Friday, February 16, 2007
Chichen Itza Archeology Park
It being a bit too cloudy for lounging by the pool, Mrs. TigerHawk and I hired a taxi to drive us from the Moon Palace resort to the Chichen Itza Archeology Park. Chichen Itza is the former capital of the Mayan people, in the year 1000 a sprawling city of 50,000 (large for the time, although still only 1/9 the size of the largest city in the world at the time, Cordova, Spain). For reasons that allegedly remain unknown today, the city and all its considerable architectural glory was suddenly abandoned about 1200.
Naturally, I took pictures (click on them to enlarge):
10 Comments:
By 
allen, at
Sat Feb 17, 12:47:00 AM:
I notice the ropes used to negotiate the pyramid's stairs are absent from your photo. Any word on why?
By 
, at
Sat Feb 17, 08:00:00 AM:
There was a fatal fall from the pyramid a few years back. Now tourists are not allowed to climb to the top. Too bad- it's a great view.
Did you see the skull racks?
It's a big site. I hope you had the time to see most of it.
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Feb 17, 08:44:00 AM:
We saw a large part of it over two hours, but missed the skull racks. Oops. And, no, you can't climb to the top of the pyramids any more, which is unfortunately.
By allen, at
Sat Feb 17, 09:09:00 AM:
What a shame. I was last there in 2001 and climbing was allowed. You don't suppose the use of the priests' chamber as a urinal might have had some part to play?
You did indeed pick the best time to tour. In July, the temperature is 187 and the humidity about the same.
By Consul-At-Arms, at
Sat Feb 17, 10:30:00 AM:
Too bad they closed the pyramid for tourists, it's an amazing view. This was also part of the A-Arms honeymoon adventure; I even wore my Indy Jones hat for our ruins tour.
By , at
Sat Feb 17, 01:36:00 PM:
Words cannot express the extent to which I am jealous.
By Assistant Village Idiot, at
Sat Feb 17, 03:05:00 PM:
The book 1492 by Charles C. Mann discussed the fall of the New World cities, including Chichen Itza.
By TigerHawk, at
Sat Feb 17, 04:51:00 PM:
Son, you'll have your chance. The world is an ever more exciting and interesting place.
By Andrewdb, at
Sun Feb 18, 12:17:00 PM:
Villiage Idiot - I believe the book is _1491_, and yes, it is outstanding.
I visited Chichen Itza about 12 years ago. It was a real eye opener. I guess in my white middle class cocoon I expected third world natives to be mud huts. At C-I they are in fact 9 story stone buildings.
By ScurvyOaks, at
Mon Feb 19, 02:17:00 PM:
Tigerhawk,
I'm trying to work through the semiotics here. Is the second pic a sly reference to the fact that Mrs. TH spends a lot of time listening to you? :)
Cheers.
