Chichen Itza is an ancient city founded by the Mayans in the 6th century. The Chichen Itza pyramids are one of the most visited places in the Yucatan. The very name Chichen Itza from the Mayan language translates as “well of the Maya”, because of the fact that on the territory of the ancient city there are 13 cenotes (natural wells). One of them, the Sacred Cenote, served as a sacrifice to the Rain God.
Chichen Itza MexicoThe ancient city and pyramids of Chichen Itza is located on the Yucatan Peninsula, 205 km from the famous resort of Cancun and 120 km from Mérida. Chichen Itza is one of the most popular and most visited attractions on the Yucatan Peninsula. Almost all tourists who came on vacation in Mexico, in Cancun, consider it their duty to visit the archaeological complex of Chichen Itza, so there are always a lot of people here. It is desirable to arrive at the opening, then there is a chance to walk around the complex alone
How to get to the pyramids of Chichen Itza, Mexico
By bus. From Cancun, from Mérida there are buses of the company ADO. The cost of a ticket Cancun – Chichen Itza 80 – 140 pesos (depending on the class of bus). Travel time is 3-4 hours. The cost of the ticket Mérida – Chichen Itza 50-80 pesos, travel time 1.45 – 2.5 hours. You can buy an organized excursion to Chichen Itza, group or individual. The excursion can be booked at any hotel or arranged in advance with an individual guide.
By rental car. In my opinion, this is the best way to get to Chichen Itza. On the way you can see other sights.
Mode of operation and cost of visiting the archaeological complex of Chichen Itza
The Chichen Itza complex is open to the public from 8:00 to 17:00. The evening light show takes place at 19:00 in winter and at 20:00 in summer.
Chichen Itza ticket cost: a ticket to Chichen Itza consists of two parts – a 125 peso ticket and a 57 peso ticket, totaling 182 pesos ($14.5). These are the most expensive pyramids we’ve been to in Mexico Parking near Chichen Itza is also paid – 22 pesos (just under $2).
We knew that we should come to Chichen Itza as early as possible, so we left the hotel in Cancun at 6:30 am! We drove to Chichen Itza on the toll road to save time. Passage, on the toll road Cancun – Chichen Itza is not cheap: we paid twice, the first time 251 pesos, the second time 61 pesos, a total of 312 pesos (almost 25 dollars!!!)…. and for what? For a little less than 200 kilometers of travel. These 200 km we traveled for 3 hours, I do not know how people manage to pass them in 2 hours? We didn’t break any rules, we didn’t exceed the speed limit, we stopped once at a gas station for 5 minutes.
We arrived at the entrance to the archaeological complex of Chichen Itza at 9:30 am. There were already cars of independent travelers in the parking lot, but not as many as I thought. We bought tickets, immediately the guides started pestering us, but of course we refused them. At the entrance to the complex there is a toilet (free), souvenir stores, cafes.
The first thing that catches your eye when entering the archaeological zone is the main attraction of Chichen Itza – the pyramid of Kukulkan (or El Castillo, translated from Spanish as “the castle”).
This nine-tiered pyramid, 24 meters high, on top of which there is a temple where sacrifices were performed. The pyramid of Kukulkan is symmetrical, has four staircases. And each staircase consists of 91 steps. If quantity of steps 91 multiply on quantity of ladders 4 and add one (the top platform), we receive number 365 – number of days in a year!
The pyramid of Kukulkan is also known as the pyramid of the Feathered Serpent. Every year, in days of equinoxes, March 20 and September 21 to the pyramid of Kukulkan a lot of people come to look at one very interesting phenomenon: approximately at 3 o’clock in the afternoon the sun illuminates the main staircase of a pyramid so that shadows – triangles together similar to a tail of a snake are formed, in process of movement of the sun triangles go out and form the effect of a snake crawling down.
By the way, you can watch this spectacle at the evening light show.
We walk a little further and get to the Temple of Warriors, in front of which are a number of columns depicting Toltec warriors.
Group of a thousand columns
In general, in this part of the archaeological area of Chichen Itza is quite crowded and quiet. And the sun does not bake, it is pleasant to walk or rest under the crown of trees. Attracts the attention of the field for playing ball. It is one of the largest fields on the territory of the complex, its length is 166 meters, width is 68 meters, height of the walls is 12m. At a height of 8m stone rings are fixed. Mayan Indians played ball here. The game was called “pot-ta-pok”, they played with a rubber ball, which weighed about 4 kg and it could be beaten only with the hip. It is assumed that the game ended with a sacrifice.
On the pyramid of Kukulkan and on other ruins it is impossible to climb. They say, earlier it was possible to rise on a pyramid, but then this business forbade. Either someone fell from the pyramid, or they are just afraid that the pyramid will spoil and collapse…That’s why the walk around the complex of Chichen Itza took us not so much time – only two hours. When we headed for the exit, about 11:30, crowds of tourists began to pull up in front of us.
Local vendors have already set up their stalls with souvenirs. By the way, you can buy souvenirs here not expensive. Much cheaper than in Cancun. Here they sell a lot of interesting masks, which we did not meet anywhere else during our further traveling in Mexico. Later we regretted that we did not buy anything from souvenirs near Chichen Itza. If you need souvenirs – buy them here and be sure to bargain!
Souvenirs in Chichen Itza are for all tastes and cheaper than in Cancun
You can spend the night near the Chichen Itza complex in one of the hotels. Choose to your taste and enjoy your vacation. At the same time you can visit the archaeological complex of Chichen Itza twice: during the day to see the sights, and in the evening come to see the evening light and music show, for which you do not need to buy a separate ticket, the cost is already included in the day tickets.
Super 5 star hotels:
- Hacienda Chichen Resort and Yaxkin Spa (5 stars)
- Mayaland Hotel & Bungalows (5 stars)
- The Lodge at Chichen Itza (5 stars)
And two simpler hotels (3 stars):
- Hotel Dolores Alba Chichen Itza
- Hotel Chichen Itza
We did not spend the night near the pyramids of Chichen Itza, and went on, ahead of us was waiting for an interesting busy program, so subscribe to the newsletter of the site to be notified about new articles in the blog!
