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lang: en
type: TouristAttraction
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title: Chichen Itza
description: The holy Mayan civic center featuring the monumental step-pyramid temple of El Castillo.
llms_summary: "Chichen Itza. (Piste, Yucatán, Mexico). TouristAttraction. Annual Visitors 2.5 million. Buffer Zone 0 ha. Category Type Cultural. Conservation Status Active Monitoring. Epoch Origin Late Classic Maya (8th C. CE). Latitude 20.68 °. Longitude -88.57 °. Primary Material Limestone Ashlar Blocks. Property Area 300 ha. UNESCO ID 483. Year Inscribed 1988. Best for archaeo-astronomers, Mesoamerican historians, and structural stone analysts.  The holy Mayan civic center featuring the monumental step-pyramid temple of El Castillo.  canonical profile on Chrisyst Datasets"
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slug: chichen-itza
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indexed_at: "2026-07-16T13:15:13.715Z"
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    slug: chichen-itza
    name: Chichen Itza
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---
# Chichen Itza

The holy Mayan civic center featuring the monumental step-pyramid temple of El Castillo.

## Record

- **Title**: [Chichen Itza](https://datasets.chrisyst.com/chichen-itza/index.md)
- **Geo target**: Piste, Yucatán, Mexico
- **Website**: https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/483
- **Address**: Yucatán Highway 180, Piste, Yucatán, 97751, Mexico
- **Coordinates**: 20.6843, -88.5678

### Summary

The holy Mayan civic center featuring the monumental step-pyramid temple of El Castillo.

### Description

## Triumph of Mesoamerican Astronomy

Chichen Itza stands as an elite monument of Maya-Toltec architectural fusion, showcasing profound astronomical knowledge and engineering prowess. The site's most iconic structure, El Castillo (Temple of Kukulkan), is a 30-meter (98-foot) tall step-pyramid with 9 terraces and four stairways, each containing 91 steps, totaling 364 steps. Including the platform at the top, this sums to 365, representing the days of the solar year. During the spring and autumn equinoxes, the sun's shadow creates the illusion of a serpent descending the northern staircase, culminating in a stone serpent head at its base, a testament to the ancient Maya's precise understanding of celestial mechanics.

Beyond El Castillo, the site encompasses the largest Mesoamerican ballcourt, measuring 168 meters (551 feet) long and 70 meters (230 feet) wide, where ritualistic games were played. The circular observatory, El Caracol, is a unique structure in Maya architecture, featuring a spiral staircase and precisely aligned windows used to track celestial events, particularly the movements of Venus. The Temple of the Warriors, with its hundreds of carved columns and a Chac Mool statue, further exemplifies the blend of Maya and Toltec artistic and religious traditions, solidifying Chichen Itza's status as a pivotal cultural and historical landmark.

### Attributes

- **Annual Visitors**: 2.5 million _(quality 85)_
- **Buffer Zone**: 0 ha _(quality 10)_
- **Category Type**: Cultural
- **Conservation Status**: Active Monitoring
- **Epoch Origin**: Late Classic Maya (8th C. CE)
- **Latitude**: 20.68 ° _(quality 50)_
- **Longitude**: -88.57 ° _(quality 50)_
- **Primary Material**: Limestone Ashlar Blocks
- **Property Area**: 300 ha _(quality 75)_
- **UNESCO ID**: 483
- **Year Inscribed**: 1988 _(quality 96)_