Visiting the Maya Temple Chichén Itzá in Mexico

Yesterday I visited one of the touristic highlights of the Yucatán peninsula: the temples of Chichén Itzá. 

They were built by the Maya between 600 and 1200 AD, when Chichén Itzá was one of the biggest Mayan cities. 

The Spanish conquered the Yucatán peninsula in the very east of Mexico in the 16th century, when the Maya civilisation was already in decline. Today, Chichén Itzá is visited by more than 1.4 million tourists each year. 

Its most impressive building is the Temple of Kukulkan. It is built in such a way that on the spring and autumn equinoxes the northwest corner of the pyramid casts shadows against the western balustrade on the north side. They look a snake wriggling down the staircase, which reminds of the Mayan serpent god Kukulkan. 

Typical for the Maya culture were rich figurative ornaments made of stucco. Originally they were painted in bright colours.

These skulls are supposed to scare away enemies.

These figures can be found at the giant ball court, in which ritual ball games took place. The winner of a ball game had the honour to be sacrificed to the gods.

Another important building is the Temple of the Warriors with lots of columns depicting Maya warriors.

Even more columns can be found next to the temple. Their name is Group of the Thousand Columns. I did not count them, but there are many of them indeed.

There were lots of fake Maya warriors around with whom you could take a picture.

Usually I am not a big fan of this kind of organised tourism, but Chichén Itzá is definitely worth a visit.