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Also known as the pyramid of the sun
El Castillo (Spanish for "The Castle") is a spectacular pyramid that dominates the center of the Chichen Itza archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán. It was built by the Maya civilization around the 9th century. Most Ancient Mesoamerican civilisations built pyramid-shaped structures. ...
Temple of the Warriors Chichen Itza is the largest of the Pre-Columbian archaeological sites in Yucat n, Mexico. ...
The United Mexican States (Estados Unidos Mexicanos or Mexico) comprises 31 states (estados) and one federal district (Distrito Federal), which contains the capital, Mexico City. ...
Yucatán is the name of one of the 31 states of Mexico, located on the north of the Yucatán Peninsula. ...
monkey poo This article is about the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. ...
El Castillo served as a temple to the god Kukulcan (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl). It is a step pyramid with a ground plan of square terraces with stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top. Great sculptures of plumed serpents run down the sides of the northern staircase, and are set off by shadows from the corner tiers on the spring and autumn equinoxes. It was practice in Mesoamerican cities to periodically build larger and grander temple pyramids atop older ones, and this is one such example. Thanks to archaeologists, a doorway at the base of the north stairway leads to a tunnel, from which one can climb the steps of the earlier version of El Castillo inside the current one, up to the room on the top where you can see King Kukulcan's Jaguar Throne, carved from stone and painted red with jade spots. The Angkor Wat Hindu temple in Cambodia is the largest in the world. ...
In Maya mythology, Gukumatz (feathered serpent) was a snake god, one of all three groups of gods who created Earth and humanity. ...
Maya language may refer to: generally, any one of the various Mayan languages, a related group of languages spoken by the Maya peoples of Mesoamerica specifically, Yukatek (Yucatec) Maya language is frequently referred to simply as Maya language Maya language (Brazil), an unclassified language of Brazil that may be related...
Statue of Quetzalcoatl Quetzalcoatl (feathered snake or plumed serpent; in Nahuatl: Ketsalkoatl; in Spanish: Quetzalcóatl) is the Nahuatl name for the Feathered-Serpent deity of ancient Mesoamerica, one of the main gods of many Mexican and northern Central American civilizations and also the name given to some Toltec rulers...
The Pyramid of the Moon, Teotihuacan, is one example of an enormous step pyramid. ...
In astronomy, the vernal equinox (spring equinox, March equinox, or northward equinox) is the equinox at the beginning of spring in the northern hemisphere: the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading northward. ...
In astronomy, the autumnal equinox signals the beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere: the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward; the equinox occurs around September 22–September 24, varying slightly each year according to the 400-year cycle of leap years in the...
Mesoamerica is the region extending from central Mexico south to the northwestern border of Costa Rica that gave rise to a group of stratified, culturally related agrarian civilizations spanning an approximately 3,000-year period before the European discovery of the New World by Columbus. ...
A selection of antique, hand-crafted Chinese jadeite jade buttons Jade An ornamental stone, jade is a name applied to two different silicate minerals. ...
The structure was partially reconstructed from the somewhat dilapidated state in which it was first rediscovered, as part of a 17-year rebuilding effort for the site conducted under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, led by the noted Mayanist scholar Sylvanus G. Morley. Two sides of the pyramid were almost completely rebuilt under this program, which ran from the late 1920s to its conclusion in 1940. The Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW) is a foundation established by Andrew Carnegie in 1902 to support scientific research. ...
Mayanist is a term which has been in widespread use from the late 19th century onwards, to refer to scholars who have specialised in research and study of the Central American pre-Columbian Maya civilization. ...
Photo taken c. ...
1940 (MCMXL) was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1940 calendar). ...
Each of the structure's four stairways contain 91 steps. When counting the top platform as another step, in total El Castillo has 365 steps, one step for each day of the approximated tropical year recorded by the portion of the Maya calendar known as the Haab'. The structure is 24 m high, plus an additional 6 m for the temple. The square base measures 55.3 m across. A tropical year is the length of time that the Sun, as viewed from the Earth, takes to return to the same position along the ecliptic (its path among the stars on the celestial sphere). ...
The Maya calendar is actually a system of distinct calendars and almanacs used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica. ...
The Maya Haab calendar is a 365-day solar calendar whose dates indicate the position of the Sun at noon relative to the zenith over the Yucatan peninsula. ...
The metre, or meter, is a measure of length, approximately equal to 3. ...
The outside edges of the pyramid also include nine large steps, which are theorized to represent the nine planets in our solar system.
 Ballcourt, from El Castillo |
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