THE HAUNTED RUINS
stone rings above the sidewalls, about six meters from the ground.
At the Grand Ball Court (Juego de Pelota), not far from the pyramid temple, I am running my fingers on the graphic carvings decorating the massive sidewalls, where bloodthirsty spectators used to perch and holler at their favorite teams. While most carvings depict players in the midst of action, one shows a disturbing image of a victorious athlete holding a severed head with snakes pouring out of it, instead of blood. According to my guide, the Ball Court in Chichen Itza was built in 864 AD, and at 225 feet wide and 545 feet long, it is the largest among the Mayan ball courts discovered across Mexico.
Deep into the jungle I walk past many monuments that have crumbled into piles of rubble. Broken columns, steps, and skeletons of long-vanished temples stand precariously on the grass and mutilated chacmools (a common Mayan sculpture depicting a reclining warrior leaning on his elbows) perch on barren pedestals. Soon, I am staring at a thick wall with row upon row of carved snakes and human skulls, mostly with eyes staring out of the large sockets. Moving to the other side, I find creepier carvings of skeleton warriors and eagles devouring human hearts. My guide says this was one of the sites where the Mayans displayed the severed heads of war captives, which symbolized victory in military conquests, and of those who lost in the ball games. Besides frightening away the enemies, the Platform of Skulls (Tzompantli) was built to memorialize past sacrificial victims and to intimidate the masses to conform to the regulations of the reigning king.
Birds chirp and trill as we make our way down the cleared path lined with luxuriant trees. Soon, a decaying cylindrical tower perched on a massive rectangular platform, possibly built as reinforcement in case of earthquakes, looms into view. Perhaps this was the only building in the city that hasn’t seen much blood, except when it was consecrated, as this was solely used for astronomical purposes. Here at the Observatory (El Caracol), the ancient astronomers tracked the location of celestial bodies to predict seasons and weather patterns for agricultural and ritual purposes. According to my guide, their observations were made by examining the angles traced by light traveling along the narrow spyholes, which were carefully aligned with the sun and other stars during specific days, such as equinoxes and solstices. Besides that, due to the destruction of important manuscripts, not much is known as to how else the observatory operated and what other discoveries the Mayans might have had as they scanned the cosmos. The Sacred Well
Along the paved road nearby is another site with gruesome stories to tell, the Sacred Cenote, surrounded