Perhaps the greatest of the Mayan cities was Chichen Itza (chee-CHEN eet-SAH), built around a number of cenotes (si-NO-tees), or deep natural water holes. Chichen Itza had impressive pyramids, an advanced observatory, a school for the training of male and female priests, and a 545-foot long ceremonial ball court—the largest in the Americas. Each of these structures served a religious purpose.
The pyramids, huge flat-topped structures, were in many cases as impressive as their counterparts in ancient Egypt, and in some regards even more remarkable. Archaeologists have discovered that Mayan pyramids were designed so as to transmit voices perfectly from the summit to the plaza below. Atop other types of temple structures, Mayan builders attached roof combs, which made the building seem to touch the sky. These were perforated in such a way as to catch the wind, making eery sounds that the Maya equated with the voices of the gods. Typically a pyramid included long series of steps on each side, and on the days of religious festivals—with some 160 gods, there were plenty of these—priests would ascend the stairs in view of the populace below.
What the spectators witnessed was not always pretty: the Maya practiced human sacrifice, and often presented captured enemy warriors to appease the gods. The victim would be held down on an altar, and a priest would slit his chest under the rib cage and tear out the heart. The Maya also practiced ritual torture, and sometimes drowned victims in cenotes to plead with the rain god for water.
The Maya also used a ball game, which they called pok-a-tok, as a form of worship. Sharing aspects with the modern games of tennis, volleyball, and even basketball, the ball game had taken different forms and names at various places and times in Mesoamerica's history. In its Mayan incarnation, it involved a set of rings through which the ball had to pass. These rings were said to represent the movement of the planets through the heavens. Just as sports were inseparable from religion, so was astronomy—hence the religious significance of the observatory.
World History
