Abonded in the ninth century and resettled around the late 10th century, Chichén Itzá appears to have been invaded by Toltecs. The fusion of the Maya and Toltecs makes Chichén unique among the Yucatán Peninsula's ruins. Why it was abandoned in the 14th century is a mystery, but the once-great city remained the site of Mayan pilgrimages for many years.
-- Taken from Lonley Planet's "Mexico".
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| The Observatory. The top was found in this sort of great shape (great for an 11-century old ruin, that is). The eight original windows faced in the eight directions of the compass and were important ceremonially. | Stairway up to see a carved jaguar with jade eyes inside of the main pyramid. Bb opted out of the very claustrophobic, airless and steep stairway. She missed little. | Steve and Bb at the top of the pyramid Kukulcán with the Temple of the Warriors and the Group of the Thousand Columns in the background. Note the carvings on the doorway. | Pyramid Kukulcán. Famous for the twice-yearly snake shadow that is only visible during the vernal and autumnal equinox as the sun rises or sets. The pyramid represents the Mayan calendars- 18 terraces for the 18 20-day lunar months, 52 panels for the 52-year Calendar, and four sets of 91 steps, with the top platform for the 365 days of the year. |
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| View of the spectacular ball court from pyramid Kukulcán. The court has remarkable acoustic properties accomplished by heat-tempering the limestone blocks used to construct it. Carved murals show the beheading of the winner of a ceremonial game. Now there's some motivation to lose! | Ornately carved doorway of "The Nunnery", the protruding tongues of the rain god Chaac are good evidence of the Puuc-Chenes building style of the pre-Toltec Mayans. | Animal carvings grasping human hearts represent the fusion of Mayan (Jaguar) and Toltec (Eagle) cultures, as well as ritual sacrifice. | Tzompantili, The Temple of the Skulls, contained the remains of buried priests and was probably used to display the severed heads of sacrificial victims. |
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| Bonnie in front of The Nunnery, actually a palace for royalty, but it resembled a convent to the Spaniards and the name stuck. | This is called the Group of the Thousand Columns, for obvious reasons. Many of the columns have intricate carvings on them. | Close up of a carving of the Mayan Rain God Chaac on one of the columns at the Temple of the Warrior. Chaac is represented here by the open mouth of a serpent (look for the forked tongue) with a human face inside, all surrounded by eagle feathers (you can see the talons near the bottom as well). | Snake heads on the Ossuary. Otherwise known as "The Bonehouse" or "High Priests' Grave". This temple appears to be a smaller, older version of the Temple of Kukulcán, perhaps a scale model of sorts. |
