Learning is Fun under the Sun near the Maya Playa
Chichen Itza, Mexico
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The Temple of the Warriors (seen here from the top of El Castillo) is surrounded by the 1000 collonades that made up the market plaza. |
One hundred miles and 1000 years from the brilliant beaches of Cancun, where gigantic Germans and saggy Spaniards flop like elephant seals, lies the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, an archaeological wonder and a tourist attraction. The untarnished site is a spectacle to be seen, giving archaeological interest to an area not known for much more than sun and sand.
Though a popular diversion destination, the ruins of what was at its peak a city of 35,000 are a good three hours from the fashionable resorts of the Maya Playa (a.k.a. the Mayan Riviera) on the eastern coast of the Yucatan peninsula. The journey to reach Chichen Itza is a jumble of past and present along a road with pavement like Swiss cheese where the bus will bounce you like an angry masseuse. To reach the remnants of the Mayan civilization at its height, you must first pass by its paltry present remains.
The highway threads through tiny villages still inhabited by Mayan people. Unlike in many Latin countries, the Mayans were not totally assimilated by the conquistadors, leaving a substantial, though substantially reduced, modern Mayan population of 4 million on the Yucatan peninsula. Their ancient ancestors fought Cortez and were the pinnacle of indigenous North American culture. Now the Mayan people have been reduced to eking out their meals from what they can cultivate in their gardens or kill in their jungles with shotguns. Apart from subsistence farming, some Mayans work in the hotels from which the pale visitors flock to Chichen Itza.
When passing through these villages, only a speed bump or a social conscience would slow down most people. Chickens in poorly penned yards scratch out their fiefdoms, strutting pompously in the dust. Dogs in packs roam the roads like extras in Westside Story. Peeling presidential posters and battered Coca-Cola placards are out of place reminders of the national and international politics and commerce that buzzes beyond the horizon.
Despite economic poverty, the Mayan culture and unique way of life is still very much alive in Mexico. The Mayan culture is also tastefully for sale. In houses thatched with grass and walled with wood or cider blocks, the Mayan sleep away the oppressively hot nights in hammocks, which they also pander to the tourists. Small marble sculptures and silver jewellery offer tourists portable, pocketsize artefacts.
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The sides of the Tzompantli are carved with smilling skulls. The flat platform near the ballcourt was used to display the heads of sacrifice victims. |
In less marketable, more private ways, the Mayan people maintain a cultural identity that is passed down from generation to generation. Mayan children learn Mayan as their first language, though it exists only orally, providing little help to decoding the cryptic hieroglyphs. It is not until they begin attending the free and mandatory public schools that most Mayan children learn Spanish. Pure Mayan is spoken throughout the Mexican territory while 23 dialects are heard into Belize and Guatemala and as far west as the Pacific. The language, like Chinese, is tonal. The Mayan people themselves are visual evidence supporting the theory that an Asian immigration across the Bering Strait’s land bridge led to the population of the Americas. With their short legs, high cheekbones, almond-shaped eyes and almond-coloured skin, the Mayans closely resemble Mongolians.
The jungle shrouding Chichen Itza is short and stocky because of the shallow soil. Nevertheless, the green groves of trees host an abundant array of wildlife. Many beautiful and deadly species inhabit the tropical forests, including the 53 types of snakes that slither through the growth, accompanied by scorpions, jaguars, and tarantulas. Looking at the dense dark trees fringing the highway, it is difficult to imagine how a developed people emerged from such an inhospitable part of Nature. But it is not surprising that, once it fell apart, the civilization was quickly absorbed again into the vegetation out of which it had struggled. The vines rapidly reclaimed Chichen Itza after it was abandoned so that Spanish explorers at first marched blindly by, the ruined city eluding discovery and escaping destruction with the camouflage of overgrowth.
The disintegration of the Mayan civilization, well in progress before the Spanish dealt the lethal blow, remains somewhat in the mists of mystery, as does the civilization’s beginnings. Most historians agree that the key to explaining the Mayans’ downfall is also the key to understanding their success. The network of trade routes enabled the civilization to exist and thrive, but when the intricate commercial system broke down, the Mayan people abandoned the cities and returned to the jungle. Trade was the lifeblood of the Mayan city. The death of the Mayan civilization was the death of the urban centre. The needs of a Mayan metropolis were far too demanding on the immediate surroundings to survive without the benefits of trade and regional specialization.
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On the Equinoxes a “snake” of shadows crawls up the staircase of central |
Chichen Itza itself is a microcosm of the Mayan world at its zenith, incorporating the various areas of Mayan life into a single site: astronomy, mathematics, religion, and sport. The main temple, the Castillo, dominates Chichen Itza. The temple was designed according to Mayan astronomical knowledge: a total of 365 steps, one for each day of the year; 18 tiers, one for each month of the solar calendar; the north side of the temple facing almost precisely towards magnetic North. On the Equinoxes the shadows along the sides of the stairs appear to form serpents that crawl up the sides of the temple. Visitors can freely climb the pyramid, though this practice is likely to end soon due to the damage caused by and the danger to tourists. An ambulance sits quietly in the shade, ready to prevent anyone from accidentally visiting the afterlife. The steep, 91-step climb to the top is as daunting as the view from the top is breathtaking. From the temple’s top the flat Yucatan jungle spreads out for miles around until it vanishes in the heat-hazed horizon.
Astronomy was a key aspect of the Mayan life, forming the foundation of their religion, their calendar and linked to their mathematical interests. In the southern area of the site sits the cylindrical Observatory, a tower from where Mayan stargazers tracked the movements of various celestial bodies. The Mayans also incorporated sport into their public life. The 168-meter long, I-shaped ball court served as a venue for a Mayan ball game that resembled both basketball and squash. The losers were often rewarded by being sacrificed, a honourable death. The game is still played in Mexico today, though the killing of the losers has generally been done away with.
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The observatory is called El Caracol (the snail), refering to its spiral structure from where Mayan astronomers tracked celestial goings-on. |
Chichen Itza also captures the history of the Mayan people leading up to Chichen Itza’s glory days of the 11th century. The architecture of the southern area containing the Observatory is purely Mayan, constituting the original edifices of Chichen Itza. Around 900 AD, the Maya culture experienced a wave of immigration from the West when a large influx of Toltec arrived, bringing with them their own culture, which melded with the Mayans’, their less violent cultural cousins. It was the Toltec that introduced the ritual of human sacrifice to the Mayans, who had previously only sacrificed animals and engaged in bloodletting ceremonies. The Toltec reasoned that since a human was a higher being than an animal, a human made a more important sacrifice to the gods. Victims were, among other choice fates, tossed into a large sinkhole near the site. The sinkhole or cenote was thought to be the home of the rain god, Chac.
After a hot afternoon of tramping around Chichen Itza’s 6 square kilometres, the thirsty or blood-thirsty can stop for a drink or a dip at a nearby cenote, re-enacting the human sacrifice in their Speedos by diving into the cool freshwaters where catfish prowl. Nowadays, you can return to the beach to bask in the brain-frying sun, feeling virtuous, having been on an educational adventure through history and back.
