Sights in Chichén Itzá
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Gran Juego de Pelota
The great ball court, the largest and most impressive in Mexico, is only one of the city's eight courts, indicative of the importance the games held here. The court, to the left of the visitors center, is flanked by temples at either end and is bounded by towering parallel walls with stone rings cemented up high.
There is evidence that the ball game may have changed over the years. Some carvings show players with padding on their elbows and knees, and it is thought that they played a soccerlike game with a hard rubber ball, with the use of hands forbidden. Other carvings show players wielding bats; it appears that if a player hit the ball through one of the stone hoops, h…
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El Castillo
As you approach from the visitors center into the site, El Castillo rises before you in all its grandeur. The first temple here was pre-Toltec, built around AD 800, but the present 25m-high structure, built over the old one, has the plumed serpent sculpted along the stairways and Toltec warriors represented in the doorway carvings at the top of the temple. You won't get to see these temple-top carvings as you are not allowed to ascend the pyramid.
The structure is actually a massive Maya calendar formed in stone. Each of El Castillo's nine levels is divided in two by a staircase, making 18 separate terraces that commemorate the 18 20-day months of the Maya vague year. The…
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Grupo de las Mil Columnas
This group to the east of El Castillo takes its name from the forest of pillars stretching south and east. The star attraction here is the Templo de los Guerreros (Temple of the Warriors), adorned with stucco and stone-carved animal deities. At the top of its steps is a classic reclining chac-mool figure - you're no longer allowed to ascend to it. Many of the columns in front of the temple are carved with figures of warriors.
Archaeologists working in 1926 discovered a Temple of Chac-Mool lying beneath the Temple of the Warriors. You can walk through the columns on its south side to reach the Columnata Noreste, notable for the 'big-nosed god' masks on its façade. Some hav…
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Edificio de las Monjas
Thought by archaeologists to have been a palace for Maya royalty, the so-called Edificio de las Monjas, with its myriad rooms, resembled a European convent to the conquistadors, hence their name for the building. The building's dimensions are imposing: its base is 60m long, 30m wide and 20m high. The construction is Maya rather than Toltec, although a Toltec sacrificial stone stands in front.
A smaller adjoining building to the east, known as La Iglesia (The Church), is covered almost entirely with carvings. Currently, on the far side at the back there are some passageways that are still open, leading a short way into the labyrinth inside. They are dank, slippery, smell o…
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El Caracol
Called El Caracol by the Spaniards for its interior spiral staircase, this observatory, to the south of the Ossuary, is one of the most fascinating and important of all Chichén Itzá's buildings (but, alas, you can't enter it). Its circular design resembles some central highlands structures, although, surprisingly, not those of Toltec Tula. In a fusion of architectural styles and religious imagery, there are Maya Chac rain-god masks over four external doors facing the cardinal points.
The windows in the observatory's dome are aligned with the appearance of certain stars at specific dates. From the dome the priests decreed the times for rituals, celebrations, corn-plantin…
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El Osario
The Ossuary, otherwise known as the Bonehouse or the Tumba del Gran Sacerdote (High Priest's Grave), is a ruined pyramid to the southwest of El Castillo. As with most of the buildings in this southern section, the architecture is more Puuc than Toltec. It's notable for the beautiful serpent heads at the base of its staircases. A square shaft at the top of the structure leads into a cave beneath it that was used as a burial chamber; seven tombs with human remains were discovered inside. These days a snack bar with telephone and toilets stands nearby.
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Chichén Itzá
The most famous and best restored of the Yucatán Maya sites, Chichén Itzá, while tremendously overcrowded – every gawker and his or her grandmother is trying to check off the new seven wonders of the world – will still impress even the most jaded visitor. Many mysteries of the Maya astronomical calendar are made clear when one understands the design of the ‘time temples’ here. Other than a few minor passageways, climbing on the structures is not allowed.
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Cenote Sagrado
From the tzompantli, a 300m rough stone road runs north (a five-minute walk) to the huge sunken well that gave this city its name. The Sacred Cenote is an awesome natural well, some 60m in diameter and 35m deep. The walls between the summit and the water's surface are ensnared in tangled vines and other vegetation. There are ruins of a small steam bath next to the cenote, as well as a modern drinks stand with toilets.
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Ik Kil Parque Ecoarqueológico
A little over 3km southeast of the eastern entrance to the ruins is Ik Kil Parque Ecoarqueológico, whose cenote has been developed into a divine swimming spot. Small cascades of water plunge from the high limestone roof, which is ringed by greenery. It has a good buffet and nice cabañas onsite. Get your swim in by no later than 1pm to beat the tour groups.
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Chilam Balam Auditorio
The Chilam Balam Auditorio next to the museum, sometimes has video shows about Chichén and other Mexican sites. The picture quality can be truly abominable, but the air-con is great. In the central space of the visitors center stands a scale model of the archaeological site, and off toward the toilets is an exhibit on Edward Thompson's excavations of the Cenote Sagrado.
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Plataforma de los Cráneos
The Platform of Skulls, tzompantli in Náhuatl, a Maya dialect, is located between the Templo de los Jaguares and El Castillo. You can't mistake it, because the T-shaped platform is festooned with carved skulls and eagles tearing open the chests of men to eat their hearts. In ancient days this platform was used to display the heads of sacrificial victims.
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Akab-Dzib
East of the Nunnery, the Puuc-style Akab-Dzib is thought by some archaeologists to be the most ancient structure excavated here. The central chambers date from the 2nd century. The name means 'Obscure Writing' in Maya and refers to the south-side annex door, whose lintel depicts a priest with a vase etched with hieroglyphics that have never been translated.
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Caverns
The turnoff for the caverns is 5km east of Chichén Itzá (about 5km southeast of Cenote Ik Kil) on the highway to Cancún. Second-class buses heading east from Pisté toward Valladolid and Cancún will drop you at the Balankanché road. The entrance to the caves is 350m north of the highway.
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Plataforma de las Águilas y los Jaguares
Adjacent to the tzompantli, the carvings on the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars depict those animals gruesomely grabbing human hearts in their claws. It is thought that this platform was part of a temple dedicated to the military legions responsible for capturing sacrificial victims.
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Grutas de Balankanché
The Grutas de Balankanché are located 5km east of the ruins of Chichén Itzá, on the highway to Cancún. Compulsory 40-minute tours (minimum six people) are accompanied by poorly recorded narrations: English (11am, 1pm and 3pm), Spanish (9am, noon, 2pm and 4pm) and French (10am).
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museum
The visitors center has a small but worthwhile museum, with sculptures, reliefs, artifacts and explanations in Spanish, English and French.
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