Yesterday I went to Chichen Itza, the most visited Mayan site and probably the most famous Mayan site. Obviously as it is the most visited, it was crowdy but really really really really crowdy, there were so many sellers that it looked like a giant handicraft market. Yet it has a nice pyramid and some nice altars.
About Chichen Itza :
Between 600 and 1250 A.D. this ancient city, whose name means "at the mouth of the Itza well" was the center of political, economic, religious, and military power, not only in Yucatan but also in the entire southeastern part of Mesoamerica. The Itza domain included part of Tabasco and Campeche, the northern Gulf Coast and a large part of the southern lowlands. Its sphere of control was based on regional and long distance mercantile activities, which generated one of the most important commercial circuits in all Mesoamerica.
Itza rule brought about drastic changes in the internal structure of Yucatecan communities. At the same time, the introduction of an innovative view of the world marked the establishment of an order characterized by changing commercial values, production and distribution systems, and residential and religious architecture of the groups in power.
It is calculated that during the age of grandeur approximately 50 000 inhabitants were spread out over and area of 25 square kilometers, including such distant groups as those of Balamkanché, Iki, Cumtun, Poxil and Halakai, among others. All of them were connected to the ceremonial center by means of roads known as sacbeob.
