The Amazing History Of Chichen Itza

As you may have heard by now, Chichen Itza is one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World and a huge tourist attraction that receives over 2.5 million annual visitors. However, how did this magnificent city come to exist? When did the Mayans decide to establish themselves in this specific area of the Yucatan Peninsula? And maybe more important than any other question, why here and why then?

Sit comfortably on your couch because I’m about to take you through an incredible journey through the past of Chichen Itza. A journey filled with human ingenuity, inevitable wars, and fascinating traditions, but also mysterious connections with ancient civilizations and extraordinary astronomic and mathematical insights.

Origins, Foundation & Meaning

The Itza are a Mayan lineage that persists to our days. According to a 2002 census, there were 1,983 ethnic Itzas who still retained different elements of this ancient culture. Alarmingly, the Itza language was almost extinct in the last decades of the 20th Century, but several efforts aimed at keeping this historically important language alive pushed the number of speakers up to about 1,000 in recent years.

As you can imagine, the reason I’m talking about the Itza is because they are the people who founded Chichen Itza at some point between the 5th and 6th centuries CE. The most widely accepted date for the foundation of Chichen Itza is something around the year 550 CE, although some estimations go back as early as the year 435 CE.

Whatever the exact date was, the Itza chose this specific spot deep in Yucatan jungle due to its easy access to fresh water , thanks to the multitude of cenotes in the area. Cenotes are open sinkholes that are connected between them through a system of underground rivers, which had a mystical meaning for the Mayans.

The Itza lineage seems to have originated in the Mayan cities of Guatemala during the Classic Period which covers from 2,500 BCE to 250 CE. The collapse of this period of Mayan cities established in the lands of what is Guatemala today, most probably pushed to Itza to look for new territories, migrating north to the Yucatan Peninsula to found their new capital, a city like no other in the world, one that would both intimidate and fascinate foreigners for over a thousand years: the great Chichen Itza.

Although the Itza were eventually expelled from their own city (more on that later), the name they gave to this magnificent city will always keep them in the historical memory. In the Itza language the word Chichen translates as “mouth of the well” , which made a lot of sense when in 2015 scientists discovered that the famous Temple of Kukulkan was built on top of a hidden cenote. On the other hand, Itza refers to the own name of the people who founded the city, although some versions mention that the Itzaes were “water sorcerers” that had a prominent role in their culture and were those who decided to establish the city at this specific spot.

Initial Development

From its foundation to around the year 900 CE, the Itza developed the city around the Xtoloc cenote establishing an architectural style known as Puuc. Among the surviving buildings from this style archaeologists count the famous observatory El Caracol, the Casa de las Monjas, and the Red House. This section of the city is now known as Chichen Viejo or “Old Chichen”.

What archaeologists agree on is that by the Early Classic period of the city, around the year 600 CE, Chichen Itza had already achieved regional prominence and started dominating other nearby cities such as Coba and Yaxuna, which were already in the middle of a long but steady declining process.

This initial stage in the historical development of Chichen Itza can be seen as a continuation of the Mayan culture from the Guatemalan cities of the Classic Period. However, around the year 900 CE migrating peoples coming from the north changed the history of Chichen Itza forever.

The Toltec Connection

Who were these northern peoples is unclear. Some accounts mention that they were Putun groups from the area of Campeche, others talk of a Chontal connection. However, what everyone agrees on is that these foreigners had a strong influence from the Toltec civilization that dominated Central Mexico from 950 to 1150 CE.

The Toltecs themselves are considered the people who sacked and burned the spectacular city of Teotihuacan and developed the cult of Quetzalcoatl or “The Feathered Serpent”. What we know is that they brought this cult and many other elements of their culture to the Yucatan Peninsula and strongly influenced the Mayan cities of the time.

The Itza were the big losers of this historical process, as they lost control over the great city they had founded and most of them returned to the lowlands of Guatemala. Chichen Itza saw then a new age of splendor and a renewed architectural style that incorporated the new Toltec aesthetic and religious beliefs.

That’s how the great Temple of Kukulkan, also known as El Castillo or “The Castle” came to be. Kukulkan is the Mayan version of Quetzalcoatl and is also represented as a feathered serpent, a serpent that can be seen formed by the sun rays hitting the stairs of the pyramid during the spring and fall equinoxes. This fascinating spectacle attracts thousands of visitors every time there is an equinox, but it’s also the undeniable evidence that the Toltecs took over Chichen Itza.

During the Toltec period other impressive buildings were built such as the Temple of the Warriors and the Thousand Columns. Of even more significance, the ball court for the ritual ball game known as ollama in Nahuatl (the Aztec language) and as pok-ta-pok in Mayan. The ball court is the largest one in all of the Americas and is another clear sign of the Toltec influence in all aspects of the Mayan culture developed in this late stage of the city.

The Great Hunac Ceel

Perhaps the most famous historical character from Chichen Itza is the great Hunac Ceel. Again, different sources tell different versions of the story, but what we can be sure of is that Hunac Ceel conquered Chichen Itza.

Some sources mention that Hunac Ceel had strong Toltec connections, while others say that the Itza were the ones who claim descent from the Toltecs. Again, what we know is that at the end, Hunac Ceel won the fight and founded the Cocom dynasty in Chichen Itza.

The Chilam Balam tells part of the story of Hunac Ceel. The Chilam Balam of Chumayel is a book written in the 17th and 18th centuries in Mayan language, but using the Latin alphabet, that tells the history of the Mayan culture and compiles all kinds of Mayan knowledge including their rituals, calendar and astronomy discoveries.

According to the Chilam Balam, Hunac Ceel attacked Chichen Itza because someone from this city stole the bride of the ruler of the city of Izamal. Supported by his Mexican allies (the Toltecs), Hunac Ceel sacked Chichen Itza and became the leader of Mayapan, the city that would go on to dominate the Mayan landscape until a few decades before the arrival of the Spanish conquerors.

The legend has it that the Itza took Hunac Ceel captive and sacrificed him to the gods in the sacred cenote of Chichen Itza. However, Hunac Ceel was able to survive one full night in the water and then he would tell the prophecy of the destruction of Chichen Itza.

In 1963, Hollywood immortalized this historical event in the film “Kings of the Sun” featuring Yul Brynner and with Leo Gordon in the role of Hunac Ceel.

Decadence

Accounts of the decline of Chichen Itza aren’t exact. On one hand, the Chilam Balam mentions the 13th century as the time for the conquest of Chichen ITza by Hunac Ceel. On the other hand, archaeologists think that Chichen Itza had already lost prominence by the 13th century and that Mayapan rose to importance precisely because of that void of power in the region.

What is sure is that by the 13th century Mayapan was the main city in the region , although Chichen Itza and its Cenote Sagrado or “Sacred Cenote” were still a place of pilgrimage among the Mayas at the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century.

Conclusion

Chichen Itza stayed “alive” and inhabited for over 1,000 years and left an indelible mark on the Mayan civilization and, as a consequence of that, on the new culture that developed as a blend of the Spanish and the different indigenous cultures that populated the territory of what’s today Mexico.

Modern Mexican citizens are very aware of their Mayan heritage and, especially in the Yucatan Peninsula, experience it as a badge of honor. Chichen Itza is perhaps the greatest example of this, and when you have the opportunity to visit it and appreciate the magnificence of it, you get to understand why that’s it.