Chichen Itza - ancient Mayan city
Chichen Itza(Spanish) Chichen Itza) is an ancient Mayan city on the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). The name translated from the Mayan language means “Near the entrance to the Well of Itza” or “Mouth of the well of the water sorcerers.” In literal translation, “chi” from the Mayan language is translated as “mouth”, “chen” is “well”, “itsa” is the name of the Mayan tribe, according to legend they were the first to appear on our land. According to archaeologists and anthropologists, this city was built on the so-called “place of power.”
This ancient Mayan city was founded by the Itza tribe around the 7th century. During the reign of King Kakupakal, in the second half of the 9th century, the city became a leading power in the region. During this period, a number of majestic buildings in the "Puuc" style were built, such as the palace and observatory, which the Spanish conquerors later nicknamed Caracol (Snail).
In the 10th century, the Itza tribe suffered defeats in a war with their neighbors and left the city for a while. After some time, the Itza, in alliance with the Toltecs, under the leadership of the priest Quetzalcoatl (Kukulkan), recaptured Chichen. In 1047, the Halach-Vinik Pochekitsoy turned Chichen Itza into the capital of his new Toltec-May state. During this period, new buildings appeared in the city, such as:
1. Step pyramid of Kukulkan, 24 meters high;
2. Temple of warriors on a 4-step pyramid;
3. Temple of the Jaguar;
4. Group of a thousand columns;
5. Sacred cenote - a well 50 meters deep for sacrifices;
6. Large 135-meter ball field and other buildings.
In 1194, at the Battle of Chichencheen, the Chichen troops were defeated by the Uxmals, the high priest of Kukulkan, Hapaykan, was captured and executed. After 222 days, the capital was captured and burned by the Mayapans, commanded by Hunakkeel. The ruler of Chichen Itza, Chakshibchak, fled to Peten Itza.
After 1244, Chichen Itza completely lost its independence and the city was ruled by representatives of Mayapan. At the end of the 15th century, the city was completely deserted, leaving behind a number of large architectural monuments of the Mayan and Toltec eras. Also preserved are statues of gods with characteristic Mayan plastic forms, reliefs depicting geometric and floral patterns, and other works of art and crafts.
Chichen Itza is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, and the ancient city is the second most popular tourist attraction in Mexico. When traveling to Mexico, be sure to include Chichen Itza in your itinerary. In 2007, the Mayan city was included in the list of new wonders of the world.
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Worldwide interest in the heritage of the vanished Mayan civilization continues to this day. Numerous religious and cult mysteries, gloomy predictions, accurate calendars, gigantic ruined cities, among which the most famous is Chichen Itza, invariably attract crowds of tourists and curious people. The magical ancient ruins have been explored continuously for hundreds of years.
History of the ancient Mayan city - Chichen Itza
Based on archaeological data and scraps of ancient chronicles, researchers concluded that the famous Mayan city was founded in the 5th-6th centuries AD. It immediately became the center of the Yucatan territory: political, religious, cultural.
All statements regarding Chichen Itza are unconfirmed and are hypotheses that require evidence that is almost impossible to find. According to some sources, from 20 to 30 thousand residents permanently lived in the city. Countless numbers of pilgrims and wanderers, traders and money changers visited this settlement every year.
In the 10th century, the Mayans were conquered by the Toltecs, Chichen Itza was partially sacked, and most of the population abandoned the city. But life did not leave him. The decline occurs in the 13th century after the birth of Christ. Buildings crumbled, people left Chichen Itza.
An ancient city in the modern world
For a long time, no one showed interest in the majestic and ominous ruins. Since the mid-19th century, a passion for culture, astrology, and most importantly, the legendary riches of the Mayans began. Numerous excavations and studies began on the territory, artists and photographers from all over the world came to capture the bizarre buildings and mysterious temples.
In the 1950s, the Mexican government decided to restore (as much as possible) the original appearance of Chichen Itza. Soon this place became a Mecca for tourists.
In 2007, the ancient city was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List and named one of the 7 New Wonders of the World.
Excursion around the territory of Chichen Itza
The area of the city is about 6 km. sq. The surviving architectural complexes are numerous and if you study them in detail, examining every relief and column, then one day for a visit will not be enough. Unfortunately, excursions organized from Cancun are only one-day excursions. There is nowhere to stay overnight in Chichen Itza, and it’s creepy.
A professional guide will lead the group along paved roads, perfectly preserved over fifteen centuries, and tell you about all the religious buildings of the city. The most significant and huge of them is the pyramid of the “Feathered Serpent” - Kukulkan. The guide will tell legends about blood sacrifices, cruelty and religious beliefs of the ancient tribe.
The temple of warriors will amaze you with the realistic reliefs and sculptures; it’s easy to get lost in the group of “thousand columns”. The ball court will surprise you with the size of its territory and will give you goosebumps with images of severed heads.
The excursion includes a visit to the sacred cenote - a natural reservoir with a diameter of 60 m. There is evidence that the Mayans threw girls and children, as well as numerous religious objects, into this “lake”, asking their deities for rain. The variety of impressions and the special energy of the place will not leave anyone indifferent!
Tourist Information
Chichen Itza coordinates: 20.6842849, -88.5677826.
Distances from cities: from Merida - 115 km; from Cancun - 200 km.
Open to the public: daily from 8:00 to 17:00.
In addition to the famous monuments of the Mayan civilization, Cancun is also interesting for the island of Cozumel, which is ideal for those who want to soak up the beaches or go diving and surfing.
In the north of Yucotan, in Mexico, there are unique buildings of the ancient city of the Itza Indian people, who once declared their power and subjugated other tribes. “Chichen Itza” means in the Mayan language - “At the mouth of the well of Itza” (its - sorcerer, ha - water). The ancient handwritten codex Chilam-Bolam, consisting of nine collections, mentions another, more ancient name of the city, but due to forgotten spelling it is not possible to accurately decipher it.
Historical information
Presumably, the city of Chichen Itza was founded around 455, during the heyday of the Mayan civilization, which became famous for its culture, architecture and quite significant, for that time, knowledge in mathematics and astronomy.
The buildings erected at Chichen Itza can be divided into two parts. One of them includes buildings of the 6th–7th centuries AD. e. This is the culture of the ancient Mayans. Buildings characteristic of the Toltec culture belong to another group. They captured the city in the 10th–11th centuries AD. and after some time they made it their capital. But already in 1178, Chichen Itza was literally defeated by the troops of three united cities: Itzmal, Mayapan, Uxmal under the command of Huanak Keel.
The Spaniards who invaded Mexico burned Indian manuscripts. But, despite the loss of historical data, archaeologists were still able to establish that in the 13th century the city was plundered and could no longer continue to influence the economy of the surrounding regions. In this regard, rich and noble citizens left Chichen Itza, and after them the rest of the inhabitants left the city. The Spanish conquerors discovered a completely empty city, around which there were small Indian settlements; their inhabitants treated the ruins of the ancient city as a sacred place. Centuries have passed, but the exact reason for the transformation of the once powerful city into one abandoned and forgotten by literally everyone has not been established.
Sights of the Holy City
Archaeologists worked for a long time on the territory of the ancient city of Chichen Itza, revealing unique Indian structures to the whole world:
1. The famous Kukulkan Temple.
2. Temple of Jaguars with unique paintings on the walls.
3. Temple of warriors with a base of 40 m, erected on a 4-step pyramid.
4. A group of a thousand columns - ruins of 4 colonnades arranged in the shape of a rectangle.
5. Karakol - an ancient observatory.
6. Seven stadiums built to host ball games and competitions - the largest of them is 135 m long.
7. The sacred cenote - a natural well, 50 m deep, was necessary for making sacrifices to the god of forests and fields Yumkash.
Near the historical monuments, statues of gods made with the stylization characteristic of the Mayan civilization, various reliefs that at one time were decorations of buildings and religious centers, as well as handicrafts were discovered.
Main temple of the city
The main structures of Chichen Itza were built during the period later called Mexican. The Toltecs, who captured the area, built a temple, which became the main one. It was created in honor of the Toltec god Kukulkan or the Feathered Serpent. Nowadays, it has become a real symbol of Mexico.
The building is a nine-step pyramid, 24 m high. Its base is square and very massive. The layout of the temple used the astronomical knowledge of the Indians, as well as the numbers of their calendar cycles. There are four staircases with balustrades leading to the top of the structure, which start from the head of the snake. The play of light on the days of the equinox allows you to observe the illusion that the powerful Serpent is slowly emerging from a secret hiding place.
The Temple of Kukulkan has four entrances. At the main one, oriented to the north, there are two columns in the form of snakes. There are exactly the same ones inside. This is a creepy place. Many years ago, human lives were sacrificed here.
Surprisingly, in the pyramid under the temple there is another one, the same, nine-step, only smaller. The entrance to it was discovered by scientists quite recently. The discovered artifact that was hidden there is truly priceless. This is a symbol of power of the Mayan Indians - the Jaguar Mat, the stone throne of the Supreme Ruler in the form of a jaguar. Inlaid with 73 jade discs, which are spots on the skin. Presumably the first owner of the throne was Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl, the ancestor of the Toltecs.
To preserve the heritage left by the ancient people, the government of Yucotan made a deal with the owner of the land. 83 hectares were purchased, along with the holy city. UNESCO has awarded Chichen Itza the status of a World Cultural Heritage Site. Its sights are visited by tourists from all over the world, and for those who are interested in the history of the civilizations of our planet, this is a very important place, with a huge amount of unexplored information.
The city of Chichen Itza was once an important trade and ceremonial center. It is believed to have been built between 600 and the end of the first millennium AD. The Mayans were good mathematicians, engineers and astronomers, as evidenced by the buildings preserved here. If you want to see as much as possible, we advise you to arrive early - at 11.00 the crowds already gather here. Remember also that towards noon it will become unbearably hot, and there is practically no shade here.
You can explore the temple of El Castillo, built in the shape of a pyramid and dedicated to the god Kukulcan (to Quetzalcoatl), depicted as a feathered serpent with a human head. They say that this snake slithering from the pyramid can be seen twice a year - on the spring and autumn equinox (September 21 and March 21). At three o'clock in the afternoon, the rays of the sun illuminate the western balustrade of the main staircase of the pyramid in such a way that light and shadow form the image of seven isosceles triangles, which, in turn, make up the body of a thirty-seven-meter snake, “crawling” as the sun moves to its own head, carved at the base of the staircase . The phenomenal performance lasts about 3.5 hours and attracts a lot of people. In ancient times, the appearance of a snake served as a signal for the beginning of sowing cereals or harvesting.
Don't miss the opportunity to also see the preserved fragments of the large ball field, Juego de Pelota (Juego de Pelota); it was larger than modern football fields, and the balls flew into the air to a height of 6 m! Here they forced prisoners captured in wars to play; it is unknown who was then sacrificed - the winners or the losers, but it is known for certain that their heads, along with many others, were exhibited on pikes on the Skull Wall, Tsompantli (Tzompantli).
However, not all the remains of sacred victims ended up here. Sacred Cenote, Cenote Sagrado (Cenote Sogrado)- an impressive natural well 90 m in diameter, in which researchers discovered not only gold bars and jadeite jewelry, but also children’s skeletons. Looking into the 20 m deep abyss, you can imagine the horror that the condemned experienced before they were sacrificed to the rain gods, and 170 km (about 3 hours journey) from Cancun (Cancun) on the way to Merida (Merida). 8.00-17.00 daily. Buses run frequently from Cancun and other Riviera Mayan resorts. They usually take organized excursions. From Cozumel and Isla Mujeres, many tourists arrive directly with their luggage to go home the same day - it's cheaper and less tiring.
What to see
- "Temple of Kukulkan" - 9-step pyramid (height 24 meters) with wide staircases on each side. (On the days of the spring and autumn equinoxes (March 20 and September 22) at approximately three o'clock in the afternoon, the rays of the sun illuminate the western balustrade of the main staircase of the pyramid in such a way that light and shadow form the image of seven isosceles triangles, which, in turn, make up the body of a thirty-seven-meter snake, “crawling” as the sun moves towards its own head, carved at the base stairs.);
- “Temple of the Warriors at Chichen Itza” on a low 4-step pyramid and “Temple of the Jaguars” (both with wall paintings);
- Observatory "Karakol";
- 7 “stadiums” for playing ball (“Large ball field” (Uego de Pelota)- the largest playground ever created by the Mayans. The length of the playing field reaches 135 m. There is some evidence that the game of ball was accompanied by a certain cruelty.);
- Ruins of 4 colonnades forming a giant rectangle ("Group of a Thousand Columns");
- The sacred cenote is a natural well about 50 m deep, which was used for sacrifices.
- Also preserved are statues of deities with characteristic stylization of plastic forms, reliefs rich in plant and geometric patterns, works of small sculpture and artistic crafts, etc.
Story
During their heyday, the Mayans managed to erect many architectural monuments that amaze us with their size and beauty. The crown jewel of this treasure is the Chichen Itza Temple, located on the Yucatan Peninsula in southern Mexico. It is believed that Chichen Itza was built in the second half of the first millennium, when Mayan rulers ordered the construction of a large city around three natural reservoirs. Thanks to the underground springs that fed the lakes, the city's population had plenty of water all year round.
Tens of thousands of Mayans participated in the construction of the city, intended for rulers and priests with their families. Ordinary members of the tribe lived in mud huts and worked tirelessly in the fields, providing the city with grain and meat and serving the ruling elite.
The Mayan rulers were gaining strength every year, so the sudden collapse of their empire at the end of the 9th century. seems all the more strange and surprising. Apparently, at this time Chichen Itza was simply abandoned by its inhabitants. Scientists have discovered such traces of disaster as drought, crop failure and famine, or a combination of all three, but this does not explain such a rapid decline of a powerful civilization. Only a small part of the Mayan Indians survived - so that in the 16th century. to be under the heel of Spain. Spanish chronicles mention the Maya as a primitive tribe living on the fruits of the surrounding jungle. It is not surprising that the European conquerors very quickly became masters of the situation.
The power of the ruler of Chichen Itza was symbolized by his throne, erected on the top of the Kukulkan pyramid. With a height of 30 m, it dominates all surrounding buildings. The complex iconography, as well as the numerical proportions incorporated into the construction, indicate that the Mayans had extensive technical knowledge. The pyramid itself can be considered an example of the "magic of numbers" used by the Mayans. On its ground floor there are 4 flights of stairs, each with 91 steps. 4 X 91+1 (the base itself)= 365, the number of days in a year. Opposite the Pyramid of Kukulkan stands the Temple of the Warriors (Templos de los Guerreros). Its landmark is the Hall of 1000 Columns, which supposedly served as a barracks. Its rear doors open onto a ball court measuring 91 x 36 m.
Images of snakes are ubiquitous in all the buildings of Chichen Itza. Kukulkan, the “serpent-crawling-out-of-the-tower,” and Quetzalcoatl, the “feathered serpent,” were considered the main deities of the Maya. And even the collapse of the state itself could not destroy faith in them. When in the 16th century When the Spaniards landed in Yucatan, the feathered serpent was still considered the main deity among the descendants of the Mayans and Mexican Aztecs.
Chronology
- OK. 435-455: According to the much later chronicle of Chumayel, Chichen Itza was founded between 435 and 455. AD It is believed that the city was abandoned by its inhabitants towards the end of the 9th century. The Toltecs conquered it in 987.
- 999: The Mayan ruler of Tula, named Quetzalcoatl after the main deity, died.
- 1533: Yucatan is conquered by the Spanish.
- 1841-1842: John Stevens's research began the scientific study of Chichen Itza.
- 1904-1907: Speleologists discovered a spring considered "holy" or "mystical".
- 1923: Systematic excavations at Chichen Itza begin. F 1988: Chichen Itza is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
