The Nunnery is a massive building south of El Caracol. Chaak heads, arched ceilings and Maya glyphs are abundant in this part of the city. The glyphs are highly suggestive of a new form of government in the north Yucatan called the mul tepal, or community rule. The Nunnery, or "Las Monjas," is a good candidate for a Council House where such joint rulers could assemble to discuss governance. Laden with repeating geometric elements, Puuc-style Chaak heads are pervasive in the building featured at right.
Chich'én Itzá
For decades, there has been a debate whether Chich'én Itzá had two distinct influences in the city's art and architecture from the Maya and the Toltecs. Scholars favoring a Toltec migration from central Mexico hold that the southern end of the city is the oldest, built by the Itzá Maya around the ninth century CE with a strong Puuc Maya flavor. Others believe that the city is entirely Maya, and that the innovations in this late Classic/Early Post-Classic site inspired much of the later architecture in Central Mexico, particularly at sites like Tula. This building is the Caracol, or"Snail" after the domed exterior and spiral stairway on the inside. Observing the sun, moon, Venus and other celestial bodies was the most likely use for this building.
Chich'én Itzá
Both the Nahuatl chronicles from the Annals of Cuauhtitlan and the Itzá Maya chronicles from the Chilam Balam books suggest that, toward the end of the tenth century, Toltecs emigrating from central Mexico and led by the ruler Quetzalcoatl-Kukulkan reached the northern Yucatán and encountered the Itzá at Chich'én. The architecture behind El Castillo - "The Castle" - is reminiscent of Toltec design, and many have debated whether Chich'én was inspired by the city of Tula or vice versa. One of the qualities of El Castillo's design is its orientation. The temple is built as a succession of nine stepped tiers. On each side of the stairway shown here is a short sloping wall; at the bottom of each wall is a serpent's head. On the spring and fall equinoxes, the rising sun casts light onto the tiers' corners, whose shadows fall onto the sloping wall. The shadow resembles the undulating body of a serpent descending down the wall; the head is already present at the bottom.
Chich'én Itzá
The main deity celebrated at El Castillo is the Feathered Serpent, whom the Chilam Balam books and the chronicles of friar Diego de Landa state was introduced by the Toltecs. In Yucatec Maya this deity and the ancient ruler of the same name were better known as Kukulkan. Supporting the entrance to the main chamber, the two pillars are shaped like descending serpents, lined with feathers. An interesting note on El Castillo is that each of the four sides has a stairway with 91 steps; the sum of these, along with the temple itself, is 365.
Chich'én Itzá
One of the aforementioned serpent heads from the Castillo's main stairway base. Behind this head, a small entrance in the sloped wall opens to an interior stairwell. At the top of this dangerously slippery and stuffy passage is a chamber from an earlier construction of the Castillo. The chamber still houses an impressive jaguar-shaped throne with jade spots, along with a chac-mool like the one below.
Chich'én Itzá
The Aztecs, the Itzá, and the Toltecs at Tula were familiar with the chac-mool, or "Red Hook," as an offertory receptacle. Most chac-mool figures have this position: the knees are bent upward, the back is flat against the ground and suddenly bends up at the chest. In his hands he holds a large bowl with a flat surface, on which sacrificial hearts were placed. With the chac-mool, the heart was believed sent directly to the gods. This chac-mool lies at the top of the Temple of the Warriors.
Chich'én Itzá
Each of the pillars in front of the temple has four sides, and on each side a distinctly dressed warrior stands in relief. The warriors are ornamented with garb that appears in depictions of both Toltec and Maya warriors although the warriors here are more representative of Maya military captains. The concept of warriors on pillar reliefs also appears at Tula. To the right of the temple is a huge colonnade, shown at the far right here, that earlier supported a temple roof.
Chich'én Itzá
The relation between Chich'én and the Toltecs is also apparent in their respective three-dimensional sculpture. Common to both societies was the atlante pillar, which the Toltec magnified to colossal heights to support the roof of their Venus temple. These smaller sculptures from Chich'én were more likely to support a throne or bench, as for example for a bench atop the Temple of the Warriors. Both of the prominent figures in this image bear large ear-spools, but their garments are quite different, the one at left wearing a feline emblem and the one at right sporting goggled rings similar to an owl's as a military symbol.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
A powerful jaguar sits in relief portrait. Notice the rosettes upon the feline's skin, especially the one at the shoulder. It is speaking or singing, as suggested by the discourse flowing from its mouth and outward to form the rectangular cartouche framing the scene. The jaguar holds a sacrificial heart in its right paw.
Chich'én Itzá
To the north and east of the Castillo, two natural spring wells called cenotes open deep into the ground. The name Chich'én means "Mouth of the Earth," which denotes each of the wells present here. As the Rain Lord Chaak was believed to lie at the bottom of the northern well, many burials (and perhaps sacrifices) were ritually ornamented as regal gifts to the god. If Chaak were appeased, he would respond by providing rain in this otherwise dry region. The fine detail and miniature size of these shields indicate that they were not intended for war but adornment. So items such as these were amply cast into the wells with the sacrifices.
National Museum of Anthropology and History
Detail from the platformed Temple of Venus. The combination of the Feathered Serpents along the frieze and Venusian symbols on the platform's walls reinforces the long association between the two gods, a relationship that was apparently held as distantly as the American Southwest. The Nahuatl Annals of Cuauhtitlan speak of Quetzalcoatl immolating himself into a fire, and his sacred ashes become Venus as the Lord of the House of Dawn.
Chich'én Itzá