Chichén Itzá
- Catriona M.
- Jun 15, 2025
- 4 min read
This article contains descriptions of human sacrifice, which may be distressing to some readers.
One of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World that dates back all the way to the 5th century, Chichén Itzá certainly has a background of wonder. The ancient city of Chichén Itzá is located in the south-east point of Mexico in the state of Yucatán, and is a fascinating site where its ruins write its chilling story. Today, it is a major tourist site where about 2.5 million tourists flock from all over the world to see it. Chichén Itzá is composed of several fascinating structures and places, including: The Temple of Jaguars, the Temple of Warriors, the Platform of Venus, the Platform of Jaguars and Eagles, the Sacred Cenote, El Caracol, the Great Ball Court, the Group of a Thousand Columns, the Oasiro, and most known: El Castillo.
Chichén Itzá was originally built by the Mayan peoples—Maya civilization that had immigrated to Mexico from Mesoamerica (Central America and Southern Mexico) in the 5th century. The Mayan peoples, more specifically the Itza tribe, started to build the structures around El Castillo in the 6th-8th centuries. The Mayan cultural practices and life were undisturbed until the 10th century around the years of 918 - 987 CE when Toltec warriors from the region of Tula in central Mexico came to Chichén Itzá in a military conquest. Led by their leader, Ce Acatl Topiltzin Quetzalcoatl (better known as Kukulcan), took over Chichén Itzá and built the Temple of Warriors, El Castillo, El Caracol and the Oasiro between the 10th-11th centuries. Soon after, a confederacy called the Mayapan League began to develop formed by the tribes of the Uxmal, Maya/Itza and the Toltec. This confederacy resulted in the decline and fall of Chichén Itzá during the 12th to 13th centuries when the city and area became evacuated and abandoned for unknown reasons. By around 1450, the Mayapan League dissolved, but the city was still left abandoned until 1550 when a new wave of the Itza had returned home and ruled there for another 150 years with the rival city of Mayapan taking control. But, again, they left the city for unknown reasons, with the suspicion that the Spanish conquest of Mexico had something to do with the disappearance. As mentioned, the Spanish conquest was underway by the 16th century but major cities of the Mayan people were left abandoned. This included Chichén, now enveloped in a jungle. However, Chichén Itzá was rediscovered in the 19th century and excavated where it is now the site of Mexico’s archaeological zone.
The most known fact about the Chichén Itzá’s is how the site is covered in skeletal remains from the religious and cultural practices of human sacrifice from both the Mayan and Toltec people. Human sacrifices were a major part of the Mayan culture, with reasons from punishment of prisoners of war to celebrations of major events, to pleasing the Gods. The Mayan people believed that blood was nourishment and needed for the survival of the Gods, so executions with plenty of blood were popular. This included decapitation, heart removal, bloodletting and other methods to maximize blood loss. Subsequently, there were patterns of sacrifices being made during farming seasons, where multiple sacrifices to the God of Rain and Agriculture, Chaac, were made to influence and please them in order to produce rain for their rain-relying crops. Sacrifices for appeasing the Gods so that peace and harmony would reign over them as well as sacrifices for the celebration of a new King or an important event/festival on the Mayan calendar were also popular. Traditional sacrifices were also made from a game that is believed to be the origin of modern day soccer, where the losing team’s leader would be sacrificed. There is no specific pattern to who the sacrifices were, but high level prisoners of war (mainly by the Toltec), elites who probably volunteered, and children were the main victims. All the sacrifices were mainly male, and children composed most of the skeletal remains, probably because of the Mayan belief that children were messengers to the Gods. With the Chichén Itzá mainly being used for these sacrifices after the recapturing of the city, the Sacred Cenote, a sinkhole, was also used to throw the sacrifices into. The Toltec people also had their share of human sacrifices being significant in their culture. The most prominent structure in Chichén Itzá, El Castillo, was a temple created for their god, Quetzalcoatl (a feather covered serpent), possibly used for sacrifices by the Toltec as well. Although all these sacrifices were legends, skeletal remains were found throughout the city and there are both books from the Spanish and depictions on the walls of the structures in Chichén Itzá confirm the legends.
Through its dark and mysterious history, all the structures built by the Itzan and Toltec people remain strong today and still hold significant importance to the Mayan people living nearby in the region. Although the Great Court, the Temple of Jaguars, the Platform of Jaguars and Eagles and Temple of Warriors are barely ruins or not standing as big as El Castillo, it is still a breath-taking site that depicts what life and culture of the Indigenous peoples of Southern Mexico was during the classical period.
Barquera, Rodrigo, et al. “Ancient Genomes Reveal Insights into Ritual Life at Chichén Itzá.” Nature, 12 June 2024, pp. 1–8, www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07509-7, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07509-7.
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The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Chichen Itza | Map, Facts, & History.” Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, www.britannica.com/place/Chichen-Itza.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre. “Pre-Hispanic City of Chichen-Itza.” Unesco.org, whc.unesco.org/en/list/483/.
Wikipedia Contributors. “Human Sacrifice in Maya Culture.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Aug. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_sacrifice_in_Maya_culture.
