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Cancun, Mexico

We spent a few days in Cancun Mexico in December 1997. Click here for a map.

We celebrated our 10th aniversary on this trip.    The weather was just fine, the Mexican food was hot and spicey, the water was clear and the crowds were small.   While the beach and sun were fun, we felt we should make at least one cultural excursion - we spent a day at the Maya ruins at Chichen Itza.

Chichen Itza was the most important city in the Yucatan from the 10th to the 12th century.  The site was first settled about 432AD.  The site was abandoned at some point and then rediscovered about 964AD by the Maya-speaking Itzas.   The site was again abandonedand and later in the 10th century resettled by the Toltecs from central-Mexico.  The Toltecs ruled the Mayans for some 200 years, through the highpoint of this city.  The location was abandoned for the final time about 1224.  U.S. Consul General Edward Thompson purchased Chichen Itza and performed some of the earliest excavations at the site.  Many of the sites treasures were taken to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. 

El Castillo (the castle) at 98' tall dominates the site.    There is a temple at the top dedicated to Kukulcan (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl), the legendary priest-king from Tula in the Valley of Mexico who was incarnated by the plumed serpent.  According to lore, Kukulcan went into excile, disappearing to the east, but promising to return.   The Aztecs mistook the Spaniards for gods, making that prophecy a nightmarish reality. 

The pyramid has  4 stairways, each facing a different cardinal piont.   Each consist of 91 very steep steps.  The steps in the 4 stairways and the steps to the temple platform itself sum to 365 steps - one for each day in the Mayas solar calendar.  The 52 panels on the sides stand for the years of a sacred cycle and teh 18 terraces symbolize teh months of the year.  An open-jawed plumed serpent rests on the balustrade of each stairway, and serpents reappear at the top of the temple as sculpted columns. 

At the spring and fall equinoxes, the afternoon light and shadow strike one of these balustrades in such a way as fo form a shadow representation of Kukulcan undulating out of his temple and down the pyramid. 

There are 7 ball courts on the site, each 272' long, with 2 stone rings on each side 99' apart.  Apparently the game played in these fields was similar to soccer, but strictly religous in nature.  This carving  is from the walls lining the largest court on the site. 

This site contains one of the few round buildings built by the Maya - El Caracol.  It has portals oriented to the 4 cardinal points and directly aligned with the planet Venus - which indicates it was used as an observatory.  However, it probably also served a religous purpose.  The Toltec cult of Kukulcan often involved circular temples.

This building was called Casa de las Monjas (Nunnery).  Nice carvings, but do one is sure how the Maya used the building.

The underlying cult theme of the place was a little unnerving.   However, it is amazing what people could accomplish 1500 years ago.  The construction and the fact it endured for so long is quite amazing.  The alignment with the cardinal points, equinoxes and planets just adds to the impressive nature.

Back to the beach!

The Mango Tango provided a flashy show to go with dinner and it was in walking distance of the hotel.