Tour Of The Mayan Ruins And The Chichen-Itza Pyramid Review

ChrisDefiance's review

Breathtaking!

From Trip to Cancun in Cancun, Mexico on Aug 23 '05

The Mayan ruins of Chichen-Itza are an architectural treasure in breathtaking proportions. The Mayans had been living here, dating back to 2600bc so it's a fantastic site to still see after all these years. A Mayan City showing magnificence of a culture filled with a rich culture of art, mysticism and a harmony with Mother Nature. It is recommended that full protection from the sun is taken as the ruins themselves are in direct sunlight and there is a lot of open space. The trip itself lasted the day with groups of people being taken up to a Sacrificial Cenote first and then onto a Mayan ball court and up to the big pyramid and temples themselves.

The Sacrificial Cenote was a centre of pilgrimage to which people flocked from every part of the peninsula and from foreign countries to make offerings of gold, incense, copper, precious stones and human victims. The well itself was very deep (about seventy feet!) and the Mayans believed that it was inhabited by the gods and the spirits of the illustrious dead. The well served no real purpose as the Mayans had their own water supply. It also appeared very green which was probably because of all the trees which surrounded it. Chichen Itzá was named after an Indian who lived beside the Sacrificial Cenote who was called Ah Kin Itzá so this is where the name originated.

After a tour of the Sacrificial Cenote, your eyes are distracted by the breathtaking architecture of the ceremonial temples and the huge pyramid in the centre of the open ground which I'm sure you will definitely notice on your way in! The Mayans were skilled farmers and mathematicians. They had invented the calendar that we use today and had constructed large cities without the use of metal tools. The Mayans were also keen sportsman and built huge ball courts to play games while the Mayan King would often sit and watch. Our guide sent one of the tourists to the other side of the court about 500 feet away to express the length of the pitch. Two teams would often play against each other on these courts. Legend would say that the winning captain would have his head removed by the losing captain which was an honour among the people. The winning captain apparently would get a direct ticket to heaven instead of going through the 13 steps that the Mayan's believed they had to go through in order to reach heaven. Just around the corner of the court, there were skull carvings in the walls which in theory represented all the sacrifices that had taken place due to these sporting events.

The massive pyramid in the centre called 'El Castillo' is roughly in the middle of the whole park. The construction of the Kukulcán Pyramid at Chichén Itzá was planned so that at each Vernal Equinox, the dying sun would cast a shadow of a serpent writhing down the steps of the pyramid. It truly is a breathtaking site and I had the privilege to climb it's challenging steps before seeing the fantastic view of the whole area (It's hard to walk back down because it's almost a vertical drop so I decided to go down backward crouched at first while most of the crowd around me opted for the rope!). There was also a small room at the top which was empty and contained a musty smell but still worth a look nevertheless. Climbing the pyramid is now unavailable for safety reasons so you could say I was extremely lucky at the time with the closure being just a few months after. This magnificent site in itself has now become one of the new 'Seven Wonders Of The World' and it attracts around 40,000 people a year who want to go and see it. I'd definitely recommend it to anybody!

Just either side of the pyramid are two temples called 'The Temple of The Jaguar' and 'The Temple of The Warriors' which are surrounded by columns. These are placed quite close to the jungle and continue on inside which shows how much of the jungle has grown back. If you venture into the jungle, you can find other small temples which were where the priests lived and also an observatory or Carocal as it was named. Unfortunately due to time, I did not get to visit the inside of it which was a privilege I received with each of the ruins that were there.

The Mayan society thrived with independent states for many years. It was not until around 900AD that the Mayans mysteriously evacuated their temples and cities which are still standing today.