Chichen Itza
Travel Location: Chichen-itza,Mexico
As some of you will know my visit to Chichen Itza was always going to be a special and moving trip for me. A very special person who is no longer with us used to show me photographs of this place when he visited there some years ago. They were what inspired me to travel, all his tales from strange places and I remember this one photograph of him on the steps of Chichen Itza very vividly. I wanted to have my photograph in the same place but unfortuantely it is no longer possible to climb that temple. It was also sad for me knowing that I can never speak to him about going there but I do believe that he knows and that he is watching over me so I am pleased that I got to see what he saw.
The main pyramid at Chichen Itza was built for ceremonies as was the whole complex. The surrounding area was built to act like a speaker system and if you clap the echoes sound like a bird cooing around the site.Inside there is a second temple that this was built on top of. In the inner temple is a jade statue and another one that you used to be able to access but not anymore.
The temple has 91 steps as 91*4=364 plus the floor at the top 365 days in a year. During the equinoxs, the sunsetting over the temple creates a serpent that travels down the side of the temple (the photogrpah of the photograph that i have taken shows tourists at this ceremony)
The pyramid is approx 90% restored.
The mayans were great mathematicians and invented their own counting system which was based on a 20 base system not ten like ours but they also used a system much like hundreds,tens and ones that is far more sophisticated than other civilisations. They also invented a written language that had phonetics so the words sounded as they were written, the Egyptians for example did not achieve this they only had pictures as their language. They were also great astronomers and their calendar is actually more accurate in measuring time than our current system!
Other buildings include a large ball court. It is the largest in the Mayan world. They had to nudge a ball through a ring in the air without using their hands, feet or head. The game could take a couple of days and the winning captain had the pleasure of being decapitated as a sacrifice of a strong warrior to the gods. Lots of incentive to win then! Carvings on the walls depict this.
There are also smaller temples that were practice attempts at the other buildings.
They celebrated new year at a different time each year for a cycle of 4 years at noon, 6pm then 12am and then 6am. In this way they accounted for leap years!
They have places called cenotes, these are limestone areas (which is under the entire Yucutan area) and the water creates like sink holes in the ground. the one here was a place for young virgins to be sacrificed to the gods. They would jump in and be killed as the bottom of the cenote is quick sand!
There is a temple behind the main pyramid that is where human sacrifices were made. There are serpents depicted on the temple which are mayan symbol.Great warriors were sacrificed by pulling out their heart still beating and holding it up to the gods. Then the warriors that were there would drink the blood and eat the heart.
The whole site of Chichen itza used to have a floor covered in red.
The site is very touristy but it is still an amazing, special place.
It was deserted by the Mayans though historians do not know why, main theories include a propechy that all Mayans knew or a period of severe drought.
