It's my stage of the tour and no Lance Armstrong in sight, unfortunately. We are now at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan peninsula. To an architecture fan, there is much to appreciate here. In this very BRIEF overview three structures will be highlighted, the Kulkulkan pyramid, the Ball Court and the Caracol. Chichen Itza also boasts two Cenotes, the Xtoloc Cenote and the Sacred Cenote, the more famous is the Sacred Cenote believed to have received sacrifices (of wealth and people).

So what exactly is Chichen Itza? Well its name means the 'mouth of the well of the Itza'. It's a Maya city with influences of the Toltec, the Itza and the lowland Maya. The sources I've listed below describe the contact between the Toltec and the Itza as 'obscure'. It was occupied at least in 900AD, but its exact chronology is unknown.

A reconstruction of the Kulkulkan pyramid can be found here.

The Ball Court is unusual because it is the largest in MesoAmerica, with a length of 146 meters and a width of 36 meters. The hoops are 8 meters up from the playing field, which makes the court seem more ceremonial than competitive. Both the court and the north staircase of the KulKulkan pyramid face towards the Sacred Cenote.

The Caracol is a really strange structure built to observe the planet Venus at different times during the year. The building has circular concentric vaults within a trapezoid within a rectangle. The alignment of the concentric vaults is what Miller describes as the inside of a conch shell. Yet the alignment allowed for precision viewing of Venus.

Click here to see the Caracol

Click here to visit Chichen Itza at AncientMexico

Sources:
Miller, Mary Ellen, The Art of MesoAmerica 3rd edition, Thames and Hudson World of Art, 2001
Miller, Mary Ellen, Maya Art and Architecture, Thames and Hudson World of Art, 1999

Continue on the pyramid tour