Chichén Itzá
A pyramid that casts a serpent's shadow twice a year, and a ball court a hundred and sixty-eight metres long.
Duration
2 hrs 30 min – 4 hrs
Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
El Castillo, the pyramid of Kukulcán, is a calendar in stone: four stairways of ninety-one steps plus the platform make three hundred and sixty-five, and the fifty-two panels on the faces match the years of the Maya cycle. At the equinoxes the shadow of the corners draws a serpent descending the northern stair.
The great ball court is a hundred and sixty-eight metres long, the largest in Mesoamerica, and its acoustics carry a whisper from end to end. A sacred cenote three hundred metres north yielded bones and gold offerings thrown from the rim: the city remained a pilgrimage centre long after its political decline.
Getting there
Two and a half hours by road from Cancún. Direct ADO buses in the morning from the downtown terminal, or by car on the toll road.
What the price covers
two separate fees collected at the same desk — federal and Yucatán state — one of which is cash only; rates to be checked
Rules on site
El Castillo has been closed to climbing since 2006. The site has almost no shade and temperatures top forty degrees from April to August: go at opening or not at all. Vendors line every path.
