Spent 3 hours touring the site. The Mayas and Toltec eventually shared this settlement so the Rain God and the Toltec's god were honored. This was a serpent to go down to the underworld, the eagle to rise up to paradise and the jaguar for wisdom. This site was originally 25 square Km. so many buildings are still being restored. The Ball Court was the biggest one in the Yucatan and is beautifully preserved. You can see the hoop on the right side where it must go through to win the game. Remember, only shoulders, elbows, hips and here feet are used. It was dated 864 A.D.
The acoustics were amazing. In the central plaza below the tallest, Castle of Kukulcan, 30 meters high, if you clap your hands, you hear the call of a certain bird. On the ball court, when you clap or shout a noise, it comes back to you 5 times. These structures were constructed so that the peasants wood believe the priests were magical or had power. There were many pictures carved on the stones that depicted activities of those days. We walked out the original main road, rough as anything, to the cenote used by these people. It was as big as the one we swam in yesterday.
The Maya descendants are the only people allowed to sell their wares on the site and there are many of them. They have to carry baskets of their goods on their backs about 1/2 mile to where they display them. They are a small people even today. They used to be about 4 1/2 feet and lived until about 38 years.
We go back tonight for the Night Light Show.
1 comment:
Keep up the good work on the blog. It is bringing back great memories as we did this trip in 98 and 2001
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