Chichén Viejo is the enigmatic less explored area of Chichén Itzá. Chichén Viejo is called the part of the archaeological zone of Chichén Itzá that will be open to the public for the first time in September 2023.

The area of Chichen Viejo is still being meticulously explored by researchers and archaeologists.

As they delve deeper into its enigmatic depths, an array of previously unknown findings are being unearthed, offering intriguing glimpses into the diverse and captivating legacy left behind by its ancient Mayan inhabitants.

The discoveries made in Chichén Viejo add up to eight structures, four platforms, habitation vestiges, a wall with six entrances, and recently, the tomb of a ruler or personage of the Mayan elite, who belonged to the Canules dynasty.

The discovered buildings of Chichen Viejo:

• The Temple of the Initial Series (“El Templo de la Serie Inicial”)
• The Stucco Structure (“La Estructura de los Estucos”)
• The Temple of the Atlantean Columns (“El Templo de las Columnas Atlantes”)
• The Palace of the Phalluses (“El Palacio de los Falos”)
• The House of Snails (“La Casa de los Caracoles”)
• The Temple of the Owls (“El Templo de los Búhos”)
• The Gallery of the Monkeys (“La Galería de los Monos”)
• The Turtle Platform (“La Plataforma de la Tortuga”)

Chichen Itza has been called one of the seven wonders of the modern world. Among its main structures, El Castillo, El Caracol (or observatory), the Ball Court, and the Temple of a thousand columns stand out.

One of the most important finds in Chichén Itzá was the sacred cenote, from which various offerings and bones were extracted from the maidens who were sacrificed to the gods, and sometimes also the prisoners of war were sacrificed and thrown into that seemingly bottomless pit.

Undoubtedly one of the most important archaeological sites of the Mayan culture in Yucatan, El Castillo was one of the great temples that were built near the end of the splendor of that culture.

Palenque is a Cultural Heritage of Humanity, it is located in the state of Chiapas, and its magnificent sculptures and buildings tell us the story of the man who tries to understand and explain the universe.

Its most important building is the Great Palace, the Temple of the Inscriptions, the Temple of the Foliated Cross, and the Great Ball Court.

One of the most important finds in Palenque was undoubtedly the tomb of Pakal II, whose stela adorns this entrance, and although there are many theories, it is most likely that the tree of life is portrayed, pointing the roots towards the underworld that was mysterious and attractive to the Mayans.

Without a doubt, the palace is its most important construction, since over 400 years it was built in various styles, with various architectural elements such as a tower, four patios, foundations, and stairways, among others.

One of the greatest exponents of the Puuc route is the archaeological zone of Uxmal, its main buildings are the Pyramid of the Magician, the Quadrangle of the Nuns, and the House of the Doves.

Among its ruins were stupendous masks of Chaac (god of rain) and also stelae with hieroglyphics.

One of the things that visitors can enjoy in Uxmal is the “light and sound show”, since entering an archaeological zone at night gives you a different perspective of how it is during the day.

In addition, those shows designed by the INAH allow you to enter to learn about the history and daily life of the ancient inhabitants of the place.

Tajin, Veracruz

One of the most beautiful pre-Hispanic buildings, it is undoubtedly the pyramid of the Nichos de Tajín, located in the state of Veracruz is a great exponent of the Totonaca culture.

Niches, reliefs, and mural paintings are the silent witnesses of that city that was known as the city of smoking temples since copal was constantly burned in its buildings.

It has 17 ball courts, which archaeologists have interpreted as a sign of multiculturalism since it was inhabited for almost 900 years, which speaks of periods of evolution within the same ethnic group.

One of the archaeological sites with which Mexico is identified is undoubtedly Teotihuacán, it is one of the most important ancient cities in the center of the country, Its name in Nahuatl means “city of the gods”.

At its time of maximum splendor, it had 100 thousand inhabitants. Its privileged location in a valley rich in natural resources made it a city as well as important for its architecture, an economic, political, religious, and cultural center of the time.

The most impressive thing is that even today we do not finish unraveling all its secrets, although we know that since Aztec times it was considered a sacred site.

Its extension available to the public is 264 hectares, in them, you can find the Pyramid of the Sun, the Pyramid of the Moon, the Citadel, the Calzada de Los Muertos, the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, so without a doubt, the best thing is to go to visit it and fill yourself with the energy and history that still lives within its walls.

One of the few archaeological sites found in the north of the country is Paquimé, which is located in the state of Chihuahua, a culture that adapted to fight and survive in the great expanse of the Chihuahuan desert and that left evidence of it with the impressive structures.

The most striking thing about Paquimé is perhaps the impressive play of light and shadows that are made when the sun shines from different heights in those labyrinths that housed hundreds of rooms, some with a very specific function and others simply residential.

The archaeological wealth of Yaxchilán is not only in its buildings but in the texts found on its stelae, altars, and lintels, which narrate the history of that city-state, with everything and its warlike conflicts, its alliances, and the exploits of its rulers.

One of the peculiarities of Yaxchilán is that it must be reached by boat with an outboard motor crossing the Usumacinta River. You should not miss the Acropolis, the Labyrinth, or the Ball Court, silent witnesses of the splendor of this city.

From the top of Structure 33, one of the tallest buildings in Chiapas archaeology, it is possible to observe the meandering Usumacinta River and also a part of the Guatemalan Petén, another area where the Mayan culture flourished.

Your visit can be even more enjoyable with good binoculars to observe the Lacandon Jungle from its acropolis.

Just 10 kilometers from the city of Oaxaca, is Monte Albán, a vestige of the Zapotec and Mixtec culture, since, like many of the pre-Hispanic cities, it was inhabited by different cultures over time.

According to its architecture, it has been determined that it was in contact with the powerful Teotihuacán.

Its main structures are the Ball Court, the Dancers Building, and the South Platform. In the esplanade called Great Plaza, the merchants were located to set up the market.

This city was founded around 500 BC. C. at the top of a hill in the central valleys of Oaxaca, it had up to 35 thousand inhabitants who lived on architecture, pottery, and mural painting.

One of the best-known images of Cholula is that of the church on a mound with the Popocatepetl as a backdrop, and it is that according to the story, the Spaniards tried to replace the indigenous gods with their God, and for this, they destroyed the ancient temples and built their churches on them. More or less this is the history of this city of Puebla, which is said to have more than 300 churches.

But speaking of the archaeological zone, we must mention Tlachihualteptl (which means hill made by hand), the pyramid on which the church of the Virgen de Los Remedios is built and whose base is 450 meters long on each side.

The Toltecs expelled from Tula were the ones who built this archaeological zone.

Cholula’s strategic location made it a privileged place for trade between the various pre-Hispanic ethnic groups, it has amazing murals in good condition of conservation that by themselves make it worth the visit.

A walled city that overlooks the Caribbean Sea from above, this is Tulum, a sacred site for the Mayans, which despite being so close to the sea, has murals and structures in very good condition. In Mayan, it received the name of Zamá, which means sunrise.

The Castle, on the highest part of the cliff, has on its facades sculptures of the descending god, who has sometimes been associated with Chaac, the god of rain, there is also the temple of the frescoes in whose corners you can also see masks of Chaac.

The visit to the site will take perhaps an hour and a half, but if you have a chance, I recommend you go down to the beach and take a quick dip, or at least a foot soak in the warm waters of the Caribbean.

Nohoch Mul is the highest pyramid in Cobá, previously, when it was possible to climb it, from the highest part there were three freshwater lagoons that the Mayans used to supply themselves. One of its most impressive and well-preserved structures is the Ball Court.

Many of the centuries-old trees that grew on the structures have been respected, giving them an overwhelming air.

The archaeological zone of Cobá is quite extensive, so after visiting the main buildings, I recommend renting a bicycle or a tricycle with a driver to reach the structures furthest from the entrance.

Its stelae tell us the history of this site, that although it was not inhabited by the ruling class, it did have a sacbé of more than 100 kilometers that reached a city near Chichén Itzá.

Of the eminently commercial character, Comalcalco (city of the Comales), is the westernmost city in the Mayan world, in it, objects that belonged to ethnic groups from other latitudes have been found both in the north of Mexico and south of Central America.

The Chontales who inhabited this area (and whose descendants still live there), were born merchants, even reaching Cacaxtla in Tlaxcala. In this place, the cultivation of cocoa was and is to this day one of the most fruitful economic activities.

The North Plaza, the Acropolis, and the Tomb of the Nine Lords are the best-preserved structures, and one of the attractions of this place is the contrast between the well-kept green areas and the grey and yellowish tones of the walls.

If you are a nature lover, and you love to observe flora and fauna, Calakmul is a city that you cannot miss on your itinerary to Campeche. In the middle of the biosphere reserve is the archaeological zone which means two adjacent mounds.

Much of the history of this site was captured in its stelae and in the beautiful wall paintings that are not yet open to the public as they are being prepared to be exhibited. Within the site, you can visit extensive ceremonial squares and places destined for the dwellings of the inhabitants.

Its majestic palace is a tall construction that dominates the jungle and if you arrive very early, from its summit you will be able to admire how little by little the blanket of fog that covers the place is rising at night.

The mural paintings that Bonampak houses are among the most representative of the Mayan world, many have been studies have been conducted to try to determine who are the portrayed characters and what passages of history each of those painted walls tell us.

On the Acropolis, there is Building I, in whose three rooms 112 square meters of these murals are preserved, which archaeologists have unraveled speak of a long battle.

Getting to Bonampak is not an easy task, because, after several forks in the road, you will find a dirt road that after 8 kilometers leads to a place from where you will be transported by vehicles from the Lacandon community.

Its name means Star Jaguar (according to other translators, it means Black Jaguar), and its Acropolis contains one of the most impressive examples of stucco work carried out by the Mayans. That palace was built as a tomb for one of their kings.

Inside it contains a ramp that the priests and rulers used so that the people did not see them ascend, but they saw them already at the top of the palace, which is one of the main doors is adorned with what looks like the jaws of a jaguar, and it is also possible to see human beings with wings as if they were angels.

From the entrance of the site you can be surprised with a magnificent Mayan arch, a sample of the advanced architecture of its architecture, also in its heyday, the city was protected by a double wall that had access at each cardinal point.

The place of red corn, this is how the name of Chacchoben translates, was one of the most important settlements in the lake area, and began to be populated before the birth of Christ, since the bodies of water attracted the inhabitants to settle around it, let us remember that in Quintana Roo there are only underground rivers.

The different buildings remind us of the style of other sites of the Mayan culture, but due to its size, one of the great temples that we see at the beginning of these paragraphs stands out, two stelae have also been found on the site and there are still sites to be explored.

Cacaxtla contains some murals that could well be confused with those of Bonampak due to their aesthetics, it was a city that after the fall of Cholula had the hegemony of the Puebla-Tlaxcala area.

It was a ceremonial center, a fortified city, it had defensive walls and moats and residential areas for the elite.

Its murals combine Mayan and Altiplano features, in one of the most imposing you can see the scene of a battle between Olmec jaguar warriors and Huastec birdmen who are clearly losing the fight, and some are shown naked or in different states of dismemberment.

The Great Basamento is its most important structure, in fact, different ceremonial buildings were built in it and it is where the priests had their homes.

Cantona, although it has only been open to the public for a short time, was a rival of Teotihuacán, in fact, it diverted the goods that were supposed to arrive in that city, which contributed to its decline. However, their power was hampered by a climate change that drained the lands and forced them to emigrate.

Obsidian was one of the main products that they traded and worked on in their various workshops, and in fact, being so close to the Citlaltépetl volcano from which they extracted it, it was possible for them to dominate the trade of this very valuable good for the ethnic groups of the center of the country.

In addition, due to its privileged position, it controlled trade between the center and the gulf side.

Cantona is considered the most urbanized city in pre-Hispanic Mexico, as evidenced by the more than 500 streets and 3 thousand residential patios that have been discovered, as well as its roads of more than a kilometer in length.

So far 24 ball courts have been discovered, which shows the great importance of this site.

Settled on a group of low hills, Xochicalco was one of the most important cities in Mesoamerica after the fall of Tenochtitlán, it has civic, residential, and religious buildings, as well as moats and walls, which tells us about a war era in the one that each city wanted to control its own territory.

Among the constructions that you can visit is the Great Pyramid, in the central plaza, the South Ball Court, and the Pyramid of the Feathered Serpents, which suggests that some southern Mayan groups would have emigrated to Xochicalco before the fall of their cities.

In this archaeological zone, you will find a rather peculiar observatory because it is located inside a cave that is accessed through a stairway carved in stone.

Tamtoc was a political and religious center that came to house up to 16,000 inhabitants, it was home to the Huasteca culture, which we know from its buildings with a circular base or with rounded corners. The inhabitants of Tamtoc were mainly engaged in astronomy and hydraulic engineering.

The other economic activities of Tamtoc were agriculture mainly of beans and corn, fishing and hunting of animals. Its inhabitants were sedentary and knew how to work obsidian, flint, gold, basalt, and copper.

An important characteristic of this culture is that it gave a very special value to women since she was considered a living symbol of fertility and also the owner of time due to her menstrual cycles.

In Colima due to its climate, and the some rains that usually fall each year, it is difficult to find pre-Hispanic settlements, however, there is the Potrero de la Campana, named like this because, before the excavation, the hill looked like a bell due to its trapezoidal shape.

Here you will find the famous shaft tombs, places where bodies and rich offerings were deposited, and which were accessed by a vertical shaft.

It is located between the Colima and Pereira rivers, which despite having little rainfall during the year, ensured their water supply. Its platforms are circular or quadrangular and it is possible to appreciate a Ball Game and innumerable petroglyphs.

One of the things that most attracts the attention of La Campana is its drainage and water distribution network, which tells us about advanced hydraulic engineering.

One of the most important settlements in the Guadiana Valley was in La Ferrería Durango, in it more than twenty structures with religious functions, housing, pyramids, patios have been identified, in short, almost all types of pre-Hispanic structures are found here.

There is evidence of astronomical observation, also of good hydraulic knowledge, since they used channels to evacuate rainwater. The House of the Leaders preserves its original drains and is oriented towards the Temascal hill, very important for the ruling elite.

There are also several engraved rocks in the area that tell us stories of daily life, hunting scenes, fertility rituals associated with the female figure, a representation of the birth of the sun, among others.

Mictlán was the name given in Nahuatl to the place of the dead, Hispanicized it remained in Mitla, this city of Zapotec and Mixtec origin surprises with the abundant decoration on its facades, made of limestone rock mosaics that form frets, and that it could remind us of the decorative motifs of other archaeological sites.

After the fall of Monte Albán, it was the most important site in Oaxaca, it contains five sets of monumental architecture.

Also in Mitla, the evangelizers built a church on one of its main palaces, this is how we see the church of San Pablo on that structure.

Monolithic columns are very important, as they were used both as structural and decorative elements. The stones for the construction of the San Pablo temple were obtained from the destruction of other pre-Hispanic structures and temples.

The Tarascans were a parallel culture in relevance to the Mexica, the big difference is that those of Michoacán were not so warlike, however, when they were attacked by the Tenochcas they had no qualms about fighting them and stopping them in their tracks, inflicting severe defeats on the most powerful Mexican rulers: Atzayácatl, Ahuizadotl, and Moctezuma Xocoyotzin.

The domain of the Tarascans extended from the Lerma River to the Balsas, occupying more than 75 thousand square kilometers. The city of Tzintzuntzan has a sobriety and austerity that contrasts with the ornamentation of the temples that the Spanish had the Tarascans built.

The name has to do with the hummingbird, a bird of great importance both for the Mexica for whom it represented the god Huitzilopochtli and for the Tarascans for whom it represented the god Tzintzuuquixu.

A place dedicated to trading, which had influence throughout Mesoamerica is Tula, they controlled the turquoise trade, and their occupation began at the same time that Teotihuacán began its decline.

The Giants or Atlanteans of Tula are very tall sculptures representing warriors.

While Quetzalcóatl reigned in those places, the palaces covered with feathers and jade were common, and due to the fertility of their lands, merchants came from other latitudes who brought cocoa, precious metals, jaguar skins, jade, and ceramics from Chiapas and Guatemala.

The Burned Palace and the two Ball Games with their hoops decorated with undulating serpents, are structures that you should not miss, and it is remarkable that the Atlanteans supported a palace, implying that the warfare was the sustenance of the universe.

But apart from the good temperature, the truth is that the many tourist places in Cancun and its hotel infrastructure are the main focus of travelers. Cancun is one with the most hotel infrastructure beach resorts in the Riviera Maya.

Variety of hotels in Cancun and the Riviera Maya

Cancun has a huge and varied hotel offer to respond to the millions of tourists who visit its surroundings every year. From cheaper options to others with more glamor, any traveler will be able to find his comfort zone during the days of his vacation.

Cancun is divided into 3 districts and one of them is the Hotel Zone, where the popular tourist area with shops and beaches is located.

There are almost two hundred hotels in Cancun, and the third part of them is luxury 5 and 4 stars Cancun hotels. Along with the classic B&B, there are many all-inclusive, family, and adult-only hotels for all budgets.

Beachscape Kin Ha Villas & Suites

Beachscape Kin Ha Villas & Suites is maybe the best Cancun four-star hotel.

This 4-star hotel, located just a few steps from the heart of the Hotel Zone, is ideal for anyone looking for a place to enjoy a quiet and relaxed atmosphere. It is a safe and quiet place where the whole family can enjoy to the fullest.

Beachscape Kin Ha Villas & Suites is an oceanfront resort that stands out for its magnificent view of the Caribbean Sea. Enjoy a delicious breakfast from the terrace of your room, which will make your stay a unique experience.

The privileged location of the Beachscape Kin Ha Villas & Suites offers the best beach in Cancun and just a few steps away, the heart of the hotel zone, discos, shopping malls, and golf courses.

Getting around

Zona Hostellera
Downtown
Punta Cancun
Museo Maya
Parque Ecológico Kabah
El Mirador
Nightlife

How to get there?

Ferry boats run from Cancun to Isla Mujeres and vice-versa all day.

Ferry from/to Puerto Juarez 8$ (30 min) every 30 min.
Ferry via Playa de Tortugas 16$ (40 min) every 2 hours.

Getting around

You can visit Turtle Farm
The 19th-century hacienda was built by pirate Fermin Mundaca.
There is a small ruin and a temple to Ixchel.
You also can take a Whale Shark Tour, snorkel at Garrafon Park, and swim with dolphins at Dolphin Discovery Park.
Swim at multiple beaches.
Or just rent a bike and go around and have fun.

Attention!

Don’t forget to check when the last ferry runs to Cancun.

How to get there?

A lot of buses during the day, estimated time on the road is from 2:00 to 2:45 hours.
Better to buy or reserve tickets yesterday evening.
Multiple operators service this route.

First Class bus: $18-$26
Economy Class Bus: $8-$13

Getting around

Downtown
Cenote Zaci

How to get there?

Bus: Valladolid – Tizimin $1-$21 (1:05 hour), each hour
Bus: Tizimin – Rio Lagartos $3 (1:15 hour), each 2 hours
Taxi: Rio Lagartos – Ria Lagartos Reserve $1-$2 (8-10 min)

Getting around

Guided boat tour

Attention!

Don’t forget to check when the last bus returns to Tizimin and then to Valladolid.

How to get there?

Bus: Valladolid – Chichen Itza $1-$21 (0:42 min), runs each 4 hours a day.
Then around 2 km more in a taxi: $1 (1 min)

Or just search for “colectivo”, they run directly to the site.

Getting around

The famous pyramid, mysterious cenote, and ball court. Just walk around and have fun, there is a lot to see around.

Attention!

Don’t forget to check when the last bus or “colectivo” return to Valladolid.

You could stay in Valladolid, walking around and take a bus to Merida by the evening.

How to get there?

Buses from Valladolid to Medira run each hour or even more often during all the day.
Multiple operators service this route.

Valladolid – Merida $4-$26 (2:15 hours)
Valladolid – Izamal – Merida $1-$4 (3:20 hours)

Getting around

Mérida has a “centro histórico” (“hisctoric center”) typical of colonial spanish cities.
Just take a walk and enjoy this beautiful town with a lot of history.

How to get there?

There are a route via Hoctún and another route via Euán.

Buses from Merida to Hoctún $1-$3 (0:54 min) run hourly during the day.
Buses from Hoctún to Aké $4-$6 (0:24 min).

Buses from Merida to Euán (1:00 hour) run each hour during the day.
Buses from Euán to Aké $1-$3 (0:11 min).

Getting around

The 19th-century hacienda henequenera with chapel also has a specialized area for raising deer.
The hacienda also has a small archaeological site of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization.

Entrance fee

The tour duration: 1:30 (approx):

MXN 250 (includes a free drink).
MXN 400 (includes free drinks and snacks).

Attention!

Don’t forget to check when the last bus or “colectivo” return to Merida.

How to get there?

Merida – Uxmal

Bus $2-$9 (1:35 hours) runs once daily.
Taxi $15-$19 (1:15 hours)

Attention!

Don’t forget to check when the last bus returns from Uxmal to Merida.

Bus Merida – Izamal $1-$4 (1:20 hours), each hour.

Bus Merida – Ticul $2-$4 (1 hour), each 30 min.
Taxi Ticul – Mani $3-$4 (15 min).

How to get there?

Buses from Merida to Campeche are $5-$28 (2:25 hours) and run each 30 minutes daily.
Buses from Merida via Umán and Tenabo to Campeche for $7 (4:10 hours) run every 30 min daily.
Taxi $30-$40 (2:30 hours)

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How to get there?

Taxi $10-$20 (0:55 min)

Attention!

Don’t forget to check when the last taxi returns to Campeche.

How to get there?

Bus from Campeche to Chetumal for $17-$40 (6:45 hours) runs just once daily at 14:00.
Taxi $70-$85 (5:50 hours)

…

How to get there?

Buses to Bacalar $1-$2 (0:30 min) run each hour daily.
Taxi $7-$9 (0:35 min).

Attention!

Don’t forget to check when the last bus, “colectivo” or taxi returns to Chetumal.

How to get there?

Buses Chetumal to Playa del Carmen $14-$45 (4:15 hours) run each hour daily.
There are also buses from Chetumal via Bacalar to Playa del Carmen $18-$61 (4:50 hours), each hour daily.
Taxi $80-$100 (4:50 hours)

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Bus to Cancun (1:10 hours).

Over Christmas 2005, eighty-year-old Adeline Lorraine Schiller Black was on vacation, with family and friends, in Mexico City. Mrs. Black by all accounts, was a fit, healthy, inspirational woman, with a zest for life.

She spent a lot of her latter years canyoneering. She was already planning her next vacation, even while on this one.

After three weeks in Mexico, Mrs. Black and her family were due to return home to Clairemont, San Diego, USA, but there was one last day for an adventure. On January 5th, 2006, Mrs. Black and her family chose to travel down to Chichén Itzá.

Once there, Mrs. Black did not want to miss out on the experience of a lifetime, so she climbed the 91 steps of El Castillo.

All was well on the way up, but the descent is famously difficult. It was also noon, so the temperature was soaring, even for January. Around the 46th step, 18 meters above the ground, Mrs. Black slipped. She tried but failed, to grab the guide rope.

In front of a crowd of horrified, helpless staff and tourists, Mrs. Black fell down the remaining steps of the pyramid.

Medical assistance was immediate. The ambulance, permanently stationed at the foot of El Castillo, was mobilized. Its crew administered aid at the scene and then rushed her to the nearby Regional de Valladolid Hospital.

Unfortunately, the lady’s head and neck injuries were too severe.

Despite the best efforts of the hospital personnel there, Mrs. Black died four hours later.

The climate in the Yucatan peninsula is hot and dry. There is also tropical rain with hot and predominant trade winds most time of the year. Valladolid features a tropical wet and dry climate.

The city lies in the trade wind belt close to the Tropic of Cancer, with the prevailing wind from the east. Valladolid’s climate is hot and humidity is moderate to high, depending on the time of year.

The average temperature ranges from 28 °C in January to 36 °C in May, but temperatures often rise above 38 °C in the afternoon during this time. Low temperatures range between 18 °C in January to 23 °C in May and June.

It is most often a few degrees hotter in Valladolid than coastal areas due to its inland location and low elevation.

The rainy season runs from June through October, associated with the Mexican monsoon which draws warm, moist air landward. Easterly waves and tropical storms also affect the area during this season.

Valladolid is named after the Spanish city of Valladolid, at the time the capital of Spain. The word “Valladolid” derives from the Arabic expression Ballad Al-Walid بلد الوليد, which means “city of Al-Walid”, referring to Al-Walid I.

The first Valladolid in Yucatán was established by Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo’s nephew on May 27, 1543, at some distance from the current town, at a lagoon called Chouac-Ha in the municipality of Tizimin.

However, early Spanish settlers complained about the mosquitos and humidity at the original location and petitioned to have the city moved further inland.

On March 24, 1545, Valladolid was relocated to its current location, built atop a Maya town called Zaci or Zaci-Val, whose buildings were dismantled to reuse the stones to build the Spanish colonial town.

The following year the Maya people revolted but were put down with additional Spanish troops coming from Mérida.

Valladolid had a population of 15,000 in 1840. In January 1847, the native Mayans rioted, killing some 80 whites and sacking their houses. After a Mayan noble was shot by a firing squad, the riot became a general uprising.

The city and the surrounding region were the scene of an intense battle during Yucatán’s Caste War, and the Latino forces were forced to abandon Valladolid on March 14, 1848, with half being killed by ambush before they reached Mérida.

The city was sacked by the Mayan rebels but was recaptured later in the war.

Until the beginning of the 20th century, Valladolid was the third largest and most important city of the Yucatán Peninsula, (after Mérida and Campeche). It had a sizable well-to-do Criollo population, with several old Spanish-style mansions in the old city.

Valladolid was widely known by its nickname The Sultana of the East.

It is worth noting that principal sites are very well marked with bi-lingual signage, making this a truly hospitable place for English speakers. The local police are very friendly, speak English well, and are happy to give directions.

Valladolid is a great city to spend the day exploring the history and culture the Yucatan peninsula has to offer.

The notable sights to visit in Valladolid are the colonial-era cathedral Ex-convent and church Convent of San Bernardino de Siena named after Saint Bernardino of Siena which was built by Franciscan missionaries between 1552 and 1560.

Located in the Sisal neighborhood and a short 10-minute walk from downtown it also has a wonderful park where you can sit and enjoy tranquility and peacefulness.

In downtown Valladolid, you can find the cathedral of San Gervacio located in the main square of the city.

Valladolid has a chessboard-like street grid and at the city center, it’s a plaza with a park square in the middle surrounded by stores where you can enjoy a walk and purchase souvenirs, food, or refreshments.

The Cenote Zaci is located a couple of blocks from the center of Valladolid. This freshwater cenote or underground sinkhole is where you can access the inside and explore its cave. There is also a restaurant and artisans selling handicrafts.

Valladolid is a popular base for visiting nearby major Mayan ruins such as Chichen Itza and Ek’ Balam, as well as Cenote Ik Kilso.

Downtown Valladolid

• Cathedral of “San Servacio o Gervasio”
• Main center park “Francisco Cantón Rosado”
• Municipal Palace (Palacio Municipal)
• Cenote Zaci
• House of the Culture (Casa de la Cultura)
• House of the Deer (Casa de los Venados)
• Mercado de Artesanías (Handcraft Market)
• Centro Artesanal Zaci (Handcraft center Zaci)
• Bazar Municipal
• Museo San Roque
• Parque de los Héroes (Park of the Heroes)
• Las 5 Calles

Sisal Neighbourhood

• Temple and former Convent de “San Bernandino de Siena”
• “Calzada de los Frailes”
• Park of Sisal (parque de Sisal)

Candelaria Neighbourhood

• Church of “Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria”
• Park of “Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria”
• Ex Telar “La Aurora”
• Municipal Market (Mercado Municipal) “Donato Bates Herrera”

Santa Lucia Neighbourhood

• Church de “Santa Lucía”
• Park de Santa Lucía

San Juan Neighbourhood

• Church de San Juan de Dios
• Park de San Juan de Dios

Other locations

• Cenote Suytun
• Cenote Xkeken
• Cenote Samulha

The typical dish of the region is “Lomitos de Valladolid” which is a pork dish in fresh tomato sauce.

Cochinita pibil meat marinated in achiote, which comes from the Bixa orellana bitter orange, and spices, wrapped in Banana leaf and barbecued or baked in a pit.

“Lechon al horno”, “bistek de cazuela”, “relleno negro” which is turkey cooked with a paste of charred chillies and vegetables with bits of hard-boiled eggs, “frijol con puerco” and chicken in escabeche.

Valladolid is also known for its longaniza which is a type of pork-based salami sausage with traditional condiments. Local traditional candies are based on materials from the region such as honey, coconut, corn, and others.

Traditional ice cream is very popular and a must have on your visit. The most common flavors are coconut, corn, and fruits of the region as “guanabana” or Soursop, “mamey” or Pouteria sapota Sapote, and others.

Valladolid has a structured road service which makes it easy to travel around. Travelers driving through the peninsula have the option of taking the federal road or the toll route and both roads go through Valladolid.

In the city, there are taxi services at reasonable rates and public transportation which is popular for students and locals but not recommended for tourists.

There is an Autobuses de Oriente bus terminal situated in the heart of the city which serves to the travelers going to all major cities in the Yucatan peninsula, such as Mérida, Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum.

There are also buses going to Chichen Itza Coba and Ek’ Balam.

Valladolid is a perfect place to stay there for a while exploring the surrounding areas in daily tours on your own or guided ones.

Suggested 1-day tours from Valladolid

• Ek Balam
• Ria Lagartos
• Chichen Itza
• Chichen Itza + Balankanche Grottoes
• Chichen Itza + Yaxunah
• Izamal
• Coba
• Tizimin

For more information about all these suggested places to visit and how to get there, use the search form on our website or related tags.

Mérida is located in the northwest part of the state of Yucatán, which occupies the northern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula.

The city is also located in the Chicxulub Crater. It has a very flat topography and is only 9 m above sea level.

The land outside of Mérida is covered with smaller scrub trees and former henequen fields. Almost no surface water exists, but several cenotes (underground springs and rivers) are found across the state.

Climate

Merida features a tropical wet and dry climate. The city lies in the trade wind belt close to the Tropic of Cancer, with the prevailing wind from the east. Mérida’s climate is hot and its humidity is moderate to high, depending on the time of year.

The average annual high temperature is 33°C, ranging from 28°C in January to 36°C in May, but temperatures often rise above 38°C in the afternoon during this time.

Low temperatures range between 18°C in January to 23°C in May and June. It is most often a few degrees hotter in Mérida than in coastal areas due to its inland location and low elevation.

The rainy season runs from June through October, associated with the Mexican monsoon which draws warm, moist air landward. Easterly waves and tropical storms also affect the area during this season.

Mérida was named after the Spanish town of the same name.
It is the largest of the four cities in the world that share the name Mérida, the other three being in Spain, Venezuela, and the Philippines.

Mérida has been nicknamed “The White City” (La Ciudad Blanca), though the exact origin of this moniker is not clear.

Some explanations include the common color of its old buildings painted and decorated with “cal” (though anyone visiting modern Mérida can see that buildings are not all white nowadays) or the fact that the residents keep the city particularly clean.

There were three Spanish conquistadors named “Francisco de Montejo”:

• Francisco de Montejo “el Adelantado” (“The Lieutenant”, the eldest)
• Francisco de Montejo y León “el Mozo” (“The Boy”, his son)
• Francisco de Montejo “el Sobrino” (“The Nephew”)

Mérida was founded in 1542 by Montejo y León (“el Mozo”) and named after the town of Mérida in Extremadura, Spain.

It was built on the site of the Maya city of T’hó, which was also called Ichkanzihóo or Ichcaanzihó (“City of Five Hills”) in reference to its pyramids. T’ho had been a center of Mayan culture and activity for centuries: because of this, some historians consider Mérida the oldest continually occupied city in the Americas.

Carved Maya stones from ancient T’ho were widely used to build the Spanish colonial buildings that are plentiful in downtown Mérida and are visible, for instance, in the walls of the main cathedral.

Much of Mérida’s architecture from the colonial period through the 18th century and 19th centuries is still standing in the historic center of the city. From colonial times through the mid-19th century, Mérida was a walled city intended to protect the Peninsular and Criollo residents from periodic revolts by the indigenous Maya.

Several of the old Spanish city gates survive, but modern Mérida has expanded well beyond the old city walls.

Late in the 19th century and the early 20th Century, the area surrounding Mérida prospered from the production of henequén. For a brief period, around the turn of the 20th century, Mérida was said to house more millionaires than any other city in the world.

The result of this concentration of wealth can still be seen today. Many large and elaborate homes still line the main avenue called Paseo de Montejo, though few are occupied today by individual families.

Many of these homes have been restored and now serve as office buildings for banks and insurance companies. Korean immigration to Mexico began in 1905 when more than a thousand people arrived in Yucatan from the city of Incheon.

These first Korean migrants settled around Merida as workers in henequen plantations.

Mérida has one of the largest centro histórico districts in the Americas (surpassed only by Mexico City and Havana, Cuba).

Colonial homes line the city streets to this day, in various states of disrepair and renovation; the historical center of Mérida is currently undergoing a minor renaissance as more and more people are moving into the old buildings and reviving their former glory.

In August 1993, Pope John Paul II visited the city on his third trip to Mexico. The city has been host to two bilateral United States – Mexico conferences, the first in 1999 (Bill Clinton – Ernesto Zedillo) and the second in 2007 (George W. Bush – Felipe Calderón).

In June 2007, Mérida moved its city museum to the renovated Post Office building next to the downtown market. The Museum of the City of Mérida houses important artifacts from the city’s history, as well as an art gallery.

Mérida hosted the VI Summit of Association of Caribbean States, in 2014.

Mérida is the cultural and financial capital of the Yucatán Peninsula, as well as the capital city of the state of Yucatán. In recent years, important science competitions and World events have been held in Mérida – FITA Archery World Cup Finals, the International Cosmic Ray Conference, a Physics Olympiad, etc.

Mérida has a “centro histórico” (“hisctoric center”) typical of colonial Spanish cities.

The street grid is based on odd-numbered streets running east/west and even-numbered streets running north/south, with Calles 60 and 61 bounding the “Plaza Grande” in the heart of the city.

The more affluent neighborhoods are located to the north and the most densely populated areas are to the south.

The “Centro Histórico” area is becoming increasingly popular with Americans and other expats who are rescuing and restoring the classic colonial structures.

Historic sites

• Monumento à la Patria (1956)
• Palacio de Gobierno (1892)
• Catedral de San Ildefonso (1598), first in the continental Americas
• Barrio y Capilla de Santa Lucía (1575)
• Barrio y Templo Parroquial del antiguo pueblo de Itzimná
• Barrio y Templo Parroquial de San Cristóbal (1796)
• Barrio y Templo Parroquial de San Sebastián (1706)
• Barrio y Templo Parroquial de Santa Ana (1733)
• Barrio y Templo Parroquial de Santa Lucía (1575)
• Barrio y Templo Parroquial de Santiago (1637)
• Capilla de Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria (1706)
• Capilla y parque de San Juan Bautista (1552)
• Casa de Montejo (1549)
• Antiguo convento de Nuestra Señora de la Consolación (Nuns)(1596)
• Iglesia del Jesús o de la Tercera Orden (Third Order) (1618)
• Templo de San Juan de Dios (1562)

Mérida has served as the American Capital of Culture in the years 2000 and 2017.

Each year, the MACAY Museum in Mérida mounts a new sculpture installation, featuring works from Mexico and one other chosen country. Each exhibit remains for ten months of the year. In 2007, sculptures on Paseo de Montejo featured works by artists from Mexico and Japan.

For English speakers or would-be speakers, Mérida has the Mérida English Library, a lending library with an extensive collection of English books, videos, tapes, and children’s books. The library is also the site for expatriate meetings, children’s storytelling hours, and other cultural events.

Mérida is also home to the Yucatan Symphony Orchestra, which plays regular seasons at the Jose Peon Contreras Theatre on Calle 60 and features classical music, jazz, and opera.

Cultural centers

• Centro Cultural Andrés Quintana Roo, in Santa Ana, with galleries and artistic events
• Centro Cultural Olimpo. Next to the Municipal Palace in the Plaza Grande
• Casa de la Cultura del Mayab, the Casa de Artesanías (house of handcrafts) resides there. It’s in downtown Mérida
• Centro Estatal de Bellas Artes (CEBA). Across the El Centenario, offers classes and education in painting, music, theater, ballet, jazz, folklore, and Spanish dance, among others
• Centro Cultural del Niño Yucateco (CECUNY) in Mejorada, in a 16th-century building, with classes and workshops specifically designed for kids
• Centro Cultural Dante is a private center within one of the major bookstores in Mérida (Librería Dante)

Museums

• Gran Museo del Mundo Maya, Yucatán’s Mayan Museum, offers a view of Yucatán’s history and identity
• Museo de Antropología e Historia “Palacio Cantón”, Yucatán’s History and Archaeology Museum
• Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Ateneo de Yucatán (MACAY), in the heart of the city right next to the Cathedral. Permanent and rotating pictorial expositions
• Museo de la Canción Yucateca Asociación Civil in Mejorada, honors the trova yucateca authors, Ricardo Palmerín, Guty Cárdenas, Juan Acereto, Pastor Cervera y Luis Espinosa Alcalá
• Museo de la Ciudad de Mérida, in the old Correos (post office) building since 2007 offers information about the city from the prehispanic times’ Tho’ or Ichcaanzihó to current days
• Museo de Historia Natural, natural history museum
• Museo de Arte Popular, a popular art museum, offers a view of popular artistry and handcrafts among ethnic Mexican groups and cultures
• Museo Conmemorativo de la Inmigración Coreana a Yucatán

Major theaters with regular shows

• Teatro José Peón Contreras
• Teatro Daniel Ayala Pérez
• Teatro Mérida (Now Teatro Armando Manzanero)
• Teatro Colón
• Teatro Universitario Felipe Carrillo Puerto
• Teatro Héctor Herrera

Mérida and the state of Yucatán have traditionally been isolated from the rest of the country by geography, creating a unique culture. The conquistadors found the Mayan culture to be incredibly resilient, and their attempts to eradicate Mayan tradition, religion, and culture had only moderate success.

The surviving remnants of the Mayan culture can be seen every day, in speech, dress, and in both written and oral histories. It is especially apparent in holidays like Hanal Pixan, a Mayan/Catholic Day of the Dead celebration.

It falls on November 1 and 2 (one day for adults, and one for children) and is commemorated by elaborate altars dedicated to dead relatives. It is a compromise between the two religions with crucifixes mingled with skull decorations and food sacrifices/offerings.

Merida is a perfect city to stay there for a while exploring the surrounding areas in daily tours on your own or guided ones.

Suggested 1-day tours from Merida:

• Uxmal + Kabah
• Uxmal + Kabah + Sayil + Xlapak + Labna + Chacmultun (Puuc Route)
• Acanceh + Mayapan
• Ake + Izamal
• Mani
• Dzibilchatun
• Progreso + Xcambo
• Celestun + Ria Celestun
• Chichen Itza

For more information about all these suggested places to visit and how to get there, use the search form on our website or related tags.

Bus

City service is mostly provided by four local transportation companies: Unión de Camioneros de Yucatán (UCY), Alianza de Camioneros de Yucatán (ACY), Rápidos de Mérida, and Minis 2000.

Bus transportation is at the same level or better than that of bigger cities like Guadalajara or Mexico City. Climate-controlled buses and micro-bus (smaller in size) are not uncommon.

The main bus terminal (CAME) offers first-class (ADO) and luxury services (ADO PLATINO, ADO GL) to most southern Mexico cities outside Yucatán with a fleet consisting of Mercedes Benz and Volvo buses.

Shorter intrastate routes are serviced by many smaller terminals around the city, mainly downtown.

Taxis

Several groups and unions offer Taxi transportation: Frente Único de los Trabajadores del Volante (FUTV) (white taxis), Unión de Taxistas Independientes (UTI), and Radiotaxímetros de Yucatán, among others. Some of them offer metered service, but most work based on a flat rate depending on the destination.

Competition has made it of more common use than it was years ago.

Taxis can be either found at one of many predefined places around the city (Taxi de Sitio), waved off along the way, or called in. Usually, a taxi will respond and arrive within 5 minutes.

Another type of Taxi service is called “Colectivo”. Colectivo taxis work like small buses on a predefined route and for a small fare. Usually accommodating 8 to 10 people.

Uber also offers services in Merida

Air

Mérida is serviced by Manuel Crescencio Rejón International Airport with daily non-stop services to major cities in Mexico (D.F, Monterrey, Villahermosa, Cancún, Guadalajara, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Toluca) and international (Miami, Houston, La Havana) and usually receiving charter flight services to and from Europe and Canada.

Also, there is a good amount of freight and cargo planes moving in and out. As of 2006, more than a million passengers were using this airport every year, (1.3 in 2007) and it is under ASUR administration.

Train

There is a passenger train service to the city. The Meridano train runs from Mexico City to Merida.

Roads

Main roads in and out of Mérida:

• Mérida-Progreso (Federal 261), 33 km long with 8 lanes. It joins the city with Yucatán’s biggest port city, Progreso
• Mérida-Umán-Campeche (Federal 180), connects with the city of San Francisco de Campeche
• Mérida-Kantunil-Cancún (Federal 180), 4 lane road that becomes a Toll road at kantunil. It joins Mérida with Chichén Itzá, Valladolid, and ultimately Cancún
• Mérida-Tizimín (Federal 176) connects Mérida with Tizimín (2nd. largest city in Yucatán)
• Mérida-Teabo-Peto is known as Mundo Maya Road Carretera del Mundo Maya, its utilized in both the “convent route” Ruta de los Conventos, and linking the ancient maya city of Mayapán and Chetumal, the state capital of Quintana Roo

Chichen Itza is located in the northern Yucatán.

The northern Yucatán Peninsula is arid, and the rivers in the interior all run underground. There are two large, natural sinkholes, called cenotes, that could have provided plentiful water year-round at Chichen.

One of the cenotes, the “Cenote Sagrado” (“Sacred Cenote”), is the most famous. Pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into this cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac.

Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910 and recovered artifacts of gold, jade, pottery, and incense, as well as human remains. Studies have confirmed that this is a human sacrifice.

The Mayan name of the place “Chi’ch’èen Ìitsha” in Yucatec maya means “at the mouth of the well of the Itza”. This derives from the word chi’ (“mouth” or “edge”) and the word ch’en or ch’e’en (“well”).

Itzá is the name of an ethnic-lineage group that gained political and economic dominance of the northern peninsula. One possible translation for Itza is “enchanter (or enchantment) of the water” from its (“sorcerer”) and ha (“water”).

The name is spelled Chichén Itzá in Spanish, and the accents are sometimes maintained in other languages to show that both parts of the name are stressed on their final syllable.

Other references prefer the Maya orthography, Chichen Itza. This form preserves the phonemic distinction between ch’ and ch, since the base word ch’e’en (which, however, is not stressed in Maya) begins with a postalveolar ejective affricate consonant.

The word “Itza'” has a high tone on the “a” followed by a glottal stop (indicated by the apostrophe).

Evidence in the Chilam Balam books indicates another, earlier name for this city prior to the arrival of the Itza hegemony in northern Yucatán. While most sources agree the first word means seven, there is considerable debate as to the correct translation of the rest.

This earlier name is difficult to define because of the absence of a single standard of orthography, but it is represented variously as Uuc Yabnal (“Seven Great House”), Uuc Hab Nal (“Seven Bushy Places”), Uucyabnal (“Seven Great Rulers”) or Uc Abnal (“Seven Lines of Abnal”).

This name, dating to the Late Classic Period, is recorded both in the book of Chilam Balam de Chumayel and in hieroglyphic texts in the ruins.

Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the Northern Maya Lowlands from the Late Classic (c. AD 600–900) through the Terminal Classic (c. AD 800–900) and into the early portion of the Postclassic period (c. AD 900–1200).

The layout of the Chichen Itza site core was developed during its earlier phase of occupation, between 750 and 900 AD. Its final layout was developed after 900 AD, and the 10th century saw the rise of the city as a regional capital controlling the area from central Yucatán to the north coast, with its power extending down the east and west coasts of the peninsula. The earliest hieroglyphic date discovered at Chichen Itza is equivalent to 832 AD, while the last known date was recorded in the Osario temple in 998.

Establishment

The Late Classic city was centered upon the area to the southwest of the Xtoloc cenote, with the main architecture represented by the substructures now underlying the Las Monjas and Observatorio and the basal platform upon which they were built.

Ascendancy

Chichen Itza rose to regional prominence towards the end of the Early Classic period (roughly 600 AD). It was, however, towards the end of the Late Classic and into the early part of the Terminal Classic that the site became a major regional capital, centralizing and dominating political, sociocultural, economic, and ideological life in the northern Maya lowlands. The ascension of Chichen Itza roughly correlates with the decline and fragmentation of the major centers of the southern Maya lowlands.

As Chichen Itza rose to prominence, the cities of Yaxuna (to the south) and Coba (to the east) were suffering decline.

These two cities had been mutual allies, with Yaxuna dependent upon Coba. At some point in the 10th century, Coba lost a significant portion of its territory, isolating Yaxuna, and Chichen Itza may have directly contributed to the collapse of both cities.

Decline

According to some colonial Mayan sources (e.g., the Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel), Hunac Ceel, ruler of Mayapan, conquered Chichen Itza in the 13th century. Hunac Ceel supposedly prophesied his own rise to power.

According to custom at the time, individuals thrown into the Cenote Sagrado were believed to have the power of prophecy if they survived. During one such ceremony, the chronicles state, there were no survivors, so Hunac Ceel leaped into the Cenote Sagrado, and when removed, prophesied his own ascension.

While there is some archaeological evidence that indicates Chichén Itzá was at one time looted and sacked, there appears to be greater evidence that it could not have been by Mayapan, at least not when Chichén Itzá was an active urban center.

Archaeological data now indicates that Chichen Itza declined as a regional center by 1250, before the rise of Mayapan. Ongoing research at the site of Mayapan may help resolve this chronological conundrum.

After Chichén Itzá elite activities ceased, the city may not have been abandoned. When the Spanish arrived, they found a thriving local population, although it is not clear from Spanish sources if the Maya were living in Chichen Itza or nearby.

The relatively high population density in the region was a factor in the conquistadors’ decision to locate a capital there. According to post-Conquest sources, both Spanish and Maya, the Cenote Sagrado remained a place of pilgrimage.

Spanish conquest

In 1526 Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo (a veteran of the Grijalva and Cortés expeditions) successfully petitioned the King of Spain for a charter to conquer Yucatán. His first campaign in 1527, which covered much of the Yucatán Peninsula, decimated his forces but ended with the establishment of a small fort at Xaman Ha’, south of what is today Cancún.

Montejo returned to Yucatán in 1531 with reinforcements and established his main base at Campeche on the west coast. He sent his son, Francisco Montejo The Younger, in late 1532 to conquer the interior of the Yucatán Peninsula from the north.

The objective from the beginning was to go to Chichén Itzá and establish a capital.

Montejo the Younger eventually arrived at Chichen Itza, which he renamed Ciudad Real. At first, he encountered no resistance and set about dividing the lands around the city and awarding them to his soldiers.

The Maya became more hostile over time, and eventually, they laid siege to the Spanish, cutting off their supply line to the coast, and forcing them to barricade themselves among the ruins of the ancient city. Months passed, but no reinforcements arrived.

Montejo the Younger attempted an all-out assault against the Maya and lost 150 of his remaining troops. He was forced to abandon Chichén Itzá in 1534 under cover of darkness.

By 1535, all Spanish had been driven from the Yucatán Peninsula.

Montejo eventually returned to Yucatán and, by recruiting Maya from Campeche and Champoton, built a large Indio-Spanish army and conquered the peninsula. The Spanish crown later issued a land grant that included Chichen Itza and by 1588 it was a working cattle ranch.

Modern history

Chichen Itza entered the popular imagination in 1843 with the book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan by John Lloyd Stephens. The book recounted Stephens’ visit to Yucatán and his tour of Maya cities, including Chichén Itzá.

The book prompted other explorations of the city. In 1860, Désiré Charnay surveyed Chichén Itzá and took numerous photographs that he published in Cités et ruins américaines (1863).

In 1875, Augustus Le Plongeon and his wife Alice Dixon Le Plongeon visited Chichén and excavated a statue of a figure on its back, knees drawn up, upper torso raised on its elbows with a plate on its stomach.

Augustus Le Plongeon called it “Chaacmol” (later renamed “Chac Mool”).

Teobert Maler and Alfred Maudslay explored Chichén in the 1880s and both spent several weeks at the site and took extensive photographs. Maudslay published the first long-form description of Chichen Itza in his book, Biologia Centrali-Americana.

In 1894 the United States Consul to Yucatán, Edward Herbert Thompson, purchased the Hacienda Chichén, which included the ruins of Chichen Itza. For 30 years, Thompson explored the ancient city.

His discoveries included the earliest dated carving upon a lintel in the Temple of the Initial Series and the excavation of several graves in the Osario (High Priest’s Temple).

Thompson is most famous for dredging the Cenote Sagrado (Sacred Cenote) from 1904 to 1910, where he recovered artifacts of gold, copper, and carved jade, as well as the first-ever examples of what were believed to be pre-Columbian Maya cloth and wooden weapons.

Thompson shipped the bulk of the artifacts to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

In 1913, the Carnegie Institution accepted the proposal of archaeologist Sylvanus G. Morley and committed to conducting long-term archaeological research at Chichen Itza. The Mexican Revolution and the following government instability, as well as World War I, delayed the project by a decade.

In 1923, the Mexican government awarded the Carnegie Institution a 10-year permit (later extended another 10 years) to allow U.S. archaeologists to conduct extensive excavation and restoration of Chichen Itza.

Carnegie researchers excavated and restored the Temple of Warriors and the Caracol, among other major buildings. At the same time, the Mexican government excavated and restored El Castillo and the Great Ball Court.

In 1926, the Mexican government charged Edward Thompson with theft, claiming he stole the artifacts from the Cenote Sagrado and smuggled them out of the country. The government seized the Hacienda Chichén.

Thompson, who was in the United States at the time, never returned to Yucatán. He wrote about his research and investigations of the Maya culture in a book People of the Serpent published in 1932. He died in New Jersey in 1935.

In 1944 the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that Thompson had broken no laws and returned Chichen Itza to his heirs. The Thompsons sold the hacienda to tourism pioneer Fernando Barbachano Peon.

There have been two later expeditions to recover artifacts from the Cenote Sagrado, in 1961 and 1967.

The first was sponsored by National Geographic, and the second by private interests. Both projects were supervised by Mexico’s National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH).

INAH has conducted an ongoing effort to excavate and restore other monuments in the archaeological zone, including the Osario, Akab D’zib, and several buildings in Chichén Viejo (Old Chichen).

In 2009, to investigate construction that predated El Castillo, Yucatec archaeologists began excavations adjacent to El Castillo under the direction of Rafael (Rach) Cobos.

Political organization

Several archaeologists in the late 1980s suggested that, unlike previous Maya polities of the Early Classic, Chichen Itza may not have been governed by an individual ruler or a single dynastic lineage.

Instead, the city’s political organization could have been structured by a “multepal” system, which is characterized as rulership through a council composed of members of elite ruling lineages.

This theory was popular in the 1990s, but in recent years, the research that supported the concept of the “multepal” system has been called into question, if not discredited. The current belief trend in Maya scholarship is toward the more traditional model of the Maya kingdoms of the Classic Period southern lowlands in Mexico.

Economy

Chichen Itza was a major economic power in the northern Maya lowlands during its apogee.

Participating in the water-borne circum-peninsular trade route through its port site of Isla Cerritos on the north coast, Chichen Itza was able to obtain locally unavailable resources from distant areas such as obsidian from central Mexico and gold from southern Central America.

Between AD 900 and 1050 Chichen Itza expanded to become a powerful regional capital controlling north and central Yucatán. It established Isla Cerritos as a trading port.

Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities, with the relatively densely clustered architecture of the site core covering an area of at least 5 sq km. Smaller-scale residential architecture extends for an unknown distance beyond this.

The city was built upon broken terrain, which was artificially leveled in order to build the major architectural groups, with the greatest effort being expended in the leveling of the areas for the Castillo pyramid and the Las Monjas, Osario, and Main Southwest groups.

The site contains many fine stone buildings in various states of preservation, and many have been restored. The buildings were connected by a dense network of paved causeways, called sacbeob.

Archaeologists have identified over 80 sacbeob crisscrossing the site and extending in all directions from the city. Many of these stone buildings were originally painted in red, green, blue, and purple colors.

Pigments were chosen according to what was most easily available in the area.

The site must be imagined as a colorful one, not like it is today. Just like gothic cathedrals in Europe, colors provided a greater sense of completeness and contributed greatly to the symbolic impact of the buildings.

The architecture encompasses a number of styles, including the Puuc and Chenes styles of the northern Yucatán Peninsula.

The buildings of Chichen Itza are grouped in a series of architectonic sets, and each set was at one time separated from the other by a series of low walls. The three best-known of these complexes are the Great North Platform, which includes the monuments of El Castillo, the Temple of Warriors, and the Great Ball Court; The Osario Group, which includes the pyramid of the same name as well as the Temple of Xtoloc; and the Central Group, which includes the Caracol, Las Monjas, and Akab Dzib.

South of Las Monjas, in an area known as Chichén Viejo (Old Chichén) and only open to archaeologists, are several other complexes, such as the Group of the Initial Series, Group of the Lintels, and Group of the Old Castle.

Architectural styles

The Puuc-style architecture is concentrated in the Old Chichen area, and also the earlier structures in the Nunnery Group (including the Las Monjas, Annex, and La Iglesia buildings); it is also represented in the Akab Dzib structure.

The Puuc-style building features the usual mosaic-decorated upper façades characteristic of the style but differs from the architecture of the Puuc heartland in their block masonry walls, as opposed to the fine veneers of the Puuc region proper.

At least one structure in the Las Monjas Group features an ornate façade and masked doorway that are typical examples of Chenes-style architecture, a style centered upon a region in the north of Campeche state, lying between the Puuc and Río Bec regions.

Those structures with sculpted hieroglyphic script are concentrated in certain areas of the site, with the most important being the Las Monjas group.

El Castillo

Dominating the North Platform of Chichen Itza is the Temple of Kukulkan (a Maya feathered serpent deity similar to the Aztec Quetzalcoatl), usually referred to as El Castillo (“the castle”). This step pyramid stands about 30 m high and consists of a series of nine square terraces, each approximately 2.57 m high, with a 6 m high temple upon the summit.

The sides of the pyramid are approximately 55.3 m at the base and rise at an angle of 53°, although that varies slightly for each side. The four faces of the pyramid have protruding stairways that rise at an angle of 45°.

The talud walls of each terrace slant at an angle of between 72° and 74°.

At the base of the balustrades of the northeastern staircase are carved heads of a serpent.

Mesoamerican cultures periodically superimposed larger structures over older ones, and El Castillo is one such example.

In the mid-1930s, the Mexican government sponsored an excavation of El Castillo. After several false starts, they discovered a staircase under the north side of the pyramid. By digging from the top, they found another temple buried below the current one.

Inside the temple chamber was a Chac Mool statue and a throne in the shape of a Jaguar, painted red and with spots made of inlaid jade.

The Mexican government excavated a tunnel from the base of the north staircase, up the earlier pyramid’s stairway to the hidden temple, and opened it to tourists. In 2006, INAH closed the throne room to the public.

In 1566, the pyramid was described by Friar Diego de Landa in the manuscript known as Yucatán at the Time of the Spanish Encounter (Relación de las cosas de Yucatán).

Almost three centuries later, John Lloyd Stephens described with even more detail the architecture of the pyramid in his book Incidents of Travel in Yucatán (Incidentes del viaje Yucatán), published in 1843.

At that time, the archaeological site of Chichén Itzá was located on an estate, also called Chichén Itzá, owned by Juan Sosa. Frederick Catherwood illustrated the book with lithographs depicting the pyramid covered in abundant vegetation on all sides.

There are some photographs taken at the beginning of the 20th century that also show the pyramid partially covered by said vegetation.

In 1924, the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. requested permission from the Mexican government to carry out explorations and restoration efforts in and around the area of Chichen Itza.

In 1927, with the assistance of Mexican archaeologists, they started the task.

In April 1931, looking to confirm the hypothesis that the structure of the pyramid of Kukulkan was built on top of a much older pyramid, the work of excavation and exploration began in spite of generalized beliefs contrary to that hypothesis.

On June 7, 1932, a box with coral, obsidian, and turquoise-encrusted objects was found alongside human remains, which are exhibited in the National Anthropology Museum in Mexico City.

After extensive work, in April 1935, a Chac Mool statue, with its nails, teeth, and eyes inlaid with mother of pearl was found inside the pyramid.

The room where the discovery was made was nicknamed the Hall of Offerings or the North Chamber. After more than a year of excavation, in August 1936, a second room was found, only meters away from the first.

Inside this room, nicknamed the chamber of sacrifices, archaeologists found two parallel rows of human bone set into the back wall, as well as a red jaguar statue with 74 jade inlays for spots, jade crescents for eyes, and white painted flint for teeth and fangs.

On its back was found a turquoise disc apparently used for burning incense.

Both figures were found facing north-northeast.

Researchers concluded that there must be an inner pyramid approximately 33 m wide, shaped similarly to the outer pyramid, with nine steps and a height of 17 m up to the base of the temple where the Chac Mool and the jaguar were found.

It is estimated that this construction dates to the eleventh century CE.

After all of the work was completed, an entryway was cut into the balustrade of the northeastern exterior staircase to provide access to tourists. The older, inner pyramid is referred to as the “substructure”.

Closed for public climbing

Climbing El Castillo was stopped in 2006, after a 91-year-old woman slipped on her way back, fell fell down the remaining steps of the pyramid. Medical assistance was immediate.

The ambulance, permanently stationed at the foot of El Castillo, was mobilized.

Its crew administered aid at the scene and then rushed her to the nearby Regional de Valladolid Hospital. Unfortunately, the lady’s head and neck injuries were too severe. Despite the best efforts of the hospital personnel there, she died four hours later.

For the owners of Chichén Itzá, this was the last straw.

They had bowed to public pressure to keep the structures accessible to climbers for too long.

An army of specialists had scrubbed or otherwise erased the graffiti; repairs had been made to eroded steps; guide ropes had been fitted; and the ambulance installed. But there were now simply too many people wishing to climb the pyramids.

What had occurred with the old lady had been an accident waiting to happen, and now it had actually happened. The decision was made, for the safety of visitors and the preservation of the structures, to prohibit public climbing on the pyramids.

At the same time, INAH closed the public access to the interior throne room.

Spring and Autumn equinoxes

On the Spring and Autumn equinoxes, in the late afternoon, the northwest corner of the pyramid casts a series of triangular shadows against the western balustrade on the north side that evokes the appearance of a serpent wriggling down the staircase, which some scholars have suggested is a representation of the feathered-serpent god Kukulkan.

Great Ball Court

Archaeologists have identified thirteen ballcourts for playing the Mesoamerican ballgame in Chichen Itza, but the Great Ball Court about 150 m to the north-west of the Castillo is by far the most impressive.

It is the largest and best-preserved ball court in ancient Mesoamerica. It measures 168 by 70 m.

The parallel platforms flanking the main playing area are each 95 m long. The walls of these platforms stand 8 m high; set high up in the center of each of these walls are rings carved with intertwined feathered serpents.

At the base of the high interior walls are slanted benches with sculpted panels of teams of ball players. In one panel, one of the players has been decapitated; the wound emits streams of blood in the form of wriggling snakes.

At one end of the Great Ball Court is the North Temple, also known as the Temple of the Bearded Man (Templo del Hombre Barbado).

This small masonry building has detailed bas-relief carving on the inner walls, including a center figure that has carving under his chin that resembles facial hair. At the south end is another, much bigger temple, but in ruins.

Built into the east wall are the Temples of the Jaguar.

The Upper Temple of the Jaguar overlooks the ball court and has an entrance guarded by two, large columns carved in the familiar feathered serpent motif. Inside there is a large mural, much destroyed, which depicts a battle scene.

In the entrance to the Lower Temple of the Jaguar, which opens behind the ball court, is another Jaguar throne, similar to the one in the inner temple of El Castillo, except that it is well-worn and missing paint or other decoration.

The outer columns and the walls inside the temple are covered with elaborate bas-relief carvings.

Additional structures

The Tzompantli, or Skull Platform (Plataforma de los Cráneos), shows the clear cultural influence of the central Mexican Plateau. Unlike the tzompantli of the highlands, however, the skulls were impaled vertically rather than horizontally as at Tenochtitlan.

The Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars (Plataforma de Águilas y Jaguares) is immediately to the east of the Great Ballcourt. It is built in a combination of Maya and Toltec styles, with a staircase ascending each of its four sides.

The sides are decorated with panels depicting eagles and jaguars consuming human hearts.

This Platform of Venus is dedicated to the planet Venus. In its interior archaeologists discovered a collection of large cones carved out of stone, the purpose of which is unknown. This platform is located north of El Castillo, between it and the Cenote Sagrado.

The Temple of the Tables is the northernmost of a series of buildings to the east of El Castillo. Its name comes from a series of altars at the top of the structure that are supported by small carved figures of men with upraised arms, called “atlantes.”

The Steam Bath is a unique building with three parts: a waiting gallery, a water bath, and a steam chamber that is operated by means of heated stones.

Sacbe Number One is a causeway that leads to the Cenote Sagrado, which is the largest and most elaborate at Chichen Itza.

This “white road” is 270 m long with an average width of 9 m. It begins at a low wall a few meters from the Platform of Venus. According to archaeologists there once was an extensive building with columns at the beginning of the road.

Sacred Cenote

The Yucatán Peninsula is a limestone plain, with no rivers or streams. The region is pockmarked with natural sinkholes, called cenotes, which expose the water table to the surface.

One of the most impressive of these is the Cenote Sagrado, which is 60 m in diameter and surrounded by sheer cliffs that drop to the water table some 27 m below.

The Cenote Sagrado was a place of pilgrimage for ancient Maya people who, according to ethnohistoric sources, would conduct sacrifices during times of drought.

Archaeological investigations support this as thousands of objects have been removed from the bottom of the cenote, including material such as gold, carved jade, copal, pottery, flint, obsidian, shell, wood, rubber, cloth, as well as skeletons of children and men.

Temple of the Warriors

The Temple of the Warriors complex consists of a large stepped pyramid fronted and flanked by rows of carved columns depicting warriors. This complex is analogous to Temple B at the Toltec capital of Tula and indicates some form of cultural contact between the two regions.

The one at Chichen Itza, however, was constructed on a larger scale. At the top of the stairway on the pyramid’s summit (and leading towards the entrance of the pyramid’s temple) is a Chac Mool.

This temple encases or entombs a former structure called The Temple of the Chac Mool. The archeological expedition and restoration of this building were done by the Carnegie Institution of Washington from 1925 to 1928. A key member of this restoration was Earl H. Morris who published the work from this expedition in two volumes entitled Temple of the Warriors.

Group of a Thousand Columns

Along the south wall of the Temple of Warriors are a series of what are today exposed columns, although when the city was inhabited these would have supported an extensive roof system.

The columns are in three distinct sections: A west group, that extends the lines of the front of the Temple of Warriors. A north group runs along the south wall of the Temple of Warriors and contains pillars with carvings of soldiers in bas-relief;

A northeast group, which apparently formed a small temple at the southeast corner of the Temple of Warriors, contains a rectangular decorated with carvings of people or gods, as well as animals and serpents.

The northeast column temple also covers a small marvel of engineering, a channel that funnels all the rainwater from the complex some 40 m away to a rejollada, a former cenote.

To the south of the Group of a Thousand Columns is a group of three, smaller, interconnected buildings. The Temple of the Carved Columns is a small elegant building that consists of a front gallery with an inner corridor that leads to an altar with a Chac Mool.

There are also numerous columns with rich, bas-relief carvings of some 40 personages.

A section of the upper façade with a motif of x’s and o’s is displayed in front of the structure. The Temple of the Small Tables is an unrestored mound. The Thompson’s Temple (referred to in some sources as Palace of Ahau Balam Kauil ), is a small building with two levels that has friezes depicting Jaguars (balam in Maya) as well as glyphs of the Maya god Kahuil.

El Mercado

This square structure anchors the southern end of the Temple of Warriors complex. It is so named for the shelf of stone that surrounds a large gallery and patio that early explorers theorized was used to display wares as in a marketplace.

Today, archaeologists believe that its purpose is more ceremonial than commercial.

Osario Group

South of the North Group is a smaller platform that has many important structures, several of which appear to be oriented toward the second-largest cenote at Chichen Itza, Xtoloc.

The Osario itself, like El Castillo, is a step-pyramid temple dominating its platform, only on a smaller scale. Like its larger neighbor, it has four sides with staircases on each side.

There is a temple on top, but unlike El Castillo, at the center is an opening into the pyramid which leads to a natural cave 12 m below. Edward H. Thompson excavated this cave in the late 19th century, and because he found several skeletons and artifacts such as jade beads, he named the structure The High Priests’ Temple.

Archaeologists today believe neither that the structure was a tomb nor that the personages buried in it were priests.

The Temple of Xtoloc is a recently restored temple outside the Osario Platform.

It overlooks the other large cenote at Chichen Itza, named after the Maya word for iguana, “Xtoloc.” The temple contains a series of pilasters carved with images of people, as well as representations of plants, birds, and mythological scenes.

Between the Xtoloc temple and the Osario are several aligned structures: The Platform of Venus (which is similar in design to the structure of the same name next to El Castillo), the Platform of the Tombs, and a small, round structure that is unnamed.

These three structures were constructed in a row extending from the Osario. Beyond them, the Osario platform terminates in a wall, which contains an opening to a sacbe that runs several hundred feet to the Xtoloc temple.

South of the Osario, at the boundary of the platform, there are two small buildings that archaeologists believe were residences for important personages. These have been named the House of the Metates and the House of the Mestizas.

Casa Colorada Group

South of the Osario Group is another small platform that has several structures that are among the oldest in the Chichen Itza archaeological zone.

The Casa Colorada (Spanish for “Red House”) is one of the best-preserved buildings at Chichen Itza. Its Maya name is Chichanchob, which according to INAH may mean “small holes”.

In one chamber there are extensive carved hieroglyphs that mention rulers of Chichen Itza and possibly of the nearby city of Ek Balam and contain a Maya date inscribed which correlates to 869 AD, one of the oldest such dates found in all of Chichen Itza.

In 2009, INAH restored a small ball court that adjoined the back wall of the Casa Colorada.

While the Casa Colorada is in a good state of preservation, other buildings in the group, with one exception, are decrepit mounds.

One building is half-standing, named La Casa del Venado (House of the Deer). This building’s name has been long used by the local Maya, and some authors mention that it was named after a deer painting over stucco that doesn’t exist anymore.

Central Group

Las Monjas is one of the more notable structures at Chichen Itza. It is a complex of Terminal Classic buildings constructed in the Puuc architectural style. The Spanish named this complex Las Monjas (“The Nuns” or “The Nunnery”) but it was actually a governmental palace. Just to the east is a small temple (known as the La Iglesia, “The Church”) decorated with elaborate masks.

The Las Monjas group is distinguished by its concentration of hieroglyphic texts dating to the Late to Terminal Classic. These texts frequently mention a ruler by the name of Kakupakal.

El Caracol (“The Snail”) is located to the north of Las Monjas. It is a round building on a large square platform. It gets its name from the stone spiral staircase inside. The structure, with its unusual placement on the platform and its round shape (the others are rectangular, in keeping with Maya practice), is theorized to have been a proto-observatory with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events, specifically around the path of Venus as it traverses the heavens.

Akab Dzib is located to the east of the Caracol. The name means, in Yucatec Mayan, “Dark Writing”; “dark” in the sense of “mysterious”. An earlier name of the building, according to a translation of glyphs in the Casa Colorada, is Wa(k)wak Puh Ak Na, “the flat house with the excessive number of chambers,” and it was the home of the administrator of Chichén Itzá, kokom Yahawal Cho’ K’ak’.

INAH completed a restoration of the building in 2007. It is relatively short, only 6 m high, and is 50 m in length and 15 m wide. The long, western-facing façade has seven doorways. The eastern façade has only four doorways, broken by a large staircase that leads to the roof.

This apparently was the front of the structure and looks out over what is today a steep, dry, cenote.

The southern end of the building has one entrance.

The door opens into a small chamber and on the opposite wall is another doorway, above which on the lintel are intricately carved glyphs – the “mysterious” or “obscure” writing that gives the building its name today.

Under the lintel in the doorjamb is another carved panel of a seated figure surrounded by more glyphs. Inside one of the chambers, near the ceiling, is a painted handprint.

Old Chichen

Old Chichen (or Chichén Viejo in Spanish) is the name given to a group of structures to the south of the central site, where most of the Puuc-style architecture of the city is concentrated. It includes the Initial Series Group, the Phallic Temple, the Platform of the Great Turtle, the Temple of the Owls, and the Temple of the Monkeys.

Other structures

Chichen Itza also has a variety of other structures densely packed in the ceremonial center of about 5 sq km and several outlying subsidiary sites.

Cenote Sagrado (“Sacred Well”), alternatively known as the “Well of Sacrifice”, refers to a noted cenote at the pre-Columbian Maya archaeological site of Chichen Itza.

It is located to the north of Chichen Itza’s civic precinct, to which it is connected by a 300-metre sacbe, or raised and paved pathway.

According to post-Conquest sources (Maya and Spanish), pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac.

Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910 and recovered artifacts of gold, jade, pottery, and incense, as well as human remains. A study of human remains taken from the Cenote Sagrado found that they had wounds consistent with human sacrifice.

Description and History

The northwestern Yucatán Peninsula is a limestone plain, with no rivers streams, lakes, or ponds.

The region is pockmarked with natural sinkholes, called cenotes, which expose the water table to the surface. One of the most impressive of these is the Sacred Cenote, which is 60 m in diameter and surrounded by sheer cliffs that drop to the water table some 27 m below.

According to ethnohistoric sources, the Sacred Cenote was a place of pilgrimage for ancient Maya people who would conduct sacrifices in it. As Friar Diego de Landa observed in 1566 after visiting Chichen Itza:

“Into this well, they have had, and then had, the custom of throwing men alive as a sacrifice to the gods, in times of drought, and they believed that they did not die though they never saw them again.

They also threw into it a great many other things, like precious stones and things that they prized. And so, if this country had possessed gold, it would be this well that would have the great part of it”.

Archaeological explorations of the cenote

Most of the major findings in the cenote were made under the supervision of Edward Herbert Thompson, who began dredging in 1904. Much of what is known about the dredging process is derived from Thompson’s personal notes.

Thompson received money from Stephen Salisbury III to help him buy the Chichén Itzá excavation site and explore the cenote. Much of Thompson’s findings and research can be found at the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

A bucket attached to a pulley system was used to dredge the cenote.

Much of the beginning work consisted of clearing debris and fallen trees on the top of the water. Leon Cole, a colleague of Thompson, once recorded in his journal, “they made ten hauls in the morning and six or eight in the afternoon.”

People would search through the buckets of water looking for artifacts and categorizing them accordingly. Unfortunately, there were several reports of stolen artifacts that could never be found.

Thompson decided to take a break from dredging after Salisbury died. A host of problems, including the Mexican Revolution, and financial issues began to hinder the work effort and damage the morale of the workers.

Thompson’s house in Mexico was also burned down, and one of the chests in which he kept his notes and data was destroyed in the fire. By 1923, Thompson was officially done working on the cenote.

In 1909, Thompson decided to dive in the cenote to explore the floors, assisted by two Greek divers from the Bahamas. He reported limited visibility due to the murky water, and many shifting rocks and trees made the dive hazardous.

Thompson found a layer about 5 m thick of blue pigment that had settled on the ground of the cenote. He described the bottom as, “full of long narrow cracks, radiating from centers as if the glass bottom of a dish had been broken by a pointed instrument.

We found down in the cracks and holes a grayish mud in which were embedded the heavier gold objects, jades, and copper bells in numbers.” He later proudly proclaimed, “I have at last personally trod the bottom of the Cenote.”

In 1961, William Folan, a field director for the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH), helped launch another expedition into the cenote. Some of their notable discoveries included an inscribed, gold-sheathed bone, a large chert knife with a gold-sheathed wooden handle, and wooden ear flares with jade and turquoise mosaic.

In 1967-1968, Norman Scott and Román Piña Chán led another expedition. They tried two new methods that many people had suggested for a long time: emptying the water out of the cenote and clarifying the water. Both of these methods were only partially successful.

Only about 4 m of water could be removed, and the water was only clarified for a short amount of time.

Objects found in the Sacred Cenote

Archaeological investigations support this as thousands of objects have been removed from the bottom of the cenote, including artifacts made from gold, jadeite, copal, pottery, flint, obsidian, shell, wood, rubber, cloth, as well as human skeletons.

Many perishable objects were preserved by the cenote. Wooden objects that normally would have rotted were preserved in the water.

A great variety of wooden objects have been found including weapons, scepters, idols, tools, and jewelry. Jade was the largest category of objects found, followed by textiles.

The presence of jade, gold, and copper in the cenote offers proof of the importance of Chichén Itzá as a cultural city center.

None of these raw materials are native to the Yucatán, which indicates that they were valuable objects brought to Chichén Itzá from other places in Central America and then sacrificed as an act of worship.

Pottery, stone, bone, and shells were also found in the cenote.

Archaeologists have found that many objects show evidence of being intentionally damaged before being thrown into the cenote, and have speculated that this intentional damage is meant to be analogous to “killing” the object as a sacrifice.

Human sacrifice

Certain cenotes contain a large number of human remains, including both males and females and young children/infants.

According to archaeologist Guillermo de Anda of the University of Yucatán, evidence from Mayan mythology suggests that many young victims (most aged 6 to 12) whose gender is indeterminate were male.

While the classical images of a female Mayan sacrifice being flung alive to drown in a cenote are pervasive, Guillermo de Anda’s writings on the subject suggest that most sacrificial victims – juveniles who were either purchased or captured while their parents were working in the fields, warriors captured in battle, or elites captured during conflicts with neighboring clans – were usually (though not always) killed prior to being thrown into the cenote, and in many cases, dozens of miles from the cenotes in which their bodies were eventually deposited. He also notes that only a certain set of cenotes was used in this way, while others were reserved for domestic purposes (de Anda 2007).

This suggests that Mayan religious officiants believed that only certain cenotes led to the underworld, and sacrifices placed in others would serve no purpose. It also suggests that the status of the victim as alive or dead was unimportant.

The occasional appearance of human remains in non-sacrificial cenotes can be attributed to rare errors in judgment on the part of the shaman. The actual pattern by which a particular victim’s remains became interred in which cenotes remains a subject of conjecture.

The Franciscan leader Diego de Landa reported that he witnessed live sacrifices being thrown into the cenote at Chichén Itzá. However, his account does not indicate the regularity of this behavior.

Chichen Itza is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico. In 2014 it was estimated to receive an average of 1.4 million. In 2016, Chichen Itza was visited by more than 2 million tourists.

Tourism has been a factor at Chichen Itza for more than a century. John Lloyd Stephens, who popularized the Maya Yucatán in the public’s imagination with his book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan, inspired many to make a pilgrimage to Chichén Itzá.

Even before the book was published, Benjamin Norman and Baron Emanuel von Friedrichsthal traveled to Chichen after meeting Stephens, and both published the results of what they found.

Friedrichsthal was the first to photograph Chichen Itza, using the recently invented daguerreotype.

After Edward Thompson in 1894 purchased the Hacienda Chichén, which included Chichen Itza, he received a constant stream of visitors. In 1910 he announced his intention to construct a hotel on his property, but abandoned those plans, probably because of the Mexican Revolution.

In the early 1920s, a group of Yucatecans, led by writer/photographer Francisco Gomez Rul, began working toward expanding tourism to Yucatán. They urged Governor Felipe Carrillo Puerto to build roads to the more famous monuments, including Chichen Itza.

In 1923, Governor Carrillo Puerto officially opened the highway to Chichen Itza. Gomez Rul published one of the first guidebooks to Yucatán and the ruins.

Gomez Rul’s son-in-law, Fernando Barbachano Peon (a grandnephew of former Yucatán Governor Miguel Barbachano), started Yucatán’s first official tourism business in the early 1920s.

He began by meeting passengers who arrived by steamship at Progreso, the port north of Mérida, and persuading them to spend a week in Yucatán, after which they would catch the next steamship to their next destination. In his first year, Barbachano Peon reportedly was only able to convince seven passengers to leave the ship and join him on a tour.

In the mid-1920s Barbachano Peon persuaded Edward Thompson to sell 5 acres (20,000 m2) next to Chichen for a hotel. In 1930, the Mayaland Hotel opened, just north of the Hacienda Chichén, which had been taken over by the Carnegie Institution.

In 1944, Barbachano Peon purchased all of the Hacienda Chichén, including Chichen Itza, from the heirs of Edward Thompson.

Around that same time, the Carnegie Institution completed its work at Chichen Itza and abandoned the Hacienda Chichén, which Barbachano turned into another seasonal hotel.

In 1972, Mexico enacted the Ley Federal Sobre Monumentos y Zonas Arqueológicas, Artísticas e Históricas (Federal Law over Monuments and Archeological, Artistic, and Historic Sites) that put all the nation’s pre-Columbian monuments, including those at Chichen Itza, under federal ownership. There were now hundreds if not thousands, of visitors every year to Chichen Itza, and more were expected with the development of the Cancún resort area to the east.

In the 1980s, Chichen Itza began to receive an influx of visitors on the day of the spring equinox. Today several thousand show up to see the light-and-shadow effect on the Temple of Kukulcan in which the feathered serpent god appears to crawl down the side of the pyramid.

Tourists are also amazed by the acoustics at Chichen Itza. For instance, a handclap in front of the staircase of the El Castillo pyramid is followed by an echo that resembles the chirp of a quetzal as investigated by Declercq.

Chichen Itza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the second-most visited of Mexico’s archaeological sites. The archaeological site draws many visitors from the popular tourist resort of Cancún, who make a day trip on tour buses.

In 2007, Chichen Itza’s El Castillo was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World after a worldwide vote. Despite the fact that the vote was sponsored by a commercial enterprise and that its methodology was criticized, the vote was embraced by government and tourism officials in Mexico who project that as a result of the publicity the number of tourists expected to visit Chichen will double by 2012.

The ensuing publicity re-ignited debate in Mexico over the ownership of the site, which culminated on 29 March 2010 when the state of Yucatán purchased the land upon which the most recognized monuments rest from owner Hans Juergen Thies Barbachano.

Over the past several years, INAH, which manages the site, has been closing monuments to public access.

While visitors can walk around them, they can no longer climb them or go inside their chambers. The most recent was El Castillo, which was closed after a San Diego, California, woman fell to her death in 2006.

At the site, you get around on foot. Wear sturdy, comfortable walking shoes.

There is very little usable shade in the middle hours of the day.

Bring a pair of binoculars, star-gazing and birding are incredible in this region. Also, if you want to know more about the Mayan local communities, their cooking, religious rites, calendar system, and ancient arts, visit the small towns around Chichen.

Yaxkin Spa (Hacienda Chichen Hotel) offers holistic beauty rituals based on ancient Maya traditions. The area has excellent birdwatching opportunities. Guests at the Hacienda Chichen have access to the hotel’s bird refuge and extensive nature trails.

There are several fantastic cenotes, fresh water sinkholes in the limestone, found near Chichen Itza. Some of them are surrounded by lush gardens with restaurants, washrooms, and showers.

During a hot day, cenotes make for a great way to cool yourself off in the afternoon, take a break, and split up your day.

The Descent of Kukulcan During the three most celebrated days which witness The Descent of Kukulcan (the 19th, 20th, and 21st of March), Chichen Itza hosts music, dances, and theatrical performances organized in the interior of the site, as well as at the access door.