A name usually means a lot. In some cases though, it is not enough to express the true grandeur of the entity it stands for. And in some rare cases, it is a case of outright blasphemy. The same expression fits certain buildings as good as it fits certain people.
El Castillo is one such building. Literally meaning "the castle" in Spanish, El Castillo is anything but another ordinary castle that can be lumped together with dozens of hundreds of others. In fact, it is the single most significant work of architecture that Chichen Itza - and by this token, the Mayan civilization - has presented to the world.
Located in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, the construction of Chichen Itza's El Castillo is dated by historians to be between the 9th and 12th centuries. A structure that soars 30 meters above the surrounding Mexican jungle, the pyramid has a square shaped base measuring 55 meters on all sides.
Designated a world heritage site in 1988 by the UNESCO, El Castillo - or more accurately, the Temple of Kukulkan - is the centerpiece of the Chichen Itza pre-Columbian archeological site. This more descriptive name of the structure is derived from the name of the god Kukulkan, which is a serpentine deity of the Mayans; the word kukulkan itself means "plumed serpent". This deity is said to be closely related to the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl.
El Castillo is built in the form of a step pyramid. Remarkable is the fact that the peak of the pyramid is reached via climbing a total of 91 steps, which means that there are a total of 364 steps on the four sides of the pyramid. These 364 steps, together with the top platform, sum up to 365, resulting in one step for each day of the year. To further demonstrate the astronomical knowledge possessed by the Mayans, it should suffice to say that 91 is the number of days between successive equinoxes and solstices. The Mayans could have easily used the positioning of the temple with
regard to the sun's cycle as a calendar that possibly helped them guess
the best time to plant and harvest. Clearly, the Mayans were aware of the modern calendar we use even today, and they didn't shy away from using this knowledge in architecture.
But El Castillo was not a scientific building by any means; it was a temple to a powerful deity. As a result, it did not only incorporate scientific know-how, but symbology relating to worshipping of the gods. To illustrate this combination of religion and science in the Mayan civilization, one has to be transported to the site of the temple during the spring and fall equinoxes, when the shadow of a serpent - Kukulkan no doubt - falls on the slope of the pyramid. The shadow slowly climbs down the pyramid as the sun sets, eventually meeting a stone serpent head at the bottom.
On a date befitting the Mayans, July 7th, 2007, the ancient site of Chichen Itza along with its grand El Castillo, was voted one of the new 7 Wonders of the World. This means that, in a worldwide vote of confidence, the Temple of Kukulkan managed to slip by other competitors to join the likes of the Great Wall of China and Colosseum in Rome to be remembered as a monument that will withstand the test of time. Recently INAH (National Institute of Anhtroplogy and History) of Mexico has been gradually closing visitation of Mayan monuments to slow down their demise, so that all we are left with of El Castillo will not be its photos but the monument itself. Hopefully, El Castillo will live to see many more equinoxes.
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