Chichén Itzá
Monday, March 13, 2006
To avoid the tourists coming from Cancun, we went early in the morning to the large site at Chichén Itzá. The pyramid of El Castillo is in good shape and it is big. Conveniently, there is a person at the base of the steps on the right side of the photograph to provide scale.
Chichén Itzá’s buildings feature a lot of art. That is a large lizard on top of the structure. There are two fish visible on this stone.
This is Chac, the god of rain. Chac has been with us everywhere since we left Mérida. The Yucatán is hot and because of the geology, there are very few rivers. Rain is vital.
There are many columns standing at Chichén Itzá. Some of them have carvings on them.
The column in the photograph below has a soldier standing on the head of an unfortunate person.
This attractive structure is called “the Church.” At the corners you can see the protruding nose of Chac, the rain god.
The building in which ball games were played is a large structure—people can seen walking on the left of the Ball Court in this photo.
Chichén Itzá was a “capital” of the Mayas from about 750 AD to 1200, and was made a Unesco World Heritage site in 1988.
Next—Ek Balam.
