Mexico - Chichén Itzá

Holidays with Friends, August 2007

Di, Luis, Isa e Zé

El Castillo, Chac Mool, El Observatorio

El Castillo: Dominating the North Platform of Chichen Itza is the Temple of Kukulkan (a Maya feathered serpent deity similar to the Aztec Quetzalcoatl), usually referred to as El Castillo.

Chac Mool: is the name given to a type of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerican stone statue. It depicts a human figure in a position of reclining with the head up and turned to one side, holding a tray over the stomach. The meaning of the position or the statue itself remains unknown.

El Observatorio: or "El Caracol" ("The Snail") is located to the north of Las Monjas. It is a round building on a large square platform. It gets its name from the stone spiral staircase inside. The structure, with its unusual placement on the platform and its round shape, is theorized to have been a proto-observatory with doors and windows aligned to astronomical events, specifically around the path of Venus as it traverses the heavens.