Chichen Itza is the most famous dead city in the Mayan World. It is located 120 km east from the city of Merida.
Some experts believe that its splendor occurred between 600 and 900 AD. The city was abandoned until the arrival of the Itzaes, who gave it its name and brought it to a new upswing. At this time, new structures influenced by the Mexican High Plateau architectural style were built.
There are others who doubt this historic sequence, on the basis of new archaeological evidence suggesting that the different architectural styles were developed simultaneously. These findings also indicate that Chichen Itza might not have been abandoned, but was continuously inhabited since before the Christina Era until the arrival of the Spaniards in 1526.
Chichen Itza’s most salient buildings are the Castle, symbol of the city; El Caracol (the Snail), a remarkable astronomic observatory, where Maya priests peered through loopholes and carefully kept track of the movements of heavenly bodies; the Great Ball Court, whose stone high reliefs depict scenes of the game and evidence how important it was in the Maya cosmogony; and the Group of a Thousand Columns and Temple of Warriors, whose architectural elements show a combination of Puuc-style and High Plateau influences. All these structures are built on a 6-km2 platform, constituting the city’s center.
The Castle is the most important building in the site, and has been interpreted as the material expression of a calendar, because the sum of all the steps on its four staircases plus the upper platform is 365, the number of days in a year. Because the pyramid has 9 superposed bodies and each side is divided in half by a staircase, each façade is composed of 18 semibodies (the number of months in the Maya year). In addition, each façade is decorated with 52 panels, corresponding to the number of years in a Mesoamerican century. During the Spring and Fall equinoxes (March and September, respectively) an interesting phenomenon of light and sound is seen on the west stringer of the main (north) staircase. As the Sun goes down, the northeast corner of the pyramid casts a shadow and, one by one, seven light and shade triangles descend along the stringer until the snake head at the base of the stairs is illuminated. This symbolizes the descent of the most prominent of Maya deities, Kukulkan, the equivalent of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.
This wonderful spectacle alone suffices to explain why the Castle of Chichen Itza was voted the world’s New Seven Wonders, in an Internet consultation sponsored by a Swiss foundation (www.new7wonders.com). According to the number of votes thus far received, the New Seven Wonders are, in descending order: The Great Wall of China, Rome’s Colliseum, Chichen Itza’s Castle, the Taj Mahal in India, Christ Redeemer in Brazil, Petra in Jordan and Machu Picchu in Peru
Our Castle is a creative piece of work, because (as said before) it is the expression of the Maya calendar and because it is also a universal masterpiece made for Men, regardless of borders, ideology and politics. It is monumental in both talent and wisdom.
Written by: Guido Augusto Perez Peniche
Sources: Mexico’s Cultural atlas and Salvat.
