Chichén Itzá

Every year, tens of thousands of visitors gather at Chichén Itzá in Yucatán to witness the arrival of the Vernal Equinox.

Pyramid of Kukulkán – photo credit: Space Imaging

The Pyramid of Kukulkán dominates the centre of Chichén Itzá and embodies Mayan myth and natural astronomical cycles. As the sun sets at the spring (and autumn) equinox, a play of light and shadow creates the appearance of a serpent that gradually undulates down the stairway of the pyramid.

The 79-ft high structure is better known as “El Castillo” – so named by Diego de Landa, the first bishop of Yucatán and a man infamous for ordering priceless Maya documents and idols to be burned in an auto de fe in 1562.

This year, half a dozen government agencies and academic institutions collaborated to webcast the phenomenon.

See also:
All Misty Eyed: Missing the Spring Equinox at Dzibilchaltun 

More than 8.3m tourists visited Mexico’s archaeological zones in 2002. A disturbing article in Reforma yesterday suggests some of them (us?) literally leave their mark.

Yesterday at Chichén Itzá (pictured) – the second most visited site in Mexico after Teotihuacán with 975,000 visitors – we witnessed at least one person scale a wooden barrier and climb to the top of the Templo de los Guerreros in order to photo (I assume) the Chac Mool.

To be generous, perhaps there needs to be better signage. However, Reforma quotes a warden as saying “…between 5 and 6 people are thrown out of Chichén Itzá each week due to damage they’ve caused to the buildings.”

One result of this action is for ever more structures to be fenced off to the public (e.g. in recent years ‘El Caracol’ at Chichén Itzá and the Pyramid of the Magician at Uxmal). The bottom line: respect the signs and travel responsibly.