Athena Review Image Archive ™
The Castillo at Chichén Itzá
The Castillo at Chichén Itzá (photo: Athena Review).
At
the center of the Early Postclassic zone of Chichén Itzá is the
Castillo, a massive (60 x 61 m), four-sided pyramid with
stairways on each side, whose nine terraces reach 24 meters in
elevation. This was built ca. AD 1000 over a smaller, Late Classic
pyramid 16.6 meters high, with a Puuc-style temple on top. The earlier
temple also had 9 tiers, but only a single stairway.
Two
monumental serpent heads flank the base of the main, northern staircase
of the Postclassic Castillo, seen at left in the photo. At the top is a
temple whose northern front has 3 doorways with serpent columns. As
described by Landa in his 1566 Relación, "The room at the north is by
itself, with a corridor of thick pillars. In the center is a sort of
interior room...this served for burning the incense." Single doorways
on the east, south, and west each had carved lintels of zapote wood, as
Stephens noted in his 1841 visit. The Castillo was first restored
during the Carnegie Institute project of the 1920s and 30s.
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