Chichén
Itzá - "the mouth of the well of the Itzás."
The most
dominant features of Chichén Itzá are the giant
pyramid Castillo, or Kulkulkan,
the Temple of the Jaguars, and the ballcourt.
Around
550 AD, Mayans settled Chichén around two wells; one
sacred and one "profane," used for everyday use. Water was
critical for this community. Though located in a rain forest,
there were no lakes or streams to provide fresh water. The
land was flat, porous limestone that rain seeped through to
became trapped in the insolvent bedrock below. These wells
then were the life blood of the community.
Chichén
Itzá,
like other Mayan cities, was a spiritual center amidst decentralized
farming communities. It was not a commercial center, although
some trade undoubtedly took place there. Chichén
Itzá,
like the other Mayan cities, was abandoned for a time. But
In
964 CE, the Itzás, a Maya-speaking people from the
Petén rain forest, settled Chichén Itzá.
Later, the more war-like Toltecs invaded and took over the
city.
There
is no consensus among scholars as the cause. One theory, backed
up by geological evidence, is that there was a severe drought
around this time. However the archeological evidence is not entirely consistent. The abandonment has not yet been fully explained.
The Mayans returned to and resettled their cities around 1000
CE. Chichén Itzá's
architecture has two distinctive styles; traditional
Mayan architecture, and more recent Toltec architecture. The
Toltecs were another more warlike tribe who invaded Chichén
Itzá
around the year 800 CE.
the
well of the Itzás
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