85 Fun Facts About Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza is located in which Mexican state?

Yucatán, though many visitors arrive on day-trip tour buses from Cancún, which lies in neighbouring Quintana Roo.

Which civilisation built Chichen Itza?

The Maya built it, though its mix of styles once had scholars imagining a Toltec conquest from central Mexico; most now see cultural exchange instead.

What does the name Chichén Itzá mean?

At the mouth of the well of the Itzá, from chi' (mouth) and ch'en (well); 'Itzá' itself may mean 'enchanter of the water'.

What name do geologists give landscapes like Chichen Itza's, where water dissolves the rock and rivers run underground?

Karst, named after the Kras, a limestone plateau on the Slovenia–Italy border that lent its name to such landscapes.

To which Maya god were objects and people sacrificed in the Sacred Cenote?

Chaac, the rain god: in times of drought the Maya threw people and treasures into the cenote as offerings to him.

Which underworld did the Maya believe they could reach through water-filled sinkholes like those at Chichen Itza?

Xibalba, the 'place of fright' whose death lords, in the Popol Vuh, are outwitted by the Hero Twins after a ballgame.

Around 1840, an Austrian diplomat photographed Chichen Itza using which process?

The daguerreotype: Emanuel von Friedrichsthal took his pictures there, and later showed them in New York, London and Paris.

Where did Edward Thompson ship most of the artefacts he dredged from Chichen Itza's Sacred Cenote?

The Peabody Museum at Harvard; in 1926 Mexico seized his hacienda, charging that he had taken the finds illegally.

The main pyramid at Chichen Itza is dedicated to which feathered-serpent deity?

Kukulkan; the first Spaniards to see his pyramid called it El Castillo, 'the castle', and the name has stuck ever since.

On 21 December 2012, crowds gathered at Chichen Itza as a cycle ended in which Maya calendar?

The Long Count: its 13th b'ak'tun ended that day, though no Maya record suggests they expected the world to end with it.

Counting the top platform, the four staircases of El Castillo add up to how many steps?

365, one per day of the Haab' solar year: each staircase has about 91 steps, and the top platform counts as the last.

Late-afternoon light at the spring and autumn equinoxes forms what shape on El Castillo's north staircase?

A crawling serpent: seven triangles of light and shadow line the staircase's balustrade and join the carved serpent head at its foot.

A handclap at the foot of El Castillo's staircase produces an echo compared to which bird's call?

The resplendent quetzal, the Maya 'messenger of the gods'; acoustician David Lubman speculated the steps were built to echo its call.

Which famous aviator flew archaeologists over Chichen Itza in 1929, taking some of the first aerial photographs of Maya ruins?

Charles Lindbergh, two years after his solo flight from New York to Paris, with archaeologist Alfred Kidder aboard to spot ruins hidden by jungle.

What did scientists determine lies beneath El Castillo in 2015?

A hidden cenote: researchers think the builders probably knew the water-filled cavity was there and chose that spot for their main temple.

Why did the authorities close El Castillo to climbers in 2006?

An 80-year-old American woman fell to her death in January 2006; visitors may still walk around the monuments but no longer climb them.

The ball used on Chichen Itza's thirteen ball courts was made of what?

Solid rubber: Mesoamericans mixed tree latex with morning glory juice to make it bounce, over 3,000 years before Charles Goodyear.

In the carved panels along Chichen Itza's Great Ball Court, what has happened to one of the players?

Beheaded: blood spurts from his neck as snakes, in what is read as a sacrifice tied to the ballgame.

The temple at the north end of Chichen Itza's Great Ball Court is nicknamed after what feature of a figure?

A beard: the Temple of the Bearded Man is named for carving under the central figure's chin that looks like facial hair.

What is a tzompantli, an example of which stands at Chichen Itza?

A skull platform or rack, built to put the skulls of war captives and sacrificial victims on public display.

On the Platform of the Eagles and the Jaguars at Chichen Itza, carved panels show those two predators doing what?

Eating human hearts is the job on this platform, which mixes Maya and Toltec styles and has a staircase on each of its four sides.

The platform between El Castillo and the Sacred Cenote at Chichen Itza is dedicated to what?

The planet Venus; archaeologists found a cache of large carved stone cones inside, and nobody knows what they were for.

The Temple of the Warriors at Chichen Itza closely resembles Temple B at which Toltec capital?

Tula's Temple B is the twin, though the Chichen Itza version was built on a larger scale.

What kind of building is El Caracol thought to have been?

An astronomical observatory: unlike the site's rectangular buildings it is round, with windows thought to line up with events in the sky.

Why is El Caracol so named?

Its internal staircase spirals like a snail shell, which is why the Spanish called the round tower El Caracol, 'the snail'.

The complex the Spanish named Las Monjas ('The Nunnery') was actually what?

A governmental palace; its many rooms reminded early Spanish visitors of a convent, which is how it got the name.

What does the name of the building Akab Dzib mean in Yucatec Maya?

Dark writing, named for the hieroglyphs carved on a lintel inside the building.

The Osario pyramid is called the High Priests' Temple because Edward Thompson found skeletons where?

In a cave beneath it: Thompson's excavation led him down a deep vertical shaft from the summit temple into the cave.

What are the carved pillars beside Chichen Itza's Temple of the Warriors called?

The Group of a Thousand Columns: the pillars, many carved with warriors, once held up a vast roof.

Chichen Itza's carved dates span AD 832 to 998, the heyday of which European warriors?

The Vikings: their age is usually dated from the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 to about 1066, spanning every one of these dates.

Which Maya warlord, who later ruled Mayapan, emerged alive from Chichen Itza's Sacred Cenote with a message from the gods?

Hunac Ceel, who went on to become lord of Mayapan and later conquered Chichen Itza itself.

What did conquistador Montejo the Younger rename Chichen Itza when he tried to make it his capital in the 1530s?

Ciudad Real, but the Maya besieged him among the ruins, and after losing 150 men in one assault he slipped away under cover of darkness.

By 1588 the land around Chichen Itza had become what?

A working cattle ranch, after the Spanish crown issued a land grant that included the ruins.

Whose 1843 book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan brought Chichen Itza to popular attention?

John Lloyd Stephens, whose book was illustrated from drawings Frederick Catherwood made on the spot.

What did 2016 scans reveal inside the earlier structure already known to lie within El Castillo?

A third, even older pyramid, about 10 metres tall; one archaeologist compared the building to a Russian nesting doll.

Which US organisation excavated and restored Chichen Itza's Temple of the Warriors and the Caracol in the 1920s?

The Carnegie Institution, whose teams worked at the site from the 1920s until they wound up their work in the 1940s.

Until 2010, who held the land under Chichen Itza's monuments?

A private owner from the Barbachano family held the land, though the ruins on it belonged to the nation; the state government paid 220 million pesos for it.

Roughly how many visitors did Chichen Itza receive in 2025?

About 2 million: INAH counted roughly 2.2 million visitors, more than at any other archaeological site in Mexico that year.

In 1988, Chichen Itza was added to which international list of protected places?

The UNESCO World Heritage List, nearly two decades before a worldwide public vote named it one of the New Seven Wonders.

The Itza, who gave Chichen Itza its name, held out against Spain until 1697 in which modern country?

Guatemala: their island capital, Nojpetén, now the town of Flores, was the last Maya kingdom to fall to the conquerors.

In the ballgame played on Chichen Itza's courts, players mainly struck the ball with what?

Their hips, often padded with yokes worn around the waist; a descendant of the game, ulama, is still played in Sinaloa today.

The Temple of the Tables is named for altars held up by small carved figures of men called what?

Atlantes, after Atlas, the Titan of Greek myth who was condemned to hold up the sky for eternity.

Which two allied cities to the south and east declined as Chichen Itza rose to prominence?

Yaxuna and Coba: Coba lost much of its territory in the 10th century, isolating Yaxuna, and Chichen Itza may have hastened both cities' fall.

What is carved on the stone rings set high in the walls of the Great Ball Court?

Intertwined feathered serpents; at 168 metres long, the Great Ball Court is the largest known in Mesoamerica.

The Steam Bath's steam chamber was made to work by what means?

Heated stones, in a building laid out in three parts: a waiting gallery, a water bath and the steam chamber itself.

Despite its name, what do archaeologists now think El Mercado was used for?

Ceremonies: early explorers saw the stone shelf ringing its gallery and patio and pictured wares for sale, but its purpose looks ceremonial.

Which Maya book, full of calendar and eclipse tables, may have been made at or near Chichen Itza?

The Dresden Codex, bought for the royal library in Dresden in 1739; its tables predict eclipses and track the moon.

How did Chichen Itza's stone buildings originally look?

Brightly painted over limestone plaster; the ruins now show only the pale grey of bare stone.

After failing to hold Chichen Itza, Montejo the Younger founded which city in 1542?

Mérida, built on the site of the Maya city of Ti'ho; it is still the state capital today.

The terminal roof at Chichen Itza International Airport is made from what?

Dried palm leaves, in the palapa style of Mexican beach huts; the airport opened in 2000 to serve visitors to the ruins.

Who played Chief Black Eagle in Kings of the Sun, filmed partly at Chichen Itza?

Yul Brynner, opposite George Chakiris as Balam, a young Maya king who leads his people into exile.

About how high above the playing field are the stone rings of Chichen Itza's Great Ball Court?

About 6 metres, set high in the centre of walls about 8 metres tall on either side of the court.

Which friar described El Castillo in his 1566 account of Yucatán?

Diego de Landa, who had burned Maya books at Maní four years earlier, yet whose glyph 'alphabet' later helped scholars decipher the Maya script.

What did a 2024 DNA study find about the 64 children it tested from a burial chamber near Chichen Itza?

All were boys, all from local Maya families, and they included two pairs of identical twins.

How do archaeologists interpret the deliberate damage on many offerings from Chichen Itza's Sacred Cenote?

Ritually killing the object, archaeologists speculate, so the offering became a sacrifice itself; many pieces were perforated, broken or burned.

Which material makes up the largest category of objects pulled from the Sacred Cenote?

Jade, followed by textiles, which survived only because the water sealed them from the air, as it did wooden weapons and idols.

What does the badly damaged mural inside the Upper Temple of the Jaguar depict?

A battle scene, much destroyed now; the temple is built into the east wall of the Great Ball Court and looks down on the playing field.

The Chac Mool statue found inside El Castillo at Chichen Itza in 1935 has its eyes, teeth and nails inlaid with what?

Mother of pearl gives the reclining figure its eyes, teeth and nails; its room was nicknamed the Hall of Offerings, and a chamber of human bone turned up a year later only metres away.

In 1967, workers found an underground chamber holding over 100 children's remains while building what near Chichen Itza's Sacred Cenote?

An airstrip was being laid when the chamber came to light; DNA later showed the children buried there came from local Maya families.

The cenote Xtoloc takes its name from the Maya word for which animal?

Iguana: a restored temple overlooking the cenote has pilasters carved with people, plants, birds and mythological scenes.

Which body joined INAH in the 1961 expedition into Chichen Itza's Sacred Cenote?

The National Geographic Society, working alongside CEDAM, a Mexican club of divers and explorers.

Cenote Ik Kil near Chichen Itza, its water 26 metres below ground, has hosted which event?

Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series divers have plunged into Ik Kil, a round, open cenote about 60 metres across.

X-ray analysis found the Red Jaguar throne's paint contains which mercury mineral?

No cinnabar occurs anywhere near the city, so the pigment had to travel by long-distance trade, which is part of what made the colour so prized.

The small temple beside Las Monjas that the Spanish called La Iglesia is covered in what?

Elaborate masks: La Iglesia is one of Chichen Itza's buildings in the Puuc style.

Which Toltec god, counterpart of a Maya deity, came to be honoured in the Balankanche caves near Chichen Itza?

Tlaloc; offerings of ceramics and small stone tools were found inside, and the caves are now open to visitors.

The 2007 vote that named Chichen Itza one of the New Seven Wonders was run by whom?

A private Swiss foundation started by adventurer Bernard Weber, funded by donations and the sale of broadcast rights rather than public money.

The 'multepal' theory, popular in the 1990s, held that the city was ruled by what?

A council of elite lineages, though the idea has since lost ground to the traditional model of rule by a single king.

What did archaeologists attempt to do to Chichen Itza's Sacred Cenote in the late 1960s to reach its offerings?

Drain it: pumping lowered the water by only about four metres, so the team spent days clarifying the murky water instead.

The Temple of the Warriors entombs an earlier structure known as the Temple of the what?

Chac Mool: the later pyramid was built right over this earlier temple, sealing it inside.

Maya books, such as one that may have been made near Chichen Itza, were painted on what?

Bark paper, made from the inner bark of a wild fig tree and folded like a screen.

What were the four fangs of El Castillo's Red Jaguar throne found to be made of?

Sea snail shells of a conch species, identified under a digital microscope by INAH mollusc experts, and probably another traded luxury.

Edward Herbert Thompson's 1879 article that caught his patron's eye traced ancient American civilizations to what?

Atlantis: with Senator George Frisbie Hoar's help, he was later made US consul so that he could explore ruins in Mexico.

At the bottom of Chichen Itza's Sacred Cenote, Edward Thompson found a thick layer of what?

Blue pigment: sacrificial victims were coated in it before being thrown into the cenote.

Which archaeologist led the 1925–28 restoration of the Temple of the Warriors?

Earl H. Morris, though he was best known for digging ancestral Pueblo sites in the American Southwest.

The Casa Colorada's Maya name, Chichanchob, may mean what?

Small holes, perhaps; its glyphs record fire ceremonies in 869 AD, one of the oldest such dates found at the site.

What did local guide José Humberto Gómez find in the Balankanche caves in 1959?

A false wall hiding more chambers, full of undisturbed pottery and offerings left by the Maya.

How long did Teobert Maler live among the ruins of Chichen Itza while documenting them?

Three months, working from a base in Ticul where he had set up a photographic studio; his record of the site was far fuller than earlier visitors'.

The Chenes style seen in the Las Monjas group is centred in which modern state?

Campeche: the Chenes region lies in the north of that state, between the Puuc and Río Bec regions.

Which linguist cracked the Maya script, found on Chichen Itza's buildings, by reading a friar's 'alphabet' as syllables?

Yuri Knorozov, a Soviet scholar, who realised in the 1950s that the old 'alphabet' actually recorded syllables.

Which roofing technique, stepping stones inward until they meet at the top, spans the rooms of Chichen Itza's buildings?

The corbel vault, often called a 'false arch', because the Maya never used the keystone arch the Romans relied on.

The 28 rooms of the Hacienda Chichén hotel beside Chichen Itza were once cabins built to house whom?

Visiting archaeologists; each room is now named after one of the scholars who stayed there.

As the murals of Chichen Itza's Temple of the Warriors were uncovered in the 1920s, how was their imagery recorded?

Copied by hand, over four seasons, by an archaeologist-artist whose illustrations appeared in the temple's 1931 report.

Hieroglyphic texts in the Las Monjas group repeatedly name which ruler?

Kakupakal, whose name recurs in the group's hieroglyphic texts, most of them from the Late to Terminal Classic.

Which movie hero is sometimes said to have been inspired by the archaeologist who restored Chichen Itza's Temple of the Warriors?

Indiana Jones, though George Lucas says the character was based on a 1930s adventure-hero type rather than any one person.

Le Plongeon was refused permission to show his 1875 statue at which 1876 event?

Philadelphia's Centennial Exhibition; instead the state government seized the statue in 1877, and at the national museum a worker spotted its central Mexican look-alikes.