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The Pyramid of KukulcanAs soon as you walk down from the visitor's center, the first thing you come to is a wide open plaza and a clear view of the Pyramid of Kukulcan (or 'the Castle', or 'El Castillo' depending on who is describing it). Tall (90 odd feet), steep and well restored (on two sides anyway), it's an impressive introduction to the site. |
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| The connection between the Mayan architecture and the celestial environment is clear. Ninety-one steps on each side plus the top platform itself equals a total of 365 steps, the number of days in a year. The number of terrace segments on each side equals 18 - the number of months in the Mayan calendar. The diagonal axis of the structure points toward the sunrise of the summer solstice. This coincides with the fact that on the spring and fall solstice the shadow of the terraces fall on the staircases so that a zigzag pattern appears ending with the serpent head at the bottom of the staircase - representing the body of the plumed serpent Kukulcan descending from his temple atop the pyramid to bless the earth. |  |
The facade that exists today was built on the top of an earlier temple. At the base of the north staircase there is a door through which during a few hours a day you can enter and climb the earlier stairs to the excavated temple which is underneath the exposed one. You can't take flash pictures inside (we saw the guard take away somebody's film) but the photo below is taken with available light inside the staircase. It is narrow, steep and claustrophobic. At the temple at the top, there is an altar in the innermost chamber and a jaguar throne with jade eyes and ornamentation. |
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| Also very scary climbing the outside of the pyramid - steep & narrow steps (too small for my size 12’s!). But the view from the top is spectacular. You get a view of the nearby structures and layout, but the surrounding growth is so thick you don’t see anything at even a short distance - the secondary groups of structures or the nearby hotels. The temple on the top retains much of its original relief carvings and the small interior chambers are open. (Don't know what the Mayan priests would think about tourist tracking all over their most holy spots...) |
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Just to prove that Janet did make it to the top!! |
Every evening there is a sound and light show on the main plaza near the ball court. (We walked there from the Hacienda Chichen.) It is given in Spanish, although you can rent headphones that give simultaneous translation in English, German, or French. (Well, it's not EXACTLY simultaneous!) I can say that if you wanted to skip the narration you wouldn't be missing much, it's a bit melodramatic and from what I understand, not exactly accurate. But it's worth it to see the ruins at night and the lighting gives you a different perspective on the architecture. For me though, probably the most impressive part, was just being among the ruins in the (very dark) darkness with an incredible blanket of stars overhead... Hard to improve on nature I suppose...
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