Chichen Itza

        The site became known in 1843, when John Lloyd Stephens visited the Yucatan region, including several Mayan cities and reported about his travel in the “Incidents of Travel in Yucatan” book. The Chichen Itza historical site features plenty of beautiful stone buildings connected through a very developed network of paved roads. The most popular areas are the Great Ball Court, the Central Group and the Great North Platform, the latter containing probably the best known monument from the site, the El Castillo (Temple of Kukulkan).
        Located in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, Chichen Itza was founded in the 6th century (around 550 AD) by the Maya civilization, as a ceremonial center. The name is Mayan for “at the mouth of Itza’s well” and apparently comes from Itza, the name of an ethnic group very powerful at that time. For three centuries, the civilization and culture around Chichen Itza flourished, but in the 10th century the city was completely abandoned. There is still no explanation on why this happened but archaeologists discovered many Mayan cities being abandoned around this period. Around 1000 AD the Mayans returned to Chichen Itza, but the city started to decline and never reached its previous power, all ending in the 16th century, when it was conquered by the Spanish Conquistador Francisco de Montejo and transformed into a cattle farm by the Spanish government. Today, the Chichen Itza site is visited by more than 1.2 million visitors every year.



       
        How to get to Chichen Itza: It’s located near the highway between the province’s capital Merida and Cancun, so you can easily get there by car or by bus (the ticket’s around $15), on one-day trips from one of these two cities (Google Maps).