tbt: Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza, Mexico. December 2015.

As you may have read in my main post today, I spent Christmas in Mexico with my parents and brother. On Boxing Day we visited the myth-like Mayan city of Chichen Itza so I thought I’d share a few highlights of the visit.

Chichen Itza was built around 750-900 AD by the Mayan people who have been living on the Yucatan peninsula for thousands of years. Today there remains 1.2 million Mayan speakers in the region, a fact which surprised me as I didn’t realise so many Mayans still lived in the area.

El Castillo – the big pyramid everyone visualises at the mention of the site – was just one of hundreds of points of interests to visit. What interested me most was seeing the communal areas, the houses where people lived and bizarrely, a ball court which was a feature of many Mayan cities. Turns out football has been a staple of Mexican life for thousands of years. Despite the heat (35C in December is not normal for me!), I spent several hours wandering around looking at the various temples, intricate carvings and other buidlings. Here are a few snaps.