Chichén Itzá
Chichén Itzá Boca Well , of ( Itza ) witches of water is one of the major archaeological sites of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico , located in the town of Tinum in the state of Yucatan. Important and renowned relic of the Mayan civilization , the main buildings that remain there correspond to the time of the decline of the Mayan culture known to archaeologists as the post-classical period.
The massive architecture that has survived to this day and is emblematic of the site today , have a clear Toltec influence. The god who presides over the site , according to Mayan mythology , is Kukulcan Mayan representation of Quetzalcoatl , god of the Pantheon taken from the Toltec culture . That said , consider that Chichén Itzá was a city or a ceremonial center, which went through various designs and influences of the different peoples who have lived there and that boosted times since its founding .
The archaeological site of Chichen Itza was inscribed on the list of World Heritage by UNESCO in 1988.El July 7, 2007 , the Temple of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza located , was recognized as one of the new Seven Wonders of the modern world, a private initiative without the support of Unesco, but with the recognition of millions of voters around the world.
HISTORY
Chichén Itzá was founded around the year 525 AD during the "first descent down the east or small referring chronic" by chanes Bacalar (later Itza is called) and later still Cocomes.
Having established the chanes the capital of his government in Chichén Itzá in branding, from Bacalar time, they continued their journey from east to west in the Yucatan peninsula, after which also would found other major cities like Ek Balam, Izamal, Motul , T'Hó, current and Champotón Merida Yucatan.
Toward the end of the Late Classic period, in the ninth century, Chichén became one of the most important political centers Mayab lands. For the beginning of the post-classical (from 900 to 1500), the city had established itself as the main center of power in the Yucatan Peninsula.
Architecture
Temple of the Warriors and the Thousand Columns in where the Chac Mool. The buildings of Chichén Itzá show a large number of architectural and iconographic elements that some historians have called mexicanizados.8 The truth is that it is visible the influence of cultures from the Mexican plateau, and mixing with the Puuc style, from the upper area of the peninsula, classical Mayan architecture. The presence of these elements from the cultures of the highlands were conceived until a few years as a result of a mass migration or conquest of the Mayan city by Toltec groups makes. However, studies suggest that more recientes9 may have been the cultural expression of a widespread and prestigious political system during the early Postclassic
Evolution Site
Panoramic called El Castillo, the Temple of the Thousand Columns in foreground Vista.
For the " Ball Game" Complex .
According to the available evidence, it is possible that many of the major buildings in the city have been destroyed by the end of XI century and rebuilt later. It can be said that the decline of Chichen Itza occurred in a context of violence , which led to the loss of Chichen Itza in hegemoonía Mayab.
In 987 A.D. League of Mayapan , which was a union of priestly houses of the peninsula, among which the most important were Uxmal, Chichen Itza and Mayapan formed. However this link was destroyed by a disagreement between the caciques ( Halach Uiniks ) of participants led to a declaration of war one, Hunac Ceel who Halach Uinik Mayapan was proclaimed. This led to the break with the Itza who lost the conflict and eventually had to flee in 1194 AD and take refuge in the Petén , where they had originally come to almost ten siglos
Unlike the beginning, when Chichen was founded in the coming Mayan Eastern sought peace and development of its people settling in the Mayab ( in Maya : Má = no Yab = much , many) " the place for a few " " not many "name that had the entire region before the arrival of the Spaniards , 11 at the end , 1,000 years later , the region itself had become a place of strife and struggle . In the fall , the elite was made up of warriors, priests and merchants who ruled Chichén Itzá. They had introduced the worship of the god Kukulcan. They had erected impressive buildings with slopes and vertical walls and representations of the bird-serpent god who came from outside. In the process of decline militarism was the undoubted merits of that culture. This is evident in the monument called Platform of Skulls where exhibited , fixed on stakes, the skulls of hundreds of enemigos.
The Castle and the descent of Kukulcan
Formation of seven isosceles triangles of light NNE ladder simulating the body of a snake during the equinoctial sunset , the light rays penetrate the north- west corner of the foundations of the ONO facade.
The multiple and monumental buildings of the vast expanse of Chichén Itzá are chaired by the Pyramid of Kukulcan, called by many " the Castle" , one of the most remarkable buildings of Mayan architecture . It is a four-sided pyramid culminating in a rectangular temple. It sits on a rectangular platform 55.5 meters wide and has a height of 24 meters. Each side of the pyramid has a grand staircase , 91 steps per side and 1 more leads to the upper temple, giving 365 steps , one for each day of the year . Stone balustrades flank each staircase , and at the base of the north staircase two colossal heads of feathered snakes, effigies of the god Kukulcan settle . It is in these steps and particularly in its parapets or balustrades, which are projected over the course of equinoctial day , the shadows of the edges of the platforms or overlapping bases , that make up the large building , thereby constituting the image of the body of the snake means that the passing hours seems to move down and finishing in said head stone at the bottom base of the staircase .
It is in this play of light and shadow, which represents the "up " Kukulcan to land, as it wanted the Maya symbolize the superior command to go to agricultural work , with the imminent arrival of the rains, the end of the month March when the planting season begins the corn in the region.
The intimate relationship that the inventors made similar mount , their astronomical knowledge , applied to architecture , in a religious environment and a strictly political leadership to mass , they should promptly attend to quote an arduous task is evident, survival : the heavy agricultural work its essential crop, maize , their staple diet . It follows , therefore, that the spectacle we see today as magical, had to do with the social stability of the Maya.
Sacred cenote
It is a cenote open pit 60 m in diameter, with vertical walls about 15 m level access to the water surface and 13 m depth , which is about the first phreatic floor in that area of the Yucatan Peninsula .
This cenote called sacred offerings to the god Chac, lord of the rains , which consisted of valuables and tradition also says that human sacrifices , usually of noble maidens , dressed in ceremonial robes and bejeweled were made. The cenote prisoners of high rank also sacrificed , also as a religious offering .
In the early twentieth an American consul Edward Herbert Thompson (1857-1935) century , whose greed was awakened by these traditional references, dredged the cenote and took numerous items that sent his country by selling mainly to the Peabody Museum in Massachusetts , this museum after several efforts of the Mexican government , he returned to Mexico in 1970 and in 2008 , a lot of the priceless antiquities.
More recently, Mexican archaeologists also found pieces of jade, obsidian knives , gems , gemstones, treasures and skeletons , but it is estimated that even the cenote has not been explored thoroughly .
