During our tour to Chichén Itzá you will see El Castillo or Templo de Kukulcán, the Observatory, and the Temple of the Warriors, so do not forget to bring your camera to take excellent photos!
This tour to Chichen Itza, one of the most popular activities in Cancun of all time, includes a stop in Valladolid, a visit to a store of handicrafts, delicious buffet food with some regional specialties and a visit to a beautiful open-air cenote. This cenote named Xcajum is a natural water reservoir like the many that exist in this region of Mexico. The cenotes were considered sacred by the ancient Mayans (they thought they were entrances to the underworld) and were also their only source of drinking water. In the Xcajum cenote you can swim to cool off from the heat!
Chichen Itza (Spanish: Chichén Itzá, from Yucatec Maya: Chi'ch'een Iitsha' "at the mouth of the well of the Itza"), was a large pre-Columbian city built by the Maya civilization. The archaeological site is located in the municipality of Tinum, in the Mexican state of Yucatán.
Chichen Itza was a major focal point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classic (c.600-900 AD) through the Terminal Classic (c.800-900) and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period (c.900-1200). The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, reminiscent of styles seen in central Mexico and of the Puuc and Chenes styles of the northern Maya lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or even conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion.
Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities and it was likely to have been one of the mythical great cities, or Tollans, referred to in later Mesoamerican literature. The city may have had the most diverse population in the Maya world, a factor that could have contributed to the variety of architectural styles at the site.
The ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and the site's stewardship is maintained by Mexico's Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History). The land under the monuments had been privately-owned until 29 March 2010, when it was purchased by the state of Yucatán.
Chichen Itza is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico; an estimated 1.2 million tourists visit the ruins every year.
Chichen Itza is located in the eastern portion of Yucatán state in Mexico. The northern Yucatán Peninsula is arid, and the rivers in the interior all run underground. There are two large, natural sink holes, called cenotes, that could have provided plentiful water year round at Chichen, making it attractive for settlement. Of the two cenotes, the "Cenote Sagrado" or Sacred Cenote (also variously known as the Sacred Well or Well of Sacrifice), is the most famous. According to post-Conquest sources (Maya and Spanish), pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of worship to the Maya rain god Chaac. Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910, and recovered artifacts of gold, jade, pottery and incense, as well as human remains. A study of human remains taken from the Cenote Sagrado found that they had wounds consistent with human sacrifice.
