History of Chichen Itza

  History of Chichen Itza

The name of Chichen-Itza has a Mayan root and means "on the shore of the well of the Itza."

Chichen Itza was founded by the Itzaes, a Mayan-Chontal people from the west. The Itza conquered the city towards the end of the Classic and introduced the cult of Kukulkan (Mayan representation of Quetzalcoatl, god taken from the pantheon of the Toltec culture), among other monuments, the Ball Game, the Snail and the temples of the Jaguars and the Bearded Man.

It is estimated that it was built around 435 and 455. Approximately in the year 500 the Church, the Akab-Dzib, the Red House, the Deer House and the Nuns Building were built.The main buildings that remain there correspond at the time of the decline of the Mayan culture itself called by archaeologists as the postclassic period. This city had its greatest height by the year 987, when it became the most powerful political center of that part of Yucatan. In its time of greatest height the city came to occupy approximately 25 square km.

In the year 987 AD the League of Mayapán was formed, which was a union of priestly houses of the peninsula, among which the most important were Uxmal, Mayapán and Chichen Itza. However, this league was destroyed by a disagreement between the chiefs (Halach Uiniks) of the participants that led to a declaration of war by one of them, Hunac Ceel, who proclaimed himself Halach Uinik of Mayapán. This caused the rupture with the Itza who lost the conflict and eventually had to flee in 1194 AD and take refuge in Petén, where they had originally come almost ten centuries ago.

The decline of the Maya centers of the Classic that occurred throughout the ninth century did not reach the north of Yucatan until 150 years later, so that in this short time the thriving Puuc style developed in cities like Uxmal, Sayil, Kabah or Chichen Itza; however, these cities decline towards the year 1,000 A.D. with the exception of Chichen Itza, which begins a stage of political power that culminates with the first centralized state of Mayan history, affecting northern Yucatan. For the study of this city from the year 1,000 we have the oral tradition collected in indigenous chronicles and archeology; both sometimes complement each other, but on many occasions they contradict each other, causing great confusion about the historical evolution of Chichen. The evidence indicates that the first arrival of Itzá groups of Chontal origin from the lowlands of Tabasco could have occurred around 800 A.D ...

In the sixteenth century the Spanish conqueror Francisco de Montejo and the Franciscan Diego de Landa, made the first visits of the Europeans to the area and gave a detailed account of the existence of the city. In 1840 John Lloyd Stephens and Frederick Catherwood visited the archeological zone of Chichen Itza, at that time the area was within the hacienda of the same name that belonged to Juan Sosa.

In 1894, the Mayista Edward Herbert Thompson acquired the Hacienda de Chichén-Itzá, conducted studies and explorations in the area, especially within the sacred cenote. During these works many found objects were unduly sent to the Museum of Archeology and Ethnology affiliated with Harvard University (Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology) although, subsequently, and due to the intervention of the Mexican government, the objects were returned. When Thompson died in 1935, the property passed to his heirs, although control and jurisdiction, as well as the systematized exploration and maintenance of the extensive archaeological site, are in charge, by law, of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, a decentralized body of the Mexican federal government

The archeological zone of Chichen Itza was inscribed on the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO in 1988 and on July 7, 2007, it was recognized as one of the New Wonders of the World.