A Mayan Adventure Begins

Seeing this Wonder of the World was a big draw for a visit to Mexico! And somehow, the ruins we have visited since keep getting even more interesting (and much less busy).

The temple at Chichen Itza was precisely designed with astronomy in mind. The summer solstice unveils the feathered snake god, Kukulcan, who slithers down the temple at sunset as triangles of light connect down the steps to meet the carved snakehead at the bottom. 

Chichen Itza was one of the final cities built before the collapse of the Mayans, and is well-known for its gruesome human sacrifices. After visiting a few different sites, I'm starting to get a better understanding of what happened. The Mayans built their cities by completely clearing the land in these complexes, removing and burning the trees. I can't understand how that would be desirable, because it's so hot here, but with massive cities with over 30,000 residents, they had a huge impact on their environment. Eventually, they completely overused their resources, and disrupted the water cycle so much that there were massive droughts. The sacrifices, starting with animals, were to the rain god, Chaac. When it didn't work, eventually the commoners seem to have revolted against the god-like royalty. Tragically, the royals held all the incredible knowledge of math and astronomy, and so we do not know all that they knew!

There was also a ball court, with a game I absolutely don't want to play. The teams had to get the 7 pound ball through a tiny hoop mounted high on the wall. And the winning team's captain was honorably sacrificed, as shown in the carving above.

Their astronomical knowledge was exceptional, with all buildings oriented precisely aligning with cardinal directions and planets.

The entire royal complex here was built up and flattened, stone by stone. It also wasn't grassed, but paved and painted in red and white. Below shows the previous level of the ground and the first construction of the pyramid.

Mayans would build or add to a temple every 52 years, or a full cycle. Many of these structures have complete temples inside! 

There was also a fantastic display of acoustical knowledge, with the temple designed with physics in mind to project the voice of the king speaking at the top, which led the commoners to believe he was a god. 

While Mayan people still live in this area, the great civilization collapsed, with no help from the Spanish conquerors, and much knowledge and history was lost.

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