snail) so called by the Spanish because of the amazing spiral internal staircase that is not open to the public. This is the observatory, it is incredible looking at it. It is, what we would identify with as the structure of an observatory as they are still built exactly the same today! It is an incredible sight. The architecture and the mixed imagery make it hard for the archaeologists to pick a period it came from or a specific builder but its purpose was crystal clear.
The windows in the observatories dome are aligned with the appearance of certain stars at specific dates. From the dome the priests also decreed the times of rituals, celebrations, corn planting and harvests.
The sun was getting higher and the day hotter and stickier as Rosie and The Operator left this sight by 11.00 am. By this time the carpark was full and tour buses were too numerous to count. People were flooding into the grounds as we were one of the first to leave. Rosie looked at all the tiny people swarming around the base of the giant pyramid out in the baking sun, we were so lucky to have our solitary moment, the only regret, Rosie didn’t touch the ancient monolith. We weren’t allowed to get anywhere near it unfortunately, Rosie wanted to absorb the ancient energy from the blackened rock. Never mind, standing in its presence and shadow was enough.
As we walked to the exit, Rosie cast one more look back, the pyramid was gone, covered by trees along the pathway and the colourful stands of the market traders. The one thing to take home from this amazing site is that it will never be abandoned again.
Tomorrow we are moving on and heading for Merida, the sunshine is supposed to be following us from now on and Rosie and The Operator cannot wait to explore the Cultural Capital of the Yucatan.
