Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza (pronounced /titn its/1 from Yucatec Maya Chichen itsha,2 at the mouth of the well of the Itza) is a large pre-Columbian archaeological site built by the Maya civilization located in the northern center of the Yucatn Peninsula, in the Yucatn state, present-day Mexico.Chichen Itza was a study focal point in the northern Maya lowlands from the Late Classicthrough the Terminal Classic and into the early portion of the Early Postclassic period. The site exhibits a multitude of architectural styles, from what is called Mexicanized and resonant of styles seen in central Mexico to the Puuc style found among the Puuc Maya of the northern lowlands. The presence of central Mexican styles was once thought to have been representative of direct migration or as yet conquest from central Mexico, but most contemporary interpretations view the presence of these non-Maya styles more as the result of cultural diffusion.The ruins of Chichen Itza are federal property, and the sites stewar dship is maintained by Mexicos Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia (National Institute of Anthropology and History, INAH). The land under the monuments had been privately-owned until March 29, 2010, when it was purchased by the state of Yucatan.3he Maya name Chichen Itza means At the mouth of the well of the Itza. This come ups fromchi, meaning mouth or edge, and cheen, meaning well. Itz is the name of an ethnic-lineage group that gained political and economic dominance of the northern peninsula. The name is believed to derive from the Maya itz, meaning magic, and (h), meaning water. Itz in Spanish is often translated as Brujas del Agua (Witches of Water) but a moNorthern Yucatn is arid, and the rivers in the interior all run underground. thither are two large, natural sink holes, called cenotes, that could have provided plentiful water year round at Chichen, making it attractive for settlement.Of the two cenotes, the Cenote Sagrado or consecrate Cenote(also variously kno wn as the Sacred Well or Well of Sacrifice), is the most famous. According to post-Conquest sources (Maya and Spanish), pre-Columbian Maya sacrificed objects and human beings into the cenote as a form of faith to the Maya rain god Chaac. Edward Herbert Thompson dredged the Cenote Sagrado from 1904 to 1910, and recovered artifacts of gold, jade,pottery, and incense, as well as human remains.7 A recent study of human remains taken from the Cenote Sagrado found that they had wounds conformable with human sacrifice.8