7-6-04 Chichen Itza 

 I'm not sure this town, Progresso, is going to make it as a cruise ship port. There really isn't much here. That didn't bother us any, though, for we had an all day excursion to Chichen Itza booked. We arranged for a wake up call at 7am and had room service for breakfast shortly after that. Since our excursion was to leave at 8 am, room service for breakfast came in handy. 

 This was what we saw of Progresso from our buss window on our way out of town.

 Our ride to Chichen Itza was about 2 hours each way.

 Our cruise ship at the Progresso port

 the huge cruise terminal

 We had about 1 1/2 hour guided tour through Chichen Itza.

 Chichen Itza is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization and is located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula, in the Yucatán state, present-day Mexico. The ruins are divided into two groups. One group belongs to the classic Maya Period and was built between the 7th and 10th centuries A.D., at which time the city became a prominent ceremonial center. The other group corresponds to the Maya-Toltec Period, from the later part of the 10th century to the beginning of the 13th century A.D. This area includes the Sacred Well and most of the outstanding ruins: porches, galleries, colonnades and carvings depicting serpents, birds and Mexican gods. The Toltec influenced the Itza in more ways than just architecture. They also imposed their religion on the Itza, which meant human sacrifice on a large scale. As the political base of Chichen-Itza expanded, the city added even more spectacular buildings: the Observatory, Kukulcan's Pyramid, the Temple of the Warriors, The Ball Court, and The Group of the Thousand Columns.

 The best known structure on the site is Kukulcan's Pyramid, a square-based, stepped pyramid that is approximately 75 feet tall.

  Kukulcan's Pyramid 
This pyramid was built for astronomical purposes and during the vernal equinox (March 20) and the autumnal equinox (September 21) at about 3 P.M.. the sunlight bathes the western balustrade of the pyramid's main stairway, causing seven isosceles triangles forming the body of a 37 yard long serpent that creeps downwards until it joins the huge serpent's head carved in stone at the bottom of the stairway.  It also makes an interesting hat in pictures!

 the Great Ball Court is the largest ball court in ancient Mesoamerica. It measures 166 by 68 meters (545 by 232 feet). The walls are 12 meters high, and in the center, high up on each of the long walls, are rings carved with intertwining serpents. Each end has a raised "temple" area. A whisper from one end can be heard clearly at the other end 500 feet away and through the length and width of the court. To this day the aquostic principles here have not been explained.
Legends say that the the winning captain here would present his head to the losing capitan, who then decapitates him. The Mayans believed this to be the ultimate honor---the winning captian would get a direct ticket to heaven instead of going through the 13 steps that the Mayan's believed they had to go through in order to reach heaven..

 At one end of the Great Ball Court is the North Temple, popularly called the Temple of the Bearded Man.

 Chichen Itza, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the second-most visited of Mexico's archaeological sites. In 2007, Chichen Itza's El Castillo was named one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

 The Temple of the Warriors complex consists of a large stepped pyramid fronted and flanked by rows of carved columns representing warriors. Today the columns are exposed, but when the city was inhabited these columns supported an extensive roof system. The square structure at the southern end of the Temple of Warriors complex is theorized to have been used as a marketplace, although archaeologists today believe that its purpose was more for ceremony than sales.

 The Mexican government excavated a tunnel from the base of the north staircase of the Temple of Kukulkan, up the earlier pyramid’s stairway to a hidden temple, and opened it to tourists.

 Over the past several years, INAH, which manages the site, has been closing monuments to public access. While visitors can walk around them, they can no longer climb them or go inside their chambers. The most recent was here, which was closed after a San Diego, Calif., woman fell to her death in 2006. Since we were there in 2004, we did go up and down the pyramid. It is EXTREMELY steep. I can see how someone could fall to their death!

View of the market from atop the Temple of Kukulkan

 The inside chamber at the top of the temple

 View towards the Great Ball Court

 There was a section with a rope where lots of people sat and scooted down while holding onto the rope, but we also saw kids running down the steps.  Definitely not something to attempt in flip flops!

Although Progresso isn't a very impressive port, being able to take this excursion to Chichen Itza was really neat!