Finally got round to getting the second part of my trip uploaded from Chichen Itza in Mexico. Chichen Itza was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Mayan people and was at one time the most populated city in the Yucatan. Archaeologists are unsure when, exactly, the building of Chichen Itza began, though historical records suggest that the city was in its early phases of development around 600-750 A.D. It is now considered to be one of the 7 wonders of the world.
Obviously one of the most memorable and known structures is the pyramid. El Castillo - The Pyramid of Kukulc谩n which, was dedicated to Kukulc谩n, a Mayan feathered serpent deity.The pyramid is designed so that specifically on winter solstice a strip of light illuminates the shape of a serpent down the side of the pyramid. You can see here, since I didn't get to experience that myself:
https://yourenotfromaroundhere.com/solstice-snake-chichen-itza/
The thing I like about the Mayan ruins is you can walk right up to them pretty much and really take int he energy. Places like stone henge are just not worth visiting anymore as you can not really get up close to the stones unless it is winter or summer solstice. It is very refreshing to be able to see history on such a close up level, even the old drawings and markings. Maybe they could get weathered easier but I think there is something sad about stopping people from enjoying sacred buildings and spaces. I am sure everyone has their own opinion on that.
Sorry I took way too many photos and can't choose lol, always the case and why I never have any damn storage on my phone, I take so many every single day.
Here was our tour guide, who was great very knowledgable on everything and a great personality. However, researching later I did realise hat some of the things he said went against what they present academically or at best a lot of the things he said as fact seem to be at best questionable! I wonder if this is because he is mistaken, knows the way he tells it makes a better story for people to hear or if he actually knows the truth from the Mayan lineage. I guess I will likely never know.
My favourite structure of all though was the The Temple of the Warriors (Templo de Los Guerreros) which consists of a large pyramid surrounded by rows of carved columns that depict warriors. Before the city was left to the elements, the columns would have supported an extensive roof system. Our tour guide called this the Temple of a 1000 pillars, I don't think it actually has a 1000 pillars though he said he walked around and it was around 128 if my memory serves me, don't quote me on that one! He told us this was where a lot of the sacrifices happened up on the top in the centre there. I sat down here for a few minutes and I had a visual of men in white robes anointing someone with a sword on their shoulders, I wish I had had longer to meditate in various places but we had such a short time here. I would definitely like to go back and spend longer. I felt such a strong energy to this building and could have stayed here a long time just feeling into it and visualising past scenes.
Some other notable structures include Tzompantli or Platform of the Skulls (Platforma de los Craneos). These platforms were used by the Mayans to publicly display human skulls, typically of sacrificial victims or captives of war. The skulls were impaled vertically on this platform that is adjacent to the Great Ball Court.
Some other great structures around with carvings on that included eagles eating the hearts of people and serpents etc are scattered around here are some of the ones I got photos of, I am afraid I cannot remember the names of them all.
We also walked a little further out to the observatory where there is a smaller lesser known cenote.
You can see my post with the rest of my trip here and a video walk around here :
@ultravioletmag/chichen-itza-part-i-the-mayan-ballgame-and-sacrifice