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Key Details
Type
Sacred SiteMythology
Mesoamerican Pantheon
Coordinates
20.6843°N, 88.5678°W
About This Location
Kukulkan's later city
Chichen Itza is a Maya-Toltec city on the northern Yucatan plain, with the Castillo pyramid, a large ballcourt, and a sacred cenote that received offerings. Spanish and Maya colonial books (Chilam Balam) remember Itza rule and Kukulkan. The equinox serpent-shadow is a modern observation about the stair, not a quoted Classic glyph. Popol Vuh is K'iche', not a Chichen charter. Treat the site as Postclassic power and water-ritual, not as Xibalba's door.
Primary Sources
“The Itza established themselves at Chichen. Kukulkan came, and the cenote received offerings.”
More from Mesoamerican Pantheon
Xibalba
UnderworldThe Maya underworld, 'Place of Fear,' ruled by the death lords One Death and Seven Death. Souls must pass through houses of darkness, knives, cold, jaguars, fire, and bats. The Hero Twins descended here to defeat death itself.
Tamoanchan
RealmThe Aztec paradise where the gods created humanity from the bones retrieved from Mictlan. A place of flowering trees and eternal spring, Tamoanchan represents the original state of creation before the current world age.
Tollan (Tula)
CityThe legendary Toltec capital associated with Quetzalcoatl as priest-king. A place of artistic and cultural perfection where corn grew in brilliant colors and cotton grew already dyed. Quetzalcoatl was tricked into disgrace here by Tezcatlipoca.
Aztlan
RealmThe mythical homeland of the Aztec people, 'Place of Whiteness' or 'Place of Herons.' From this island city, the Mexica began their long migration south, guided by Huitzilopochtli, until they found the eagle on the cactus that marked Tenochtitlan.
Coatepec (Serpent Mountain)
Sacred SiteThe mythical mountain where Huitzilopochtli was born fully armed to defeat his sister Coyolxauhqui and four hundred brothers. The Templo Mayor of Tenochtitlan was a recreation of this sacred mountain.
Teotihuacan
Sacred SiteThe 'Place Where Gods Are Made,' site of the Fifth Sun's creation. Here the gods gathered in darkness, and Nanahuatzin sacrificed himself in fire to become the sun. The Pyramid of the Sun and Pyramid of the Moon mark this sacred ground.