Saturday, July 14, 2007

Chichen Itza

Since Mom mentioned that she and Heidi visited Chichen Itza I'll do a write up. This is the remains of the dominant city of the Yucatan peninsula. The Yucatan has no major rivers so all of the water sources came from sinkholes (cenotes). The name Chichen Itza means 'At the mouth of the well of the Itza'. The city had declined before the Spanish arrived. Recent research shows that parts of the city were burned, suggesting that it was violently overthrown.
The land that the monuments are on is privately owned. I'm pretty sure this makes it unique amongst the Seven Wonders. I'm sure it also leads the Seven in hung over college kids visiting since Cancun is the nearby jumping off point.
Every year at the equinox, the sun lines up along the side of the Temple of Kukulcan to show the serpent crawling down the steps (if you use lots of imagination). Video shown here:

1 comment:

carrster said...

I loved visiting Chichen Itza! Those steps on the main temple were a doozy but well worth it. :)