Short History Of... - Chichen Itza

Episode Date: November 25, 2024

Nestled in the heart of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient city of Chichén Itza stands as a majestic testament to the architectural ingenuity and cultural richness of the ancient Maya civilization. It’s long been regarded as a shining example of Maya influence, yet today, many experts agree it’s not typically Maya at all, but rather a reflection of a shifting, adapting civilisation.  So how did the city become such an important hub to a dominant Mesoamerican superpower? What were the cultural and political dynamics that shaped its unique evolution? And why was it so suddenly abandoned, and left to be reclaimed by the jungle?  This is a Short History Of Chichen Itza. A Noiser Production. Written by Sean Coleman. With thanks to Annabeth Headrick, Director of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Denver, and a specialist in Ancient American Cultures.  Get every episode of Short History Of a week early with Noiser+. You’ll also get ad-free listening, bonus material, and early access to shows across the Noiser network. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's one day late in the 11th century in the great city of Chichen Itza in modern-day Mexico. The men, women and children in a murmuring, excitable crowd jostle for space at either end of the great ball court, out of sight of the crowd, the four opposition players are shoved into place, ready to be paraded into the grounds. One of them winces as the ill-fitting leather yoke that's been tied around his waist digs into his skin. As a nobleman from a neighboring village, he has watched countless ball games just like this one. But now, as a captive of this rival settlement, he's being forced to play in a game himself, for the entertainment of the city folk.

It's his first game, but he's under no illusions. It's likely also to be his last. The game is a violent physical sport where players have to propel a solid rubber ball about the size of a human head across the court without using their hands or feet. Like an extreme version of modern-day basketball crossed with American football, it demands great strength and power. But glancing down, this recently captured nobleman recognizes that his slack-muscled, pampered body is not built for either. Even with his newly acquired helmet, breastplate and knee and elbow guards, the solid rubber ball they'll play with is bound to break some bones.

A bead of sweat trickles down his face. His whole body trembles despite the heat. The odds are most certainly not in his favor. Suddenly a huge roar erupts from inside the court. The home team have just entered the arena, and the crowd is showing its appreciation. For the fans, these players are like living gods. And the game, especially here in the Great Ball Court, is closer to a religious ceremony than a sporting endeavor.

With the crowd now baying for blood, it's time for the opposition to be led in. The nobleman swallows nervously, but he knows that the pain he'll experience during the game will be nothing compared to his certain fate afterwards. The sport is little more than a humiliating ritual that he and his teammates have no chance of winning, and when they lose, they will be sacrificed to the gods. and when they lose, they will be sacrificed to the gods. His captors prodding at him, the nobleman is forced forward along a dusty path and into the court. As he emerges into the rectangular playing field, the crowd jeer and shout.

The playing field is immense, far bigger than the court they have at home, shaped like a capital letter I and with a long goal-line section at either end. Under the intense sun, he stares up at the solid, pale limestone walls, eight meters high, which flank the court. He can make out the viewing temples, where elite spectators, the priests and nobles now sit, where he himself might have sat had he lived here. His captors joining in the roaring, he now has to endure being paraded around the court. The tops of the court walls are all adorned with carvings depicting the fate he and his teammates now face.

Renditions of former captives, decapitated perhaps, or bent backwards over the altar stone, ready to have their hearts cut out. The nobleman looks away, unable to stomach the carvings. Perhaps one day his bloody fate will also be engraved here, locked forever in stone. The boos and jeers die down as the captives complete their humiliating lap, and as they are sent out to take their places on the field, silence falls, just for a moment. He draws a deep breath and looks up at the sky. The signal sounds.

The game begins. It will only be a few incredibly painful minutes to endure now before his fate is sealed and he is given to the gods. Nestled in the heart of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient city of Chichen Itza stands as a majestic testament to the architectural ingenuity and cultural richness of the ancient Maya civilization. First founded around the 6th century, it wasn't until the 9th that it really started to flourish as a hub of culture, trade, and religion. Renowned for its imposing temples for sacrifice and ritual, and its extraordinary astronomical

influences, the city still guards its secrets closely. It's long been regarded as a shining example of Maya architecture, although these days most experts will agree it's not typically Maya at all, but rather a reflection of a shifting, changing, adapting civilization. So how did the city become such an important hub to a dominant Mesoamerican superpower? What were the cultural and political dynamics that shaped its unique evolution? And why was it so suddenly abandoned and left to be reclaimed by the jungle? I'm John Hopkins. From the Noisa Network, this is a short history of Chichen Itza.

As one of the most remarkable ancient cultures of the Americas, the Maya once thrived in the tropical lowlands of what is now Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Emerging around 2000 BC, they are initially formed of small communities in villages that appear as the farming of maize, beans, and chili peppers makes a more settled lifestyle possible. Some of these settlements have since been excavated and have furnished academics with a deeper understanding of the Maya culture. But there is still much to uncover, and even more that has been destroyed or demolished by succeeding civilizations. Annabeth Hedrick is director of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Denver and specializes in ancient American cultures. We have a time period that we call the formative of the pre-classic and that's a very rich

time period and those are times that are just before BC and going into the Common Era with that. And those we're learning more and more about. They're deeper, and so we don't know as much because you have to dig deeper to find those time periods. While it's clear that early settlements were thriving across Mesoamerica, it's not until between 250 and 900 AD that the Maya really hit their stride. Known as the Classic Period, this golden age of the Maya civilization is characterized by the growth of vast city-states, with impressively advanced architecture featuring towering pyramids, palaces, and plazas. Population growth

quickly turns cities like Tikal in modern-day Guatemala, Copan in Honduras and Palenque in Mexico into densely populated urban centers. This is largely thanks to the lively trade routes which spring up to form bustling connections between the main towns. Trade in jade, obsidian and ceramics brings new wealth. And as prosperous elites rise to the top, complex social structures develop. While they share common cultural and religious practices, each city-state is ruled by its own king, rather than being vassals of an empire under one overarching ruler.

Known as Adjar, they act as religious, political, economic, and judicial rulers, often engaging in warfare, trade, and alliance building with neighboring cities. They are depicted in art, sculpture, and carvings all around their settlements, wearing headdresses, jewelry, and fine garments to symbolize their power. For the most part, the different cities of the region keep themselves relatively separate, holding onto their own unique identities. During those classic periods,

that early classic and late classic period, there's very much an identity where you can see, oh, these people are Maya, and these people are from Tantul Khan, and they really seem to have these different markers that show that I'm different from you. Archaeologists have discovered evidence that sculpture, pottery, and painting all flourish during this period of growth, with Maya artists drawing inspiration from their rich mythology and religious beliefs. Much of their art depicts gods, rulers, and sacred animals, often intricately carved into

stone or painted on pottery in vivid, symbolic colors. Alongside carvings of their leaders, the temples are adorned with images and symbols depicting Kukulkan, the feathered serpent, Itzamna, the creator god, or Chak, god of rain. Their towering pyramids and immense temples and palaces often feature steep flights of steps leading to high altars, where sacrifices are regularly made to the various Maya deities. regularly made to the various Maya deities. The scale and position of the buildings within the cities tells us a great deal about the bank of knowledge that their engineers are drawing upon. With important structures often aligned on vital compass points

or designed to highlight solstices or planetary movements, it's clear the Maya have a comprehensive understanding of astronomy and mathematics. As well as the growth and expansion of cities and the celebration of art and architecture, a complex writing system of sophisticated hieroglyphics is also developed around this period. Few texts remain to shed light on this early language, but these hieroglyphs are still slowly being deciphered.

They appear to record important moments for the city and its adjur, battles, ceremonies, and natural events, as well as crucial insights into their religion. In each city, huge stili, or carved stone monuments, feature reliefs showing off the rulers' greatest achievements and strengths. They also show how closely the rulers are linked to the gods, with most adjur seen as semi-divine entities. Being semi-divine means they must bear much of the burden when it comes to the sacrifices and rituals conducted to appease the gods. Their blood is of greater value in ritual than that of the common man, and would ensure better wealth, health, and prosperity for their people. Sadly, if the gods withdraw their bounties of rainfall or good harvest or success in battle,

well, that's all down to those in charge too. Which means any given city's leader can suddenly have a hard time retaining power if things don't go their way. So there's these cities down in the southern part of the Maya region, south of the Yucatan Peninsula that have grown up and some of the great sites of that time are Tikal and Karakal and they're and call it Mool and they're fighting one another and their kings are interacting and such. But we do seem to have a series of droughts and changes and climate change just like we're dealing with now which caused some frictions and a lot of those cities struggled. They were dealing with a lot of

endemic warfare. They were dealing with access to resources. They were dealing with their crops failing probably because of the droughts. As the classic period progresses, many of these once-flourishing cities succumb to droughts, famine, and changing trade routes. Leaders are deposed, but their replacements fare no better. Soon, the Maya begin to move north, in search of more productive lands. But strangely, it's around the time when all other great Maya cities are being abandoned in the southern lowlands that the northern city of Chichen Itza really seems to rise to dominance.

The city lies deep in the thick tropical rainforest. The jungle here thrums with life, home to jaguars, tepe, tucans and macaws, monkeys, birds and untold millions of insects. But the rainforest is not the wet oasis its name would suggest. In fact, the northern Yucatan Peninsula has almost no surface water at all. It has an intriguing and fairly unique topography known as karst, where the flat land is formed of soluble rocks like limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. Any rainfall seeps into the surface,

and when these soft rocks erode, what's left is a labyrinth of caves and tunnels through which a vast underground waterway runs. Occasionally, the ground collapses in sinkholes, revealing the crystal-clear waters below. Known as cenotes, these sinkholes prove to be a lifeline for the people settling here from those drought-ridden southern regions, providing ample fresh water for crops and livestock. It's little wonder then that cities like Chichen Itza are established very near

to some larger cenotes. Chichen Itza, the name means the well, which is actually a reference to the big body of water there, a cenote, the well of the Itza and the Itza being a people.

And some people have suggested that maybe the Itza themselves, some of them migrated out of that southern part of the Maya area. Not only is the cenote a natural well and a vital life source, but it is also seen as a sacred portal to the underworld, deeply connected to the Maya rain god, Chak. Why do we know that they were sacred? Well, on both of those cenotes, they

built a certain formation of architecture. So the most famous ones, the sacred cenote, and they built their biggest pyramid, the Castillo, and it faces towards that cenote, which is to the north. And then they put a platform where they could do ritual in front of it that we call a Venus platform because it has star imagery on it. And then there's a road. They called them Sakbe or White Road because they're made out of limestone and they're these raised elevated roads. And there's a long elevated Sakbe that leads to the cenote. That's a north-south access, the Stolok cenote. It had a smaller pyramid called the Osario or the High Priest's Grave.

It has another one of those performance or Venus platforms there, and then it also has a sock bay or road that leads to that. That one goes east-west. So their marking these two cenotes as terribly important. The cenotes are not the only bodies of water that frame the development of Chichen Itza from small settlements to a major city. By around 900 AD, there is a direct road from the city to the coastal port of Ila Cerritos on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Having control of this crucial coastal trading hub means that the people of Chichen Itza can source one of the more valuable commodities of the time, salt.

And it also means that instead of being limited to trading with nearby cities in striking distance, the city's merchants can now head out to sea in large canoes to trade up and down the coast. Paddling south, they can reach the Guatemalan highlands and the distant city of Caminalhuyo. Or turning northwards, they might travel by sea along the Gulf of Mexico all the way to Veracruz or further, and they return from these far-flung places with exotic imports like obsidian, turquoise, feathers, and even gold for local trade. Soon Chichen Itza becomes a pivotal trading center, with a population approaching 50,000. A huge, thriving city, with plazas radiating outward from its heart.

Bustling markets stacked with colorful goods draw people from all over the region. Wide, stone-paved avenues connect the limestone structures, while carved columns, ball courts, and grand temples stand ready for sacred rituals. The largest structure in the entire complex is the giant central pyramid, stand ready for sacred rituals. The largest structure in the entire complex is the giant central pyramid, named El Castillo or the Castle by the conquistadors who came later. Standing 25 meters tall and built by skilled Maya architects, the great pyramid offers spectacular views over the flat Yucatan Peninsula,

but it is its ceremonial significance which really sets it apart from other earlier Maya pyramids. El Castillo is a temple to the feathered serpent god Kukulcan, god of wind, rain, and creation, and the guardian of fallen warriors. Kukulcan is one of the more prominent deities worshiped in Chichen Itza, and his image is woven into most structures. The Castillo, the main pyramid, is a four-sided pyramid, and it has stairs on all four sides.

However, they mark the north as the most important side. The door to the temple, for instance, is on the north, and the temple is up top. So you go all the way up the stairs, and on top is where the temple is. But also it has balustrades that are on the sides of the big long staircase. And only the northern one has serpents that slither down the tops of the balustrades. And at the bottom on either side of the staircase is the heads of these snakes. These are feathered serpents, sometimes called kukulkan or quetzalcoatl. And they have their mouths open, they have teeth, and they have their tongues laying out on the ground.

So they're pretty ferocious-looking serpents there. so they're pretty ferocious looking serpents there so clever is the design of the temple that on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes light and shadow play on the steps to make it look like a giant serpent is slithering down the pyramid more evidence of the maya's sophisticated understanding of cosmology. And the Great Pyramid is not alone in reflecting the Maya's preoccupation with the stars and planets. Also on the site is an observatory known as the Karakol, or the Snail, a name it gets from its spiral staircase.

From its perfectly aligned windows, the ancient citizens of Chichen Itza can observe the path of celestial bodies, especially Venus. For the Maya, it's immensely significant among the planets, associated as it is with warfare, ritual, and that prominent feathered deity. It's believed that the god Kukulkan himself ascended into the heavens and became Venus. By mapping its progress through the sky, Chichen Itza's elites can decide when battles will likely be most successful or when to hold ceremonial events. Thanks to structures like El Castillo and the large, sacred cenote near which it stands, the city also becomes a place of pilgrimage, ceremony and ritual, drawing worshippers from all over Mesoamerica.

And since the city hasn't developed under one main ruler, everyone appears to be welcomed and absorbed into the melting pot of this developing powerhouse. melting pot of this developing powerhouse. The key to Chichen Itza that makes it special is the architecture that comes in during, let's say, 900 to 1,000 is really different. And it's probably people that are moving from other places. Most specifically, they're coming in from maybe Veracruz in central Mexico and so they have these people that come in with new ideas and these new ideas have to do with sharing power but also

a tradition of merchant warriors who bring in wealth but also get to actually participate in that wealth and so you have a system where there's a middle class, an upper middle class that really gets to succeed through their own actions. It's this new kind of social structure that makes Chichen Itza fairly unique. Almost unheard of in Maya cities, the carvings and sculptures here make no references to

one single supreme leader. Instead, their Temple of the Warriors, built at the same time as the Great Pyramid, tells a different story. The temple is an imposing structure which rises in tiers, with wide stone steps leading to a central platform. Flanking the steps are rows and rows of stone columns, known as the Thousand Columns, all carved with images of the men and women who really make the city what it is. The vast majority of them are shown as richly dressed warriors. They have

mirrors on the small of their back, which is what warriors would wear. They're carrying something called an atlatl, which is a spear thrower, and they're carrying spears. And they're very beautifully dressed, and there's lots of them. So these are portraits of people who made Chichen successful, that brought in the wealth. And they built a whole temple, right, to celebrate these people, and probably also where decisions were made they shared in the decision making at chichen many once prosperous maya cities are fading from the map but chichen itza's ruling class consortium is taking the city from strength to strength the elites here are merchant warriors who have built their wealth on far-reaching trade and dominance in battle with other, smaller settlements. Controlling the coastal waters in their large canoes, shipping goods in and out of the area, they often engage in sea battles with merchants from other cities, plundering their cargo to boost their own coffers. It's just before dawn off the coast of Mexico.

Salty sea spray bounces off the prow of a wooden canoe, stinging the eyes of a tall, black-haired merchant as he peers across the dark waters ahead, searching for prey. A seasoned warrior from Chichen Itza, he's leading a small fleet of canoes along the coastline just beyond the rough breakers. Each boat holds around ten warriors, all adorned with bright battle feathers and all equally focused. all adorned with bright battle feathers and all equally focused. Up ahead, a handful of balsa wood rafts bob gently. Merchants from the south by the look of them, which means those rafts are likely to hold great treasure, quite probably gold.

While this band of warriors are largely looking for goods to sell back in the markets at home, they don't always see the need to trade fairly with the merchants they encounter on their journeys. They are quite happy to claim the spoils the hard way. But first, they've got to catch up with these light, nimble rafts. Rowing in perfectly silent, synchronized strokes, the heavy canoes start closing in. Out at the front of the fleet, the lead warrior drives his oar deep into the water, pulling back hard, slicing the canoe through the turbulent sea. The rafts they're targeting are close enough now that he can hear the idle chatter of their feckless sailors. They even look like southerners.

Their hair, bleached blonde by the sun and sea, is braided with green beads. Their skin is tanned dark bronze. They have no idea of the danger that's almost upon them. With a nod to his comrade, the warrior pulls his dripping ore into the canoe, laying it quietly at his feet. Then he lifts his obsidian-tipped spear from the floor. Following his lead, other warriors in the Chichen fleet now replace ore with weapon, leaving only a few hands in each boat to do the rowing.

Rising to his feet, he steadies himself with natural ease against the bobbing, rolling wooden hull. As his canoe closes the final few yards to the raft, he lifts his foot to lean on the edge of the prow, ready to leap aboard the unfortunate vessel. Another powerful oar stroke brings them within touching distance. He rolls the shaft of his weapon in his hand, and then, as his canoe plows into the back of the smaller raft ahead, he leaps forward, spear raised. The screams of the first sailor are quickly silenced. The unwitting merchants are caught unawares and have nowhere to hide as the men from Chichen Itza spring aboard their vessels, stabbing, punching, and hurling them bodily over the sides of their rafts into the sea.

and hurling them bodily over the sides of their rafts into the sea. The battle is short-lived, and the southern merchants are quickly beaten. Those that aren't killed or drowned are captured to be used as sacrifice. As their chattels of gold and turquoise, feather and shells are loaded onto the canoes to be hauled back home. The captives are bound firmly and thrown into the hollow hulls. It's only now that the warrior sees the small, tight slice he's picked up on his bicep. No matter. The thin track of blood can be his offering to the gods to protect his city. Triumphant, the warriors of Chichen Itza wheel the canoes round,

now laden with plundered treasure, and head for home. There was lots and lots of wonderful trade goods on these rafts. These people were carrying salt, they were carrying feathers, they were carrying precious stones. They were carrying seashells. And lots of rulers and elites loved to wear these spondylus shells or give them as offerings to the gods. But they also had gold on these rafts. As the merchant warriors trade and plunder precious goods along the coast, the city gains its reputation as a dominant superpower. Its wealth draws new residents from across Mesoamerica, with different cultures, different

languages, different influences. And this becomes Chichen Itza's strength. influences. And this becomes Chichen Itza's strength. Rather than remaining rigidly traditional under one hereditary leader, as other cities before it had done, Chichen Itza becomes a thriving multicultural melting pot, ruled in part by elites and high priests, alongside their increasingly powerful warrior merchants. The thing that's so special about Qicheng is why did they survive when other sites collapsed? And it's because they looked outward

and they engaged in international trade, truly international trade, and brought in resources from elsewhere. This strength is displayed not just in the thriving population and bountiful markets, but in the grand buildings and structures created during this era of supremacy. Like the great ball court. Most Mayan towns have a single ball court, much like a modern-day basketball court, but

made of limestone and in the shape of a capital letter I. Ordinarily, courts have carved stone rings, barely big enough for a ball to pass through, embedded vertically high up in the two walls flanking either side of the playing field. It's on these courts where the Mayan ball game is played. A great spectator sport, the ball game involves players moving a solid rubber ball around the court without using their hands or feet.

Thighs, hips, and forearms take the brunt of the heavy ball, though the likelihood of it passing through the narrow stone ring is all but non-existent. It's thought that points are scored by simply getting the ball into the opposition goal area, the top or bottom of the capital I. Perhaps if, by some fluke, the ball does pass through the high hoop, the game might be won outright. The games draw big crowds and afford great celebrity to players. But the setup at Chichen Itza is different. There, a number of smaller ball courts are the main stadia for the game, but there is also the great ball court. And that is a different beast altogether.

This awe-inspiring, monumental structure is the largest of its kind in Mesoamerica. At around 170 by 70 meters, it's wider than a modern-day football pitch and approaching twice as long. Towering stone walls rise almost 8 meters on either side, on top of which hang those intricately carved stone rings, through which the ball could theoretically pass. But without the use of hands or feet, the odds of making the shot with such a heavy ball are incalculably small. Like everything else on this field, they are likely just for show. Even the acoustics of this great arena are incredible, and designed with the spectator in mind. The slightest sound can travel from one end to the other with remarkable clarity.

At each extremity, two small temples, the Temple of the Jaguars and the North Temple, overlook the playing area, providing the perfect viewing platform for the city's elites. The court is flanked by ornately carved panels, depicting scenes of the game but more importantly, illustrating a series of ritual sacrifices. Because that is what the great ball court is really all about. Far too big to play on, this is a grandstand arena. A stadium for celebration, spectacle, and for impressive religious ceremony. And in Chichen Itza, many of those ceremonies feature human sacrifice.

The gods must constantly be appeased with offerings, the earth fed with blood, the water brought forth with the tears of innocence. And of course, the threat of being sacrificed to appease the gods goes a long way to striking fear into a rival's soon-to-be-cut-out heart. There's no doubt that there's profound belief that you're sustaining the world through these sacrifices. On the other hand, there's no doubt that sacrificing someone publicly, cutting their heart out in a public way, throwing them into a cenote, cutting their head off in a ball court. Those are very gory things that are meant to scare your enemies. They're meant to threaten your enemies that this is going to happen to you if you come to war with us.

For a while, about 200 years in fact, the city flourishes. The warrior merchants are as powerful at sea as they are on land, and they manage to hold off attacks from other towns and cities who are constantly vying for dominance of the trade routes. Rulers and elites from vanquished towns are brought back to Chichen Itza, maybe to be paraded around the great ball court. Only then do they have their hearts removed to honor the gods, or have their heads sliced off to ensure continued good fortune, or they are thrown into the sacred cenote to placate the gods of water to make them

send rain. But for all the spilled blood, for all of the sacrifice, Chichen Itza's fortunes slowly begin to shift. Towards the end of that, we do see some real climate change issues. We see some severe droughts, and they weren't just one. It was over a prolonged number of years. There's all this warfare, too. It's never one thing. You have drought, and then you have somebody that has warfare because you have corn and you want it. You know, there's all kinds of dynamics. With prolonged periods of drought making it harder to survive, crops withering and dying in the hard ground, and neighbors attacking to plunder dwindling supplies,

it must feel like the city has been forsaken by the gods. Inevitably, people stop moving to the once booming capital. In fact, some even begin to move away to upcoming cities nearby, like Mayapan, not too far to the north. Chichen Itza's days as the regional superpower are numbered. After over 200 years as a major metropolis of the northern Yucatan, by the late 12th century, the once thriving capital begins to unravel. Historians and academics are still trying to piece together a true picture of why the city fell into decline. that climate change is a huge factor. Political infighting, internal strife, and possible revolts may also have weakened the city's leadership, fracturing the cohesion that had once made the city so successful. Inevitably, as the people begin to move, trade routes shift and change,

following paths to more fertile lands. With the trade networks from Chichen Itza faltering and the population dwindling, even the city's ceremonial heart loses its vitality. The great plazas and temples, once bustling with life and grand rituals, slowly empty. Finally, Chichen Itza is almost entirely abandoned, left to the looters, the dead, and the eager tendrils of the rapidly encroaching jungle. And there it lingers for several centuries, slowly being reclaimed by the rainforest and falling into ruin. slowly being reclaimed by the rainforest and falling into ruin.

Until a new civilization begins carving its way through the jungle with a very different purpose in mind. It's sometime in the mid-1550s. A small group of explorers, made up of three Spanish clergymen, four colonial soldiers for protection, and a young Maya guide, are hacking their way through the dense forest. Two weary mules labor behind them, carrying the goods and equipment they need for their expedition. It's over 30 years since the first Spanish efforts to conquer the Yucatan. Since then, much of the fierce Maya resistance in the wider region has been pacified. But here, more than anywhere, the battle for Spanish dominance has proved challenging.

But for Diego de Landa, the Spanish Franciscan priest leading this group, the task of conquering and subduing the Maya is not the primary concern. Especially not today. He is here, in the heart of this jungle, with this small group, to find a great ancient ruin. The greatest if his young guide is to be believed. Holding up a hand to stop his party, he removes a dirty handkerchief from his pocket and mops the sweat from his brow. This jungle is dense and oppressive, the air almost unbearably humid. He sits on a fallen log and tells the men to take a short break. They don't need asking twice.

Leather water flasks are quickly unhitched from the saddles and passed around. Everyone in the party is exhausted, but Delanda is determined. He has been slowly mapping and charting the ruins of the ancient Maya for years, and now he is closing in on a new find, the city of Chichen Itza. Once a great metropolis, it's a place whispered about reverentially by the Maya he's spoken to. Sacred, for them anyway. A place of pilgrimage. While Delander's main role here is to try and guide the Maya onto the path of Christianity,

he has found himself increasingly fascinated by this strange, ancient civilization. Getting to his feet, he swats a mosquito away. Time to get going. He looks to his guide for reassurance, and the young man nods in the direction they were going. Overgrown as the path may be, this is the way. Sure enough, as they trudge on, driving the mules forward, the canopy seems to thin. A light breeze washes through the leaves, sunlight dappling the dank ground. And then, Delanda sees it. Rising above the treetops, like the crown of a long-lost king, is the top of a pyramid, unlike any he's seen yet.

Soon the whole party have spotted it and hurry excitedly towards the ruins of the former city. Half lost to the forest, its walls and temples crumbling, the former grandeur is unmistakable. This must have been a place of huge importance. He orders the team to set up camp. They have work to do here, to map, detail, and describe everything they see. As the tents are erected and the mules watered, Del Landa finds himself standing at the foot of the Great Pyramid, the Temple of Kukulkan, or El Castillo, as his early Spanish predecessors named it.

He stares up at the formidable structure, its huge stone steps rising up all four sides, the carved serpents, the symbols of this most unchristian civilization. For better or worse, its future is in his hands. Priests like Diego de Landa provide detailed early accounts of what they find at Chichen Itza, and of the site's layout and former cultural significance. But they're also responsible for the destruction of much of the early Maya writings, leaving

future generations somewhat in the dark. Despite being fascinated by the civilization he's investigating, he is also here to spread the word of God, and it's that mission that compels him to remove and burn any Maya literature or references to their old deities and beliefs. Early Spanish priests, they could be terrible towards the people and destroy their stuff. But on the other hand, I think they were just fascinated. They were the intellectuals of their time, so they would write about these people. Diego Luanda wrote a massive book about everything he knew about the Yucatan, really critical stuff that helps us understand the past. And then every now and then they insert, but these people are worshiping the devil and it's bad, bad, bad.

Perhaps, luckily for Chichen Itza, its new conquerors have little interest in settling there. It's no longer on a useful trade route and no longer in a helpful part of the peninsula. Many other ancient cities, like the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan, are torn apart, stone by stone, so that the conquistadors can build their own settlements, religious buildings, markets and plazas from the rubble. But Chichen Itza avoids that fate. Delanda may have been intrigued by its monumental architecture and its secrets about the Mayan civilization, but his Spanish counterparts are too busy with their own conquests to explore the city at all.

In fact, after the Spanish pass through and finish their mapping, the city is almost ignored for another three centuries, until British and American explorers turn up to begin their own investigations. In the 1830s, American lawyer and politician John Lloyd Stevens turns his back on his successful career to become an explorer and writer. While traveling in the Mediterranean researching material for his book about ancient Egypt, he meets a British architect and draftsman called Frederick Catherwood, who is working as an illustrator, drawing

and documenting ancient ruins. The two hit it off immediately. In 1839, when Stevens is appointed as Special Ambassador to Central America, he begins plotting his next exploration. He has been intrigued by rumors of a mysterious, ancient ruin that has not yet been fully documented by Western explorers. He persuades Catherwood to join him, and the two begin collaborating on two landmark publications documenting the ruins of the Maya civilization.

Together they explore sites in Honduras and Mexico, including, of course, Chichen Itza. Their work sheds new light on the sophistication and complexity of the ancient Maya. They also helped to dispel some of the European misconceptions of the indigenous cultures of Central America being uncivilized and backward. Together they proved that the Maya did in fact have a rich language, a deep and sophisticated understanding of mathematics and astronomy, and that their religion was highly developed. Thanks in large part to their work, an interest in the Maya civilization begins to grow among Western academics.

While some archaeological study is already underway in other parts of the Maya world, Chichen Itza has remained largely unexplored. Where more modern scientific practices might offer chances to examine the site without causing too much disturbance, early archaeology does not have the same finesse. In fact, some of the excavations are brutally thorough. In fact, some of the excavations are brutally thorough. Shortly after the turn of the century, a U.S. consul to Yucatan, Edward Thompson, has the sacred cenote dredged to search for evidence of human sacrifice and other offerings made to the rain god Chark. While he certainly finds the evidence he's looking for,

his methods mean there is little room for further discovery in that site. We're more precise nowadays, and so it's always a good idea to excavate but leave some of it untouched. In 1924, the US-based research organization, the Carnegie Institution, agrees to fund an extensive project at Chichen Itza, focused on the study, excavation and restoration of the site. Under the stewardship of leading Maya scholar Silvanus G. Morley, the project uses modern archaeological methods to excavate key structures like El Castillo, the Ball Court and the Temple of the Warriors. Alongside the Carnegie team, a group of Mexican archaeologists also examined the site. Between them, for the first time, excavations are conducted using detailed

and accurate methods. The Kearney Institute was incredibly precise and very scientific. They wrote down everything. They had Anne Axtell Morris that was the wife of one of the archaeologists, but an archaeologist in her own right. And she made watercolors of all those different sculptures that were on the Temple of the Warriors that were painted. Now a lot of the paint's gone, right? Water's fallen on them, acid rain, different things. So we have these wonderful watercolors that we can use that give us a lot of information that we don't have today. They wrote down every single thing. The thing is they didn't have is a lot of the modern techniques. While these archaeological efforts certainly shine a light on Maya culture, practice, and ritual, there is also some reliance on educated assumption and guesswork.

And when the reconstruction and restoration of the site takes place, also in the 1920s and 30s, that too requires a certain amount of artistic license. Some of the original stonework has by now collapsed or been repurposed. So what curators believe was a clearly geometric structure with sharp angles currently looks more like a haphazard hill of rubble. But based on their best professional estimates, those charged with restoring the site get to work with new stairways, facades, and pillars to create as close a replica to the original as they can. The work pays off, and soon tourists are flocking from far and wide to see this wonder of the Mayan world. In 1988, Chichen Itza is recognized for its cultural and historical significance

and made a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Though the designation boosts its international profile, attracting scholars and tourists from around the world, concern grows about the rise in traffic causing increased erosion. With up to 8,000 visitors a day scaling the city structures, especially the iconic steps of El Castillo, managing wear and tear becomes a major priority. But it's not until after an 80-year-old tourist dies after falling down the steps that the decision is made to ban visitors from climbing or entering the buildings.

Today, the site still serves as a gateway to hundreds of thousands of tourists every year, eager to learn about this ancient civilization of warriors, merchants, architects, and astronomers. Thanks to the continued study of what could be salvaged at Chichen Itza, we can understand something of the spiritual life of the Maya, their gods, and the rituals that honored them. spiritual life of the Maya, their gods, and the rituals that honored them. Yet much about them remains elusive, especially at Chichen Itza, which appears to be so different to other Maya capitals. There is still disagreement about how it was ruled and governed, and about what daily life was like for the common people in the city. And though the full truth behind its decline

and eventual abandonment is unclear, what is certain is that when Chichen Itza rose to great heights, it did so by embracing change, by adapting and taking new ideas from a variety of different people. It became a homogenous, largely successful whole, greater than the sum of its parts. In our own contemporary world, there seems to be so many people afraid of those kinds of migrations, but Qichen took that and probably just turned it into their great strength of

absorbing people and absorbing all those different traditions and creating a new place for all kinds of opportunities. Next time on Short History, we'll bring you a short history of Buckingham Palace. Buckingham Palace is still so popular because it's become not just an icon of the royal family and the institution of monarchy but it's very much an icon of London and the whole United Kingdom. It's become one of the most recognizable sites in the world and visitors to London love Buckingham Palace. and visitors to London love Buckingham Palace. As a tour guide, I can tell you that it's one of the places that my clients get the most excited about. I think in many ways, certainly in the eyes of foreign visitors to London,

it almost is the quintessence of British culture. That's next time.