Chichen Itza
Pronounced: cheat-zen eat-za
On Sunday, May 14th, Bonnie and I took an all day adventure to see the ruins at Chichen Itza. The tour included an air conditioned bus ride to the ruins with a couple of stops along the way.
The first stop was to see a huge underground well named Cenote Sammula. The locals believe that the well is guarded by the spiritual guardians of the Mayas, called "aluxes." The root system of the tree stretches all the way down to the water - about 60 feet in all! Inside the cave the temperature was very comfortable as opposed to the jungle heat outside of it. The land was owned by Mayan descendants who charge the tourists for a peak and a postcard. They lived right next to the well in clumsily put together shacks. Even out here, still far away from the ruins, there were examples of Mayan artwork everywhere.
Next we hopped back on the tour bus and headed out. Just before the Mayan park we stopped for lunch in a community that has been in existence for thousands of years. Though the dinning area was pretty modern complete with buffet, the outside implied much less. During the course of the lunch, the servers did a series of dances that culminated with the dancers balancing trays on their head. It was a good lunch and some funny entertainment!
After lunch we moved on to the ruins. Our tour guide, Manuel, was a mix of Mayan and Indian -- he called himself chocolate and milk. He was a great source of info as his grandmother (who was a direct descendant of the Mayans) had passed along the oral history of their family as well as a history of their people. One example of this is that Manuel's grandmother told him when he was very young, that a snake would come out of the main pyramid if the children didn't behave. It was then "discovered" by twentieth century archeologists that twice a year on the equinoxes, a snake appears on the side of the pyramid. The shadow creates the snakes body which lines up perfectly with a giant snake head carving at the base.
The main pyramid still holds many mysteries. The Mayans had a keen sense of acoustics and incorporated that into the design of the pyramid. If you stand facing the pyramid and clap your hands, the echo bounces out of the top as the caw of a bird. Birds held a position of importance in Mayan culture and it is believed that this was a way to honor them. You didn't have to stand in front of the pyramid to hear the bird. As other tours passed by and tried out the trick, we could hear the bird call from where ever we were in the park. It was very cool!
About 30 years ago archeologists realized that there is another complete pyramid inside the main one. The discovery is significant in that it was left undamaged by previous societies that would strip the old ruins for their stone. Also, the Mayans mastered numerology and with the inclusion of this new pyramid more has been learned about their calendar. The Mayan calendar is measured in days based on celestial movements. They had no leap year or day-light-savings. On the day we were there, the Mayan date was just over 1 million, 1 hundred-thousand days. And curiously, the calendar ends on December 25th, 2012. On that date, the Mayans believe that something spectacular will appear in the sky. So, we'll all see. One thing to note in the picture of the calendar is the face sticking out his tongue. We asked Manuel about it and he said it meant that they spoke a language and it was important to them to make a symbol for the fact that they could speak.
To help with the creation of their calendar, the Mayans built a huge observatory. Even though the top is damaged, an amazing light display still occurs when the sun is in the right position to cast a shadow of light onto the floor of the observatory in the shape of a small x. This particular event is closed to the public as it is too small for a large crowd to witness.
We also got to see the Mayan ballcourt where the winner lost his head! 14 players were divided into two teams whose objective was to get a 5 pound rubber ball into a stone hoop. The first player to get the ball through the hoop was the winner. The Mayans believed that life was a dream and that death was an awakening into a new existence. The winner of the ballgame was beheaded in a special ceremony and the head was placed on a special display for all the citizens to see. The winner's family would move up in social rank and standing and the winner's body would feed the earth. The losers of the game were not left out in the cold though. Losing players were allow to "steal" jewels and rubies from the audience as they left the stands. The games could sometimes last for days or weeks before someone scored. The teams moved the ball around the field with sticks similar to hockey sticks. But to score, a player must use his knee, thigh, hip, or chest to bounce the ball into the goal. It was quite a feet as the hoop is about 20 feet high.
During the peak time of this civilization, all the buildings and carvings were painted in bright vivid colors. Every structure had dozens of faces; there were faces on every corner! There were also carvings of important animals such as this jaguar or these snakes. We were allowed to go into some of the buildings, which felt very cool inside but the general public is not allowed to climb the pyramid steps any more. Apparently there were two deaths within a year that caused the new rule: the first was a teenager on crutches who fell and died, the second an elderly woman (who was in poor health to begin with) had a heat stroke of some kind. Manuel was very upset about this and voiced his disdain for the new rule many times.
The whole city was surrounded by a rock wall and there are approximately 300 buildings on the grounds. The grounds held about 40,000 people at one time and they got their water from another cenote that was just outside the wall. It was also used in ceremonial sacrifices. Nice!
In all, this Mayan civilization existed for about 2,000 years before Christ to about 1,000 years after Christ. Eventually they were conquered by the Aztecs who only survived another 300 years before falling to the Spanish. Another interesting tid-bit that we learned on the tour was that the civilization is believed to have been started by a woman who did not want to continue the nomadic life. The tribe left the woman there with only the sick and the lame for company and moved on. Eventually this woman's group populated and built the Mayan city of Chichen Itza.