CHICHEN-I:'ZA or CHICHEN, the ruins of an ancient Mayan city of that name, in the south-central part of the State of Yucatan, Mexico, near the boundary of Quintana Roo, about 20° 3o' N. lat. and 88° 3o' W. longitude. The dry, waterless region round about Chichen-Itza is of limestone formation, with only an underground water supply, available in but a few places called cenotes by the Mayans, where the limestone cap has fallen into the caves through which the water flows. Two large cenotes de termined the location of the city and gave it its distinctive name, Chi, which in Mayan means mouths, then, wells, and Itza the name of the particular Mayan tribe or group which first settled there, the whole meaning the "Mouths of the Wells of the Itza." Founded not later than A.D. 530, the settlement for about the first century constituted but a frontier post of a Mayan civilization, "The Old Empire," which at that time was flourishing in the much greater centres to the southward—Copan, Tikal, Quiriqua, Palen que and a dozen other equally important cities. When about a century later these great flourishing southern cities were finally abandoned, Chichen-Itza was also temporarily abandoned, A.D. 668, and the Itza trekked westward across Yucatan to a new capital, Chakanputun, south of the modern Campeche. Chakanputun was burned in A.D. 944 and the "Holy Men of the Itza" led their people back to the "Mouths of the Wells of the Itza" where, in A.D. 964 they re-established their tares and penates and rebuilt their shrines and altars.
It was the period of the founding of "The New Empire" with Uxmal, Mayapan, and a group of satellite cities, sharing with Chichen-Itza a superb renaissance of Mayan culture and power. In A.D. 1004 the three greater cities formed an alliance, the League of Mayapan, and the calm and order and prosperity that followed gave rise to a golden age of Mayan religion, science and art, with majestic temples and superb sculptures scattered about the land. At Chichen most of the middle section of the city lying south and west of the Thousand Columns, was built at this time, graced by the Akab'tzib (House of the Dark Writing), the Chichanchob (Red House), the House of the Deer, and parts of the Monjas (Monastery).
In 1201 the League of Mayapan was disrupted by an attack of the Mayapan people upon the Chichen-Itza because of conspiracies against the League by Chac Xib Chac (The Very Red Man), the Itzan ruler. With the aid of Toltec and Aztec allies from Central Mexico the Mayapan people conquered the Itzans. Henceforth the city was held in thrall by the Toltec-Aztec allies of the Maya pan group. These Toltec-Aztec conquerors brought with them the worship of the fair, golden-haired god, Quetzalcoatl, the "Feath ered Serpent," who became "Kukulcan," the Itzan equiva lent. During this period Chichen-Itza rose to heights of pros perity, prominence and architectural development surpassing anything in its earlier history, and highly adorned temples, sanc tuaries and shrines rose as if by magic ; the principal temple, the so-called Castillo, covering an acre of ground and rising 1 oo ft. above the plain ; the Thousand Columns enclosing a central plaza of more than 5 ac. with pyramid temples, colonnaded halls, sunken courts, terraces and theatres; the Tlachtli-ground or Ball Court; the Temple of the Jaguars; the Temple of the Tables; the Astro nomical Observatory; the High Priest's grave ; and a host of others.
The two cenotes, or wells, upon which the city depended for its very life, constituted the religious, as well as the economic, centre of the city and its culture. Young Itzan maidens were sacrificed to the gods of the wells, as were all kinds of valuables, in grue some spectacles that drew thousands to share in the ceremonies and the rites, and gave to the city its "holy" character, The natural setting of the wells, the grandeur of the temples built beside them, the austerity and dignity of the rites, all contributed to the lure, and made Chichen-Itza the Mecca of the Mayan world for almost two and one-half centuries until in 1884 when it was rather suddenly and finally abandoned, only a few stragglers making their homes there and doing homage to the old gods.
See S. Griswold Morley, "Chichen-Itza, An Ancient American Mecca," National Geographic Magazine, vol. xlvii., No. pp. 63-95 (Jan. 1925). (W. E. E.)