Cheese-and-pizza! Cheese-and-pizza!

Welcome to Chitzen Itza.


This is the largest structure, the pyramid called El Castillo. One reason why seeing Chitzen Itza in person is so amazing is that I could hear the acoustics of the place. The Mayans must have been fascinated with their ability to manipulate sound. You can't climb to the top anymore, but apparently if a person stood at the top of the pyramid and spoke at a normal level, a lot people on the ground would be able to hear. When we were there tour groups kept clapping their hands near it to hear the strange echo that came back to them. It sounded like a cartoon gun spewing bullets.





These are the ball courts. Where they would play that game where they try to get a ball through a ring on the side walls. There are acoustic tricks here too. For instance, there is a structure at either end, (like the one just above my head in that last picture) where if a person whispers standing in one, he could be heard from the other one. Seems to me like it would be easier if you just sat with your friends to begin with, but whatever. Apparently the guy who won the game would get his head cut off as a sacrifice. They figured a winner would be a better offering.


The figures in the reliefs that seemed to be everywhere are the flying fiery serpent, the panther, and skulls. Here an eagle has ripped out a man's heart.





This is the nunnery. Actually there are several buildings here that were probably living quarters for rich people, a church, a temple, and who knows what else. It smelled in there. And in the picture above, there are a couple of guys up on the roof. Not too long ago visitors were able to climb up and through most everything here. Now it's all roped off, but the ropes are mainly just a little string on sticks and there is no security anywhere.





This is a cenote. The Mayans used it for ceremonial purposes. It seems they would throw all their treasures and sacrificial offerings down there. Some guy who was a professor at Harvard bought the ruins at Chitzen Itza in the early 1900s and, not only did he find a bunch of the bones of sacrificed humans, but he also found a fortune in gold and jade. Most of the treasure is now in a museum at Harvard and Mexico isn't too happy about that.


I don't remember what this building is.















These pictures are of the temple of the warriors and the market. What is different about these ruins from many popular ruins in other continents is that so little is known about them. Most of this information is the result of educated guessing. No one can read the inscriptions. I think it must be frustrating to an archeologist to see so many beautiful structures and know so little about them.


I wonder what it looked like when all the stone was painted in bright colors. A little paint is left on this relief of a panther.


I thought the astronomy was interesting. One of the ruins is an observatory (rats, guess I didn't get any digital pictures of that) that looks a whole lot like a modern observatory with it's dome roof. Slits cut in the dome let the sun shine in on specific points on very specific days, like the solstices and equinoxes. Is main pyramid has something cool about it too. A snake is carved all the way up the side. On the spring and fall equinox as the sun sets and shadows rise, it looks like the snake is slithering. What a shame if you were there on a cloudy equinox.



This says it was posted by Robert, but it was me, Laura.