Chichén Itzá - One of the Seven Wonders of the World

Right at the beginning of our journey, one of the highlights awaited us. Chichén Itzá, the best-preserved and restored Mayan ruins. We were there early to avoid the many tour groups. But what does early mean? When we walked through the site at half past nine in the morning, the first vendors were just setting up their stalls. Generally, you won't encounter anyone before nine or nine-thirty.

But back to Chichén Itzá. You enter the archaeological site and immediately stand in front of the great and well-known pyramid. After taking what felt like a hundred photos, we continued through the Warrior Temple, to the cenotes, and many small pyramids.

In Chichén Itzá, you will also find the largest ball court ever discovered. The exact rules of this game are still not known, but it has been proven that the players had to throw the ball through a hoop. Stone reliefs around the field depict gruesome scenes. It seems that it was a tradition for the leader of the losing team to be beheaded and sacrificed to the gods at the end of the game.

In general, the Maya gods demanded many sacrifices, as evidenced by the large sacrificial tables with many skulls. Some researchers even believe that these sacrifices ultimately led to the downfall of the civilization. Why the Maya cities in Yucatan were abandoned before the arrival of the Spanish is still unknown.

We found Chichén Itzá simply impressive and wished we had a time machine.