Chichen Itza

Overview: 

The great home of the Ancient Mayans, the incred­i­ble Chichen Itza com­plex was not only a cen­tre of pil­grim­age for Mayans for thou­sands of years but was also once the home of cer­e­mo­ni­al and ancient civil­i­sa­tion – with the still stand­ing pyra­mids, tem­ples, courts and skull walls mak­ing Chichen Itza not just a place of great his­tor­i­cal and archi­tec­tur­al sig­nif­i­cance but a tru­ly unique and beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

Believed to have been the cen­tre of Mayan Life as far back as 450 Ad, Chichen Itza in Mayan lit­er­al­ly trans­lates to ‘near the well of the Itza’ on account of the many water holes – known as Cenote’s that dot the sight, with Chichen Itza hav­ing a sto­ried his­to­ry hav­ing been not only used by the Mayans, but by the Toltec Mex­i­cans, seen the Maya revolt in 1221 and hav­ing been last ful­ly inhab­it­ed some­where in the 15th cen­tu­ry just before the great Span­ish con­quest – lead­ing to the great city and its incred­i­ble struc­tures falling into decay and over­grown by Jun­gle, with it tak­ing until the 20th cen­tu­ry until it was re-dis­cov­ered and restored by archae­o­log­i­cal projects.  

How­ev­er, despite the best restora­tion efforts, Chichen Itza and its incred­i­ble struc­tures, have been sad­ly ebbed away as a result of both the pas­sage of time and per­haps more sad­den­ing mass tourism, with hoards of vis­i­tors known to flock to the won­der on day trips from near­by Can­cun which has led not only to mass crowds at the won­der, but also the clo­sure of many of the tem­ples.  

Yet despite this, for those explor­ers who tru­ly wish to vis­it and under­stand both the won­der and prac­tices of the Mayan cul­ture Chichen Itza has a lot to offer — with the incred­i­ble and icon­ic El Castil­lo pyra­mid and its ser­pent heads, which are par­tic­u­lar­ly daz­zling at sun­set and sun­rise or dur­ing the famous Equinox dis­play when the pyra­mid tru­ly comes alive, com­bined with the still stand­ing Mayan Obser­va­to­ry, wall of skulls, dai­ly night show, sto­ried main court and incred­i­ble tem­ple of skulls mak­ing Chichen Itza a place to not only trav­el in back in time to under­stand and explore the incred­i­ble civ­i­liza­tion of the Mayans but also mak­ing it a unique and sto­ried won­der of the world.  

Where: 

Chichen Itza is found in the east of Mex­i­co on the Yucatan Penin­su­la – with the near­est town being Val­ladol­id but with the won­der also being reach­able by a main high­way from Can­cun or Meri­da.  

Getting there:

While you have the option to do Chichen Itza as a day trip – and its com­mon to do one from Can­cun which is a 2 hour bus ride to the won­der, we’d strong­ly advise that you spend a full day / night at Chichen Itza to explore the full beau­ty of the won­der and take in the incred­i­ble sun­rise and sun­set that illu­mi­nates the mag­nif­i­cent El Castil­lo tem­ple for some incred­i­ble pho­tos.  

In terms of get­ting to Chichen Itza you have a range of options to get to Chichen Itza, with the best to being to make you way from the towns of either Can­cun, Val­ladol­id or Meri­da by either bus or self dri­ve. 

For the bus and for those not book­ing a day trip, you can sim­ply take the bus (use the ADO Com­pa­ny) direct from Can­cun, Val­ladol­id or Meri­da to Chichen Itza – sim­ply get your tick­ets ($10 USD) either online or on the day and kick back for a few hours until you reach the won­der. While it’s a slight­ly longer ride than self-dri­ving it does take the stress out of things as you won’t be forced to nav­i­gate the often-unpre­dictable Mex­i­can roads – and with the bus­es being reg­u­lar you can use this option to say overnight as well.  

Or alter­na­tiv­i­ty and for a much more pop­u­lar option you can self-dri­ve from Can­cun, Meri­da or Val­ladol­id to Chichen Itza with the won­der being eas­i­ly found on the main high­way between Meri­da and Can­cun known as the 180D – which is a straight rode to Chichen Itza and allow­ing you to trav­el at your own times and speed when­ev­er you wish – just be sure to keep both eyes on the road as Mex­i­can roads can be some­what unpre­dictable. 

Once at Chichen Itza, you’ll be able to explore the incred­i­ble won­der and the pyra­mids and tem­ples on foot – so we’d advise to get there ear­ly or in mid after­noon to avoid the harsh sun and be sure to bring plen­ty of sun­screen, water, shades and a hat for pro­tec­tion ! 

Best time to Visit: 

Chichen Itza is vis­itable all year round on account of Mexico’s warm and love­ly cli­mate – so we’d advise arriv­ing dur­ing two peri­ods: 

- The first is if pos­si­ble to time your vis­it with the Equinox in either March or Sep­tem­ber to see the stun­ning pyra­mid tem­ple of El Castil­lo light up and the famous shad­ow of the ser­pent appear to reach into the Heav­ens – for a tru­ly mag­i­cal expe­ri­ence.  

- The sec­ond is if vis­it­ing out­side the equinox to make sure you allo­cate a whole day to see the won­der and get­ting there ear­ly (6am) to see the sun rise and won­der amongst the ruins while it is rel­a­tive­ly tourist free – and then leav­ing the com­plex dur­ing mid­day when the bus­loads of tourists arrive and then return­ing in mid after­noon to watch the sun set light up the incred­i­ble El Castil­lo tem­ple before watch­ing the evening night show for a tru­ly incred­i­ble day at the won­der that is Chichen Itza.  

Regard­less of the sea­son or time you vis­it – just be sure to book your tick­ets in advance to avoid the long queues.  

Explore: 

The stun­ning ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza was once the Jew­el city of the Maya peo­ple dur­ing the years 550 – 900 AD and although now derelict as a result of time and van­dal­ism a trip perus­ing through the incred­i­ble his­toric remains of the city is a tru­ly awe-inspir­ing expe­ri­ence – as you trav­el back in time through of the most icon­ic Mayan site in the world and explore and observe the ancient pyra­mid tem­ples, the main courts where rit­u­als and games were held, the sac­ri­fice alters and the many tem­ples and palaces that make up this archae­o­log­i­cal won­der.  

Explor­ing Chichen Itza gives you not only a chance to vis­it one of the worlds true won­der but also dis­cov­er and learn more about the ways and advance­ments of the his­toric Mayan Peo­ple – includ­ing their prac­tices, beliefs, habits and per­haps above all their world class crav­ing and con­struc­tion abil­i­ty which is reflect­ed int the stun­ning El Castil­lo pyra­mid.  

While we’d real­ly rec­om­mend get­ting tick­ets in advance when you vis­it the won­der, and of course comb­ing your trip with the stun­ning bi-annu­al­ly equinox – or at the very least make sure you don’t explore the won­der on a day trip but make time to catch incred­i­ble sun­rise and sun­set over the ruin, the below in no par­tic­u­lar order are our top things to do when explor­ing the stun­ning won­der of Chichen Itza: 

The pyramid of Kukulcan (El Castillo) 

Undoubt­ed­ly the main attrac­tion and the most icon­ic spot in the whole of Chichen Itza the incred­i­ble Kukul­can Pyra­mid – known local­ly as El Castil­lo (the cas­tle)  — is a 30 metre tall lime­stone carved four-sided pyra­mid ded­i­cat­ed to the Feath­ered Ser­pent God, Kukulkan. 

Found on the North side of Chichen Itza this incred­i­ble pyra­mid fea­tures four stun­ning ascend­ing stair­ways – each made of 91 steps and which rep­re­sent the four point of the com­pass – that lead to a nine tier ter­rac­ing — that sym­bol­is­es the nine believed heav­ens – and which served not just as an incred­i­ble and sacred mon­u­ment but which influ­enced and inspired con­stel­la­tion and astro­nom­i­cal advance­ment – with the tem­ple con­struct­ed to illu­mi­nate at the stun­ning Equinox twice a year which gives the illu­sion of the Snake descend­ing down the stairs – which giv­en it’s con­struc­tion at some point between the 8th – 10th cen­tu­ry is a tru­ly impres­sive archi­tec­tur­al feat ! 

The ded­i­ca­tion to the ser­pent god is also reflect­ed in the large ser­pent heads at the feet of the stair­ways – whose bod­ies ascend all the way up the stair­cas­es up to the main entrance of the Tem­ple of Kukulkán stands and in which not only were sac­ri­fices made, but also a fur­ther tem­ple known as the inte­ri­or tem­ple once stood and which fea­tured an ancient throne in the shape of a Jaguar, com­bined with a chac mool stat­ue and a series of carv­ings which all offered insight into the Mayan way of life were dis­cov­ered.  

Unfor­tu­nate­ly access to the inte­ri­or tem­ple and the climb up one of the four El Castil­lo stair­cas­es are all cur­rent­ly roped off – to pro­tect the integri­ty and decay­ing beau­ty of the main tem­ple – but despite this it’s still pos­si­ble to explore and inspect the incred­i­ble pyra­mid, which is well pre­served in all its splen­dour and pon­der on both its use in its glo­ry days and the incred­i­ble and amaz­ing archi­tec­tur­al feat that led to its con­struc­tion.  

While the stun­ning site of El Castil­lo can make a trip to Chichen Itza more than worth if for any explor­er – giv­en its pop­u­lar­i­ty and beau­ty it does attract a lot of day-trip tourists and for this rea­son we’d strong­ly rec­om­mend com­ing to vis­it the incred­i­ble pyra­mid dur­ing both the ear­ly hours for the stun­ning sun­rise or the late hours for sun­set – or if you’re lucky enough tim­ing your trip for the incred­i­ble Equinox where you can expe­ri­ence one of the great­est fes­ti­vals on the plan­et at this incred­i­ble sight.  

Equinox at Chichen Itza

The most incred­i­ble way to expe­ri­ence the won­der of both El Castil­lo and Chichen Itza, the Equinox at Chichen Itza is a bian­nu­al even in which, thanks to the incred­i­ble archi­tec­tur­al design, the pyra­mid of Kukul­can comes alive – as the shad­ows cast by the descend­ing sun on the equinox – the time when the night and day are believed to be of equal length and which for the Mayans rep­re­sent­ed the strug­gle between light and day – form an incred­i­ble illu­sion along the lime­stone stairs of the El Castil­lo tem­ple that appears to show a god­ly snake reach­ing into the heav­ens   

Known as the greet­ing the Ser­pent of light and shad­ow, the equinox is allows explor­ers to expe­ri­ence and feel the deep spir­i­tu­al­i­ty of the El Castil­lo pyra­mid as the stun­ning shad­ows which peak just before the Ser­pents head give rev­er­ence to the stun­ning design of the tem­ple and allowed the Mayans to pay fur­ther trib­ute to and feel the pres­ence of the Feath­ered Ser­pent God, Kukulkan. 

Although a pop­u­lar fes­ti­val – and one which we would advise to get there ear­ly to secure the best spot for, the Equinox occurs both in Spring (March) and Autumn and is also accom­pa­nied by a series of jol­ly cel­e­bra­tions – includ­ing tra­di­tion­al music which mark the pass­ing of sea­sons – car­ry­ing on a Mayan tra­di­tion that dates back cen­turies.  

So for those who want a true and authen­tic expe­ri­ence at Chichen Itza and want to see it in all its glo­ry as the Mayans did – we’d strong­ly advise tim­ing your vis­it for the incred­i­ble equinox fes­ti­val – for more on the prac­ti­cal­i­ties of attend­ing and what the equinox involves Click here.  

Sunrise and Sunset

For those unfor­tu­nate enough to not make their vis­it at the time of the  Equinox, you can still get tru­ly incred­i­ble views of the won­der of El Castil­lo and Chichen Itza by catch­ing the dai­ly sun­rise and sun­set views light­ing up the stun­ning pyra­mid.  

With the Chichen Itza open­ing times being 8am – 4:30 pm – and sun­rise being at 6:15 am and sun­set at 7:30am – you’ll need to get your­self booked on a tour to wit­ness these incred­i­ble events – but it’s well worth it as the stun­ning tem­ple comes alive and daz­zles with the pass­ing or star­ing of the day.  

Best of all about these tours is not only are they set up for pho­tog­ra­phers, but they occur out­side of hours – mean­ing the crowds of tourists who are con­tin­u­ous­ly present which com­bined with the weath­er being cool­er at these times, means that the chance to wit­ness the sun­rise or sun­set (or both !) against this true won­der is undoubt­ed­ly the best way to expe­ri­ence the incred­i­ble won­der of Chichen Itza.  

While there’s no doubt El Castil­lo and the incred­i­ble sun­rise or sun­set will dom­i­nate and be the main focus of your vis­it, Chichen Itza also con­tains a series of addi­tion­al stun­ning tem­ples and ruins con­struct­ed by the Mayans. While there are too many to list and explore, the below addi­tion­al sites are our top picks to explore with­in the won­der­ful com­plex that will help you deep­en and appre­ci­ate you knowl­edge of the stun­ning Mayan Cul­ture:   

The Temple of the Warriors

Next to the incred­i­ble El Castil­lo stands a large plat­form a top which sits the stun­ning large pyra­mid known as the Tem­ple of War­riors.  

Named after the sur­round­ing columns which flank the tem­ple and tell the sto­ries and folk­lore of famous Mayan war­rior, the tem­ple is guard­ed by a series of square pil­lars and Ser­pent columns, the base of the tem­ple fea­tures some impres­sive sky-fac­ing carv­ings made out to rep­re­sent heads, and for those who were brave enough or allowed to pass through an ascend­ing stair­case which would take vis­i­tors to the sum­mit of the tem­ple up a series of nar­row steps where sat the main entrance to the tem­ple where sat a fur­ther series of Mayan stat­ues (includ­ing Chac Mool) and a small­er tem­ple that served as a base for the Mayan peo­ple when the tem­ple was still in use cen­turies ago.  

While not as impos­ing as the El Castil­lo Pyra­mid the Tem­ple of the war­riors is equal­ly stun­ning and makes for an absolute­ly incred­i­ble stop on a tour around Chichen Itza help­ing explor­ers to fur­ther and under­stand the cul­ture of the Mayans and the beau­ty of the won­der that is Chichen Itza.  

The Hall of the Thousand Columns

A series of iden­ti­cal columns – which as the name sug­gests adds up to a thou­sand, the half of a thou­sand columns was once believed to have sup­port­ed a roof like struc­ture before evolv­ing into a Mayan gath­er­ing place and mar­ket. We’d advise spend­ing some time view­ing through these incred­i­ble columns and the atten­tion to detail that the Mayans put into them before trav­el­ling fur­ther around Chichen Itza.  

El Caracol

The famous Obser­va­to­ry, the El Cara­col is anoth­er key and strik­ing build­ing with the ground of Chichen Itza. Believed to have been con­struct­ed in 906 ad, the obser­va­to­ry has been par­tial­ly deplet­ed, but still stands as a fur­ther sig­nif­i­cant build­ing that allowed the Mayans to chart the stars and study astron­o­my and as a liv­ing his­tor­i­cal doc­u­ment that has allowed the beleifs of the Mayans to be fur­ther under­stood.  

Named the Cara­col – which trans­lates to Snail in Span­ish – on account of its wind­ing stair­case that leads to the upper floor the obser­va­to­ry again show­cas­es the impres­sive archi­tec­tur­al design of the Mayans – with slits observed in the walls to allow them to watch and study the stars – and designed in such a way so that sun­light would light up the obser­va­to­ry twice a year – allow­ing the Mayans to use the obser­va­to­ry as a stand­ing cal­en­dar – with the el Cara­col being a stun­ning sight with­in the grounds of Chichen Itza allow­ing explor­ers to fur­ther under­stand the incred­i­ble cul­ture, beliefs and archi­tec­tur­al abil­i­ty of the Mayans.  

Chichen Itza Light show at night

Allow­ing you to return to the won­der at night the Chichen Itza light show helps bring the incred­i­ble his­to­ry of Chichen Itza alive, as an ani­mat­ed his­tor­i­cal walk through and edu­ca­tion­al film about the his­to­ry of the Mayans is pro­ject­ed onto the side of the stun­ning El Castil­lo. 

We’d advise get­ting there ear­ly to bag one of the few seats, but even for those stand­ing, you’ll see over the course of 30 min­utes an incred­i­ble les­son about the Mayan Cul­ture both through the pro­jec­tions and through an audio tour – and best of all you get to wit­ness El Castil­lo and the stun­ning Chichen Itza under the incred­i­ble Mex­i­can moon­light – for a daz­zling and edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ence.  

Temple of the Skulls 

The tem­ple of the skulls is per­haps the most fear invok­ing tem­ple at Chichen Itza — being made up of the skulls of sac­ri­fi­cial vic­tims who have been exe­cut­ed over the years at the tem­ples of Chichen Itza.  

Admit­ted­ly some­what grue­some the tem­ple is sur­round­ed by fur­ther walls of skulls and was once the site where the heads of those exe­cut­ed would be dis­played to warn oth­ers of the con­se­quences of mis­deeds – or for those who lost the ball game. While the con­struc­tion of the skull walls is archi­tec­tural­ly impres­sive – (although it’s like­ly the vic­tims dis­agree) the skull walls also lead into the House of the Eagles anoth­er incred­i­ble tem­ple where the walls are adorned of depic­tions of the offer­ing of hearts to the gods as well as sig­nif­i­cant decap­i­ta­tion moments that have occurred with the tem­ple – grue­some ! 

Main Ball Court

The main ball court – mea­sur­ing 545 x 223 feet more than twice the size of a mod­ern foot­ball pitch and was the home of the main enter­tain­ment of Mayans – with the Mayan ball court fea­tur­ing a series of 40 foot high hoops adorned by ser­pents which Mayan play­ers would have to throw a ball (which rep­re­sent­ed the sun) through – with­out using their hands !  

Although the rules sound sim­ple enough, the main ball court which dates back to 864 AD was also the scene of some of the blood­i­est events in his­to­ry with play­ers on the los­ing team of the game  were believed to have dis­re­spect­ed the sun and thus would be pun­ished by being sac­ri­ficed or behead­ed to appease the Sun god – images shown on the walls of the main court which depict the bloody fate that await­ed those who cheat­ed or who lost the game.  

Casa Colorada

The house of red – the Casa Col­ora­da is not as grand as the tem­ples nor as impres­sive – but it stands as the best pre­served build­ing in the entire com­plex mak­ing it a real­ly unique sight to see when in the grounds. Believed to have housed a key Mayan Fam­i­ly the casa is notably for the engrav­ings inside the walls that archae­ol­o­gists believe chart the rulers of Chichen Itza – all the way back to 869 AD. With this stun­ning house giv­ing explor­ers a chance to tru­ly expe­ri­ence life at Chichen Itza dur­ing Mayan civil­i­sa­tion.   

Ik Kil & Tsukan Cenote

Final­ly a Cenote is a deep nat­ur­al water pool that was once used the Mayans to attempt to com­mu­ni­cate with the Gods and now thanks to their stun­ning size, hang­ing vines and nor­mal­ly clear blue waters makes for an incred­i­ble and beau­ti­ful swim­ming spot.  

At Chichen Itza and in the area sur­round­ing the won­der, you’ll find a main Chichen Itza  cenote and then two fur­ther ones known as the Ik Kil & Tsukan Cenotes. It’s impor­tant to make sure you get the right Cenote – as the one at Chichen Itza and locat­ed on the site of the won­der is def­i­nite­ly not swim­ma­ble as it’s turned an almost nuclear waste style shade of green and is most def­i­nite­ly not worth tak­ing your chances in.  

But for the oth­er two Cenotes’ they are idyl­lic and beau­ti­ful water holes that make for an ide­al place to relax after explor­ing the won­der of Chichen Itza in the Mex­i­can heat – although you’ll find hoards of tour bus­es stop­ping here if you can head over to the Cenote’s out­side Chichen Itza after the tourists have dis­ap­peared it’s a great chance to soak, relax and reflect on the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is Chichen Itza – as the Mayans have done through cen­turies.  

How long to stay:

We’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing a full day for Chichen Itza – while you can see the main sights in a day – and most trav­ellers come on a day trip  — you’ll miss out on explor­ing all the sights of this stun­ning won­der of the world – and of course the chance to see the incred­i­ble sun­rise and sun­set. 

So our advice would be to stay overnight near­by – arrive for the incred­i­ble sun­rise and explore the won­der in the ear­ly hours when tourists will be at a min­i­mum and the weath­er will be cool­er – and then head back to your hotel for a kip and to avoid both the mid­day sun and the crowds – before return­ing in the after­noon to explore the rest of the sight and if pos­si­ble take in the incred­i­ble sun­set over the won­der.  

Top Tip:

Along­side advis­ing spend­ing a full day at the won­der – rather then see­ing it a day trip from Can­cun – where you’ll find your­self bussed in and bussed out at a quick pace miss­ing the incred­i­ble sun­set and sun­rise as well as the less­er-known spots but equal­ly stun­ning bits of the won­der of Chichen Itza – we’d advise mak­ing sure you book your tick­ets in advance online as part of a skip the line expe­ri­ence as the queues at the Chichen Itza tick­et booths can go on for hours – and with­out a pre-booked tick­et you could find your­self stuck cook­ing in the Mex­i­can sun for a few hours before you actu­al­ly get to see the won­der.  

Along­side this, while there are parts of Mex­i­co that are too dan­ger­ous to vis­it, the area around Chichen Itza – with it being a tourist hotspot – is rel­a­tive­ly safe and is heav­i­ly policed – so while you should obvi­ous­ly keep an eye on your belong­ings it’s a safe des­ti­na­tion to vis­it – includ­ing at night.  

Cost:

Tick­ets for entry to the whole of the Chichen Itza cost 533 Mex­i­can pesos ($25 USD) – and you can either get them on the gate itself where you can expect an hours long queue before you enter the com­plex and where you’ll need the right change — or for a much more enjoy­able expe­ri­ence that we’d real­ly rec­om­mend get them as part of a skip the line offer online before­hand at [https://www.chichenitza.com/tickets] – which will make you expe­ri­ence at the won­der much more enjoy­able.  

For those who want to go the extra mile and get tru­ly incred­i­ble shots of the main El Castil­lo pyra­mid then you’ll want to be there out­side the open­ing hours of 8am–4:30pm – and arrive for either sun­rise at 6:15am or sun­set at 7:30pm – with the only way of doing this being to arrange a spe­cial­ly guid­ed tour that can set you back $150 USD – it’s pricey but def­i­nite­ly  worth it to both view the won­der with­out the crowds and to see the stun­ning sun­rise and sun­set that makes for an incred­i­ble dis­play. 

Best photo spot:

The post­card full image shot of the main El Castil­lo pyra­mid – which is the undoubt­ed high­light of Chichen Itza is found from var­i­ous angles inside the com­plex – with our favourite one being from the plains in front of the tow­er­ing pyra­mid.   

The prob­lem is though due to the pop­u­lar­i­ty of Chichen Itza it’s vir­tu­al­ly impos­si­ble to get a pho­to that doesn’t have crowds of tourists in the pic­ture dur­ing open­ing hours – which can real­ly take away from the beau­ty of your shot and the stun­ning won­der.  

For this rea­son, we’d rec­om­mend either tim­ing your vis­it with the Equinox on a pri­vate tour to get both the angles and best shots for your pho­to – or if vis­it­ing out­side March and Sep­tem­ber make sure you get there before the park opens on an ear­ly morn­ing sun­rise tour (they begin about 6am) or hang around till sun­set when the bus­loads or tourists dis­ap­pear and you can catch the sun­set­ting over the won­der.  

With the sight of the sun set­ting or ris­ing over the incred­i­ble main El Castil­lo pyra­mid and the entire Chichen Itza com­plex cre­at­ing a daz­zling effect which illu­mi­nates the full beau­ty of the tem­ples and is undoubt­ed­ly the best way to expe­ri­ence the incred­i­ble won­der of the world that is Chichen Itza.