Ruins🏛️ City & settlementMiddle Ages & early modern
Chichén Itzá
The complex attests to urban organisation, calendar knowledge and ritual life among the Maya. It is heritage of a living Indigenous culture, not merely a remnant of a vanished society.
Photo: Daniel Schwen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Facts
- Place
- Yucatán, Mexico
- Civilisation / patron
- Maya peoples of the northern Yucatán Peninsula
- Built
- c. 600 – 1200
- Status
- Ruins
- UNESCO World Heritage since
- 1988
- New Seven Wonders (2007)
- UNESCO World Heritage
History
Chichén Itzá developed into a major political and religious centre around natural sinkholes in the northern Maya region. The city includes the stepped pyramid El Castillo, a large ball court and the circular building known as El Caracol. Its architecture shows links with other parts of Mesoamerica, whose political significance is still debated. After the city’s decline, the sacred cenote remained an important ritual destination; several buildings were later restored.
More from: Middle Ages & early modern
- Hagia Sophia
- Leaning Tower of Pisa
- Porcelain Tower of Nanjing
- Angkor Wat
- Borobudur
- Great Zimbabwe
- Mapungubwe
- Rock-Hewn Churches of Lalibela
- Moai of Rapa Nui
- Forbidden City
- Alhambra
- Notre-Dame Cathedral, Paris
- Cologne Cathedral
- Machu Picchu
- Walls of Benin
- Seokguram Grotto and Bulguksa Temple
- Ayutthaya Historical Park
- Himeji Castle
- Saint Basil’s Cathedral
- Grand Place, Brussels
- Taj Mahal
- Windmills of Kinderdijk
Sources: Wikipedia — Chichén Itzá