The Kukulkan Pyramid (El Castillo)
The Kukulkan Pyramid also
referred to, as El Castillo is an amazing
building located in Chichen Itza, Mexico.
It has been labelled as one of the Seven Wonders of the
World. It was constructed around 11th to 13th Century by
the Mayan civilization with it’s main purpose being a temple to serve the god
Kukulkan. It was used to sacrifice intelligent people to the Mayan gods. The
Mayans would cut out the hearts of these intelligent people then throw the
hearts into the temple where they would fall to the ground and soldiers would
fight to eat the hearts. I think the reason why this temple was built standing
so high up was because the Mayans probably assumed that the higher the temple,
the closer it was to their gods, also the height may have been an advantage as
the sacrifices were quite public. As a result the height advantage probably allowed
the community to view these rituals from quite a distances.
The design consists of a step-based pyramid
with 4 staircases running through the middle of each side all made up of stone.
Each staircase has 91 steps and if you also include the top step, which is the
entrance to the temple, it has a total of 365; this is not coincidental, it represents
the 365 days of the year. The Mayan civilization is responsible for the current
yearly calendar that we follow so a lot of their structures are based around
the idea of time. The structure is about 55m across and 30m high. This includes
the base, which is 24m and the temple which is 6m. It also has 52 panels, which
represent the number of years it takes for a calendar round date to reoccur. The
staircases rise at 45 degrees to the horizontal.
When I visited the site I was taken
back by the way it stood with such presence. The temple actually stands in
quite an open space of land with hardly anything surrounding it. I actually
visited when you were allowed to walk up the staircases, which have now been
deemed too dangerous for public use since 2006. This is due to the fact that
the steps on the staircase were far too small to walk down which resulted in
quite a few incidents. The only valid reason I could justify for this would
probably be that it would be a deterrent for anyone who would try to escape
because if you would try to run down the stairs you would most probably fall to
your death.
‘The
Temple of Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent God (also known as Quetzalcoatl to
the Toltecs and Aztecs) is the largest and most important ceremonial structure
at Chichen Itza. This ninety-foot tall pyramid was built during the 11th to
13th centuries directly upon the foundations of previous temples. The
architecture of the pyramid encodes precise information regarding the Mayan
calendar and is directionally oriented to mark the solstices and equinoxes.
Studies by archaeoastronomers have revealed that other structures at Chichen
Itza also have significant astronomical alignments, such as the Caracol
observatory, which indicates key positions of the planet Venus, particularly
its southern and northern horizon extremes. Studying the ground plan of Chichen
Itza and the spatial relationships between its primary temples, it is evident
that the site was actually a mirror of star positions in the night skies -
during the erection period of the temple complexes. This is an example of
sacred geography, or terrestrial astrology, on a local scale. The Mayans also
practiced sacred geography on a larger regional scale by the placement of their
temple-cities at specific sites which were themselves also mirrors of the
heavens.’ - http://www.worldreviewer.com/travel-guides/archaeological/chichen-itza-and-the-temple-of-kukulkan/55048/
This reference clearly indicates how
well the architect who actually designed this, in this period of time, had
clearly thought of quite a vast amount of ways to achieve what he was trying to
by combining Mayan ideas and cultural interests.
‘If you can arrange it the very best time to
visit is around the Spring Equinox, when the knowledge of the Mayan astronomers
and architects is fully displayed. Around the equinox, from about five days
before until about five days after, the temple is aligned so that as the sun
gradually sinks, a great shadow of the snake god, Kukulcan slithers almost
magically down the epic staircase. To describe it more clearly triangles of
sunlight are projected onto the stairs working their way downwards and ending
at the bottom where the snake's head is illuminated.
The
best vantage point is in the courtyard facing the western facade of the
pyramid. Around 40,000 people attend this even each year.’ - http://www.travelpod.ca/travel-photo/jeroenandlinda/1/1278361090/chizen-itza.jpg/tpod.html
When
I visited Chichen Itza it was during the summer period so I did not get
to see this although if you look at the building in pictures you would see how
it would be able to achieve the snake shapes. The main thing that really takes
me back about this structure though is the fact that it was designed to such
perfection that it is capable of producing these images at those precise times
of the year. When you think of current architecture, I think it is very rare
for architects to actually go into such minute detail in regard to how a
building would display shadows at two specific times of the year.
If you take into
consideration that this civilisation lacked modern day technology such as:
cranes, computer-aided designs, measuring tools and paper. It has to spark the
question; How is it that the Mayans were able to create such a structure like the Kukulkan
Pyramid? When we are probably not even to this day, able to create something
nearly as aesthetically pleasing or incredibly thought out like this temple. So in conclusion, the reason why I
chose this building was due to the amount of depth involved in the thought
process to creating this structure, which has resulted in creating a landmark
that has stood quite the test of time. This is evident to the extent that it
still functions in the way that it was intended to. Although we do not know who
the architect was or whether it was the work of a collective group of
individuals, it is nonetheless truly a wonder.
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