Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza

• Official name: Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza
• Location: Yucatan, Mexico
• Type: Cultural
• Year of inscription: 1988

Chichen-Itza, located on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, was one of the great ancient Mayan cities. Scholars believe the city, which sprawled more than 4 square miles (10 square kilometers) at its height, was a religious, military, political, and commercial center at its peak. At that time, it would have been home to about 35,000 people.

The first settlers arrived in Chichen-Itza about 550 CE. They were probably drawn to easy access to water that could be found in the region’s caves and sinkholes, known as cenotes. The city was established near two of these natural cavities. The name Chichen-Itza pays homage to these natural water features, with chi translating to “mouths,” chen to “wells,” and Itza the name of the Mayan tribe that settled there.

The site was first established by the Mayans and was later overtaken by the Toltecs. As such, Chichen-Itza features a number of stone monuments and artistic works that reveal much about both the Maya and Toltec world visions. Some of the earliest structures include Akabtzib (“House of the Dark Writing”), Chichanchob (“Red House”), Iglesia (“church”), Casa de las Monjas (“nunnery”) and the observatory, El Caracol (“The Snail”).

In the tenth century, Chichen-Itza was invaded by an outside group. Many scholars believe this group was comprised of Maya speakers who may have been strongly influenced by the Toltec civilization of Central Mexico. These invaders were responsible for a number of new constructions, including major buildings like El Castillo (“The Castle”). This pyramid is 79 feet (24 meters) tall and is located in the main plaza. The four-sided structure has ninety-one stairs on each side. When these steps are added together and then combined with one more step located at the top platform of the pyramid, the sum is 365, which corresponds with the number of days in the solar year. During the spring and autumnal equinoxes each year, shadows from the setting sun give the appearance of a snake moving down the stairways. The pyramid features a carving of a plumed serpent that represents Quetzalcoatl, known to the Mayas as Kukulcan, one of the major deities of ancient Mesoamerican cultures. The site also features a 545-by-223 foot (166-by-68 meter) court for playing the game tlachtli. This court is the largest of its kind in the Americas.

History

The Maya Empire arose in the tropical lowlands of what would later become Guatemala. The civilization reached its peak in the sixth century. The Maya were known for their skill in agriculture, pottery, hieroglyph writing, calendar making, and mathematics. Their reach extended into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, Belize, and parts of the Mexican states of Tabasco and Chiapas. Inhabiting such a concentrated area protected the Maya from invasion by other Mesoamerican groups. The Maya were split into three distinct regional groups with different environmental and cultural qualities—the northern Maya lowlands on the Yucatan Peninsula; the southern lowlands in northern Guatemala and nearby portions of Mexico, Belize and Honduras; and the southern Maya highlands, in southern Guatemala’s mountains.

The earliest Maya settlements date to about 1800 BCE. At this time, the Maya civilization was agricultural, producing crops like corn, beans, squash and cassava. During the Middle Preclassic Period, which lasted until about 300 BCE, Maya farmers began to expand their presence in both highland and lowland regions. The preclassic Maya also began integrating more advanced cultural practices such as pyramid and city construction, and carving words into their stone monuments.

The Classic Period, which began around 250 CE, was the golden age of the empire, which grew to about forty cities that included Tikal, Copan, Dos Pilas, and Palenque. At its peak, the Maya civilization may have included anywhere from two to ten million people. The Maya Empire began its decline from the late eighth century through the end of the ninth century, but it is still unclear why. One by one, cities like Chichen-Itza were abandoned.

Some historians theorize that the Maya had exhausted their environmental resources by the ninth century, making it impossible to sustain their population. Others believe that constant warfare between competing city-states caused a collapse in military, family, and trade alliances. Another possibility is that a catastrophic environmental change, such as an intense period of drought, played a part in the decline of the Maya.

Settlement and Development of Chichen-Itza

Chichen-Itza was first established by the Maya sometime between 415-455 CR. By around 600, the city was a significant center for Maya political and economic activity. At nearly 2 square miles (5.2 square kilometers), it was one of the largest Maya cities at the time. It featured densely packed commercial and residential structures made of stone. There were even suburbs with smaller homes on the outskirts of the city. It was during this period that structures like Akabtzib, Casa de la Monjas, El Caracol, Chichanchob were constructed using an architectural style called Puuc.

By the ninth century, Chichen-Itza was recognized as the regional capital, and its rulers controlled much of the central and northern parts of the Yucatan Peninsula. This was in part due to its importance as a commercial center. Chichen-Itza traded goods like gold with other cities in the Americas.

A second settlement was constructed between 967 and 987, enlarging the city to its greatest extent. It is hypothesized that the city was captured by a Maya-speaking group either influenced or controlled by the Toltec. These invaders were responsible for new construction, including El Castillo, the High Priest’s Grave, and Temple of the Warriors.

Historians believe that Chichen-Itza began to weaken by the mid-thirteenth century, when many political and economic activities shifted to Mayapan, a newer community to the southwest. Chichen-Itza joined with Mayapan and nearby Uxmal in a political confederacy known as the League of Mayapan. By about 1450, the league disbanded.

Although the city of Chichen-Itza had been mostly abandoned in the mid-thirteenth century, it was still used as a religious site. By the time the Spanish conquistadors arrived in 1526, the region around the city had a thriving community, and the Spanish were met by violent opposition from the local Maya population. Still, the Spanish set up a temporary capital at Chichen-Itza, and later used the site as a headquarters for cattle and ranching.

By the nineteenth century, most of the city had become overgrown with jungle, but remained a sacred spot to the Maya. Excavation of the site began in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several of the buildings were partially reconstructed during this period. During a 1904 excavation led by American Edward Herbert Thompson, a number of skeletons and sacrificial items were found in a cenote. This confirmed the legend of the Cult of Cenote, a tradition of human sacrifice to the rain god Chaac. In this practice, victims were thrown into the city’s main cenote. They were accompanied by jade ornaments and other valuable items.

Integrity and Authenticity

After the site’s abandonment, Chichen-Itza suffered gradual deterioration until the first excavations of the site in 1841. However, the excellent materials and building techniques used by the Maya helped protect the architectural, sculptural, and pictorial elements of the site for centuries. Coloration of buildings has also faded as a result of weathering. Though archaeologists believe that the Mayans painted many of their buildings in bright colors like red, green and blue, the city’s structures now retain the pale gray color of the original stone.

Chichen-Itza is a well-preserved site, but its use for unrelated cultural events and the impact these events may have on conservation and authenticity has been a cause for concern.

Significance

Chichen-Itza, with more than one thousand years of history, was one of the greatest Mayan centers in the Yucatan region. Through its monuments, art and other construction, it paints a picture of Maya and Toltec world views, which were intimately tied to the cosmos above. The crawling serpent appearing on the spring and autumnal equinox each year at the Temple of Kukulkan (also known as El Castillo) illustrates the culture’s understanding of astronomy, mathematics and architecture.

The fusion of construction techniques from these two groups at Chichen-Itza make it one of the most important examples of the Mayan-Toltec civilization in the Yucatan. Specific examples of this cultural fusion can be found in El Caracol, a circular observatory and El Castillo. El Castillo is surrounded by terraces with major monumental complexes including the Great Ball Court, one of the largest known of its kind in the Americas; Skull Wall; Jaguar Temple; House of Eagles and Temple of Warriors.

The site’s monuments, especially the Great Ball Court, Temple of Kukulkan and the Temple of the Warriors, are also celebrated as some of the great masterpieces of Mesoamerican architecture because of their beauty, size, perfection of construction and sculpted decorations. These monuments are also significant for the influence they had on the entire Yucatan region from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries.

Bibliography

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Doyle White, Ethan. “Visiting Chichen Itza in 2022, Everything You Need to Know.” Archaeology Travel, 2022, archaeology-travel.com/mexico/chichen-itza/. Accessed 30 June 2022.

History.com Editors. “Chichen Itza.” History.com, 21 Aug. 2018, www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/chichen-itza. Accessed 30 June 2022.

History.com Editors. “Maya.” History.com, 16 Apr. 2021, www.history.com/topics/ancient-americas/maya. Accessed 30 June 2022.

“Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza.” UNESCO World Heritage Convention, 2022, whc.unesco.org/en/list/483/. Accessed 30 June 2022.