Chichen-Itza

I've wanted to post these pics for a while now, but it seems our lives have been quite hectic the last week and a half. Enjoy!

We spent a few hours at Chichen Izta. It is considered the best of the Mayan archaeological sites. In fact, while we were there, we couldn't climb to the top as usually they let you do, because they are working on restoring it. There will be a commit tie going around finding the "new" 7 Wonders of the World, and Chichen-Itza is being considered. Hence the restoration.

This is probably the best known "building". Their archaeology was amazing. They developed an accurate calendar by watching the stars and planets. On top of this religious center, the "priest" could stand and talk, of course without a microphone, and thousands of people could hear him talk in a normal voice due to the design of the building. Amazing. Also, each side has 91 steps, take that times 4 and you have the days of the year.

Of course the down side to the Mayans was their human sacrifice. Ouch. Each year, the priest and a 15 year old virgin (a smart and beautiful girl) would begin the trek down from the steps (shown above). She would be painted blue. They worshipped the rain god. It was her "privilege" to be able to speak to the rain god and ask him for rain. Of course he lived at the bottom of the well. At the edge of the well, she would be given a sacred drink (alcohol) and then would step into the well, never to be seen again. The Mayans considered her a messenger. Of course we know it was human sacrifice.
Brandy and I are in front of another building with not quite as many steps. The land is quite flat there, so they would lift high there important buildings.
Above was their ball Game Court where they held their sacred games. The people would watch from the top while the players hit a ball across from each side. The really interesting thing about this court is the number seven. To the Mayans and in this game the number 7 was very important. If you clap once in this court...it will echo 7 times. Like I said, their engineering was amazing.

Above was their observatory to view the stars and planets. It's hard to tell from this picture but it was round on top, like our observatories.

Have you ever seen pictures of the Mayans? Notice that they have a "flat" head on top, going up diagonally. They considered this a very important sign of status. Know how they got it?? They put there new little babies in a vice like contraption for 3 weeks. Ugh. Of course, our guide reminded us that some day people my look at our "ruins" and be amazed at the strange this we did to our bodies. Pulling the skin back on our faces (face lifts), adding to our busts, and lifting up our bums. Point taken!

The way we remembered how to pronouce "Chichen-Itza"? "Chicken-Pizza"!

Funny, isn't it? In school, history was very boring to me. Now I go to Cancun and I want to see the history and it's really interesting. The teenager in me would flip!