Hey, @dswigle.
Chichen Itza is one of my favorite places to visit. Went down with a friend from work the first time and then again with my wife several years later. Both very incredible experiences. The acoustics at the ball court is simply amazing. We weren't with a tour, but one of the guides demonstrated the echoes (I believe seven) that literally bounced off different points of the walls. The most incredible thing, though, was when my friend went to one end of the ball court and me on the other and I could hear him speaking normally as if I were right next to him. That' s a distance of 168 meters or 551 feet! Totally freaky!
It's too bad that they haven't allowed climbing the pyramid for sometime. I understand they mimic the solstices at night with some kind of light show so tourists don't have to wait. Not exactly the same, I'm sure, but plays to the amazing feat of architecture.
Chichen Itza, along with other prominent ruins, is indeed still a market place, since there are a lot of vendors wondering around, trying to hawk their wares. My wife liked bartering with them. I was more interested in the ruins. :)
Crawling into one of the saunas was cool. I liked The Observatory, and the whole idea of the knowledge they had about astronomy in general, and Cenote Sagrado was pretty incredible until we were told it was used for human sacrificing, although I guess that could be up to some debate.
I'd very much recommend Chichen Itza to anyone. I'd add Teotihuacan outside of Mexico City as a must see, too, just because of the pure scale of everything there. Enormous! As far as intact buildings and architecture goes, though, Chichen Itza is hard to beat.
Oh!!! Look who's here! Hello @glenalbrethsen! It has been a dog's age since I have seen your smiling face! :)
I have been there twice and I was totally taken by the ball court and the voices too!! Isn't that place the most incredible? I am in awe of them, they were such visionaries. I cannot for the life of me understand how they managed to execute the structures.
I didn't go with a guide either, but, had studied it before I went! Went to Chichen Itza first in 2005, so got to do the climb and they closed it in the next year, I believe. I believe a tourist fell to her death while climbing. It is pretty scary. I am not sure if any of them are still open.
I love to barter too! :) I already like your wife.
Yes, the sacrificing, does put one off a little bit, yet? :)) I love the culture and would love to continue researching the culture. It's fascinating! I love that you stopped by and I sure do miss seeing you around the blockchain!
Thanks again!!!!!
#MarketFriday loves you!
re: dog's age
I've been around. Mostly reading, though. Haven't done much of anything else. But when I saw what your post was about, well, I had to do more than just read. :)
re: execute the structures
If you mean build the structures, my guess would be slave labor. If you mean design or conceive of them, I'd just say it's amazing how much ancient people knew and took with them when they fell from prominence. I've read that medicine in particular is among those ancients' abilities that has been forgotten, or in our case, covered up because there's not as much of a profit.
re: 2005
Hmmm. My first trip was before that, February of 1996. Something like that. Don't remember climbing that particular pyramid then but I'm glad you were able to. I'm sure it afforded a spectacular view. :) I know for sure my wife and I didn't. By then, the integrity of the structure was the reason, or so we were told.
re: culture
It's tough to reconcile sometimes, how they could seem so technologically advanced in some ways and so backwards and savage in others. I suppose their civilization would be similar to ours: diverse with all kinds of beliefs, ethics and behaviors. There would be the forward thinkers and there would be those who wanted to hold onto the superstitions or traditions. Undoubtedly there were clashes between science and religion, since that seems to be an ongoing struggle.
What's obvious is, someone knew something about architecture, astronomy, civil engineering, city planning, irrigation, mining, etc. All these things that we think of as more modern methods, people were employing to some degree hundreds to thousands of years ago.
Very fascinating, indeed!
I still cannot wrap my head around the thought of how advanced they were all that time ago and then, there was a pregnant pause. It was almost like starting over again.