Where is the kukulkan pyramid located

Experts also believe that the temple may have been built on purpose on top of the cenote as cenotes held great religious significance for the Mayans. Your email address will not be published. The Kukulkan temple of Chichen Itza. El Castillo. Did you know that mayans had mastery on astrology? Cenote Discovered under the Kukulkan Temple! Find the perfect tour for your holidays!

Chichen Itza ruins and Valladolid Book now. Chichen Itza Express Book now. By then, it was already one of the largest cities in the Mayan world, covering nearly two square miles with densely packed commercial, residential and other structures made of stone. Another larger structure on the site, Las Monjas, which served as a government building, was also built on leveled terrain. In addition, archeologists believe the Mayans painted many of the buildings in bright colors, including reds, greens and blues.

Today, though, the remains of the city retain the pale gray colors of the original stone. A large cenote sacred well or spring located at the northern end of Chichen Itza has immense ceremonial and archaeological significance. Long rumored to have been the site of human sacrifice, the cenote was dredged in the early s.

The dredging yielded numerous precious artifacts made of gold, turquoise and jade, as well as human remains. Researchers found that the human remains had bone marks and other wounds indicating that they were killed before being thrown into the cenote.

By the ninth century, Chichen Itza was a de facto regional capital, with its rulers controlling much of the central and northern Yucatan peninsula. Via its port at Isla Cerritos on the northern coast, Chichen Itza became an important commercial center, trading in goods—including gold and other treasures—with other cities throughout the Americas.

At its height, it is believed that as many as 50, people lived in the city. This population may have also been fairly diverse, at least by standards of the time, with residents immigrating to the city from beyond the Yucatan, including from present-day Central America. Although the fall of Mayan civilization is widely attributed to the arrival of Christopher Columbus in , and the European colonialists that followed the famous explorer, Chichen Itza may well have lost its place as an important city in the region long before then.

Indeed, historians believe that many of the political and economic activities of the city had shifted to Mayapan, a newer community built to the south and west of Chichen Itza, by the mids.

There is some evidence that Chichen Itza may have been raided and looted at this time, although that remains up for debate. Still, when Spanish conquistadors arrived in , there was a thriving community living in and around the city. As a result, it was only natural that, for a time, the Spanish set up a temporary capital there. Long abandoned by the Spanish, and then by the newly formed country of Mexico , Chichen Itza became a significant architectural site in the mids.

It remains so today. This diamond-backed snake is composed of seven or so triangular shadows, cast by the stepped terraces of the pyramid. The sinking sun seems to give life to the sinuous shadows, which make a decidedly snaky pattern on their way down the stairs. But was the effect intentional, or merely a happy accident?

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