El Castillo, Chichen Itza
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El Castillo (Spanish for "The Castle") is the nickname of a spectacular Mesoamerican step-pyramid that dominates the center of the Chichen Itza archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán.
Built by the Maya civilization sometime between the 11th and 13th centuries AD, "El Castillo" served as a temple to the god Kukulcan (the Maya name for Quetzalcoatl).
It is a step pyramid with a ground plan of square terraces with stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top. Great sculptures of plumed serpents run down the sides of the northern staircase, and are set off by shadows from the corner tiers on the spring and autumn equinoxes. It was practice in Mesoamerican cities to periodically build larger and grander temple pyramids atop older ones, and this is one such example. Thanks to archaeologists, a doorway at the base of the north stairway leads to a tunnel, from which one can climb the steps of the earlier version of El Castillo inside the current one, up to the room on the top where you can see King Kukulcan's Jaguar Throne, carved from stone and painted red with jade spots. The design of the older pyramid is said to be a lunar calendar, with the newer pyramid being a solar calendar.
The structure was partially reconstructed from the somewhat dilapidated state in which it was first rediscovered, as part of a 17-year rebuilding effort for the site conducted under the auspices of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, led by the noted Mayanist scholar Sylvanus G. Morley. Two sides of the pyramid were almost completely rebuilt under this program, which ran from the late 1920s to its conclusion in 1940. The temple became a famous symbol of Mexico. The other 2 sides were restored by Mexican archaeologists in the 1980s.
Each of the structure's four stairways contain 91 steps. When counting the top platform as another step, in total El Castillo has 365 steps, one step for each day of the approximated tropical year recorded by the portion of the Maya calendar known as the Haab'. The structure is 24 m high, plus an additional 6 m for the temple. The square base measures 55.3 m across.
The overall structure has nine levels, which may be a parallel to the Maya cosmological view of there being nine levels in the Maya 'Underworlds'. We are lead to believe this because of the staircase in the center of the pyramid having 13 levels, the number of levels in the "upper worlds".
In the 1530s Conquistador Francisco de Montejo the younger used this building as his fortress, with cannon mounted atop it during the Spanish conquest of Yucatán.
Today "El Castillo" is one of the most popular and recognized tourist sites of Mexico.
