Chichen Itza Trivia Quiz

Answer: All of these

Chichen Itza is a complex constructed by the Mayan people and was in existence from 750 AD. Mayan kings are thought to have ruled the settlement there and were interesting in themselves in that they flattened their foreheads from birth and babies were trained to have crossed eyes.

The Maya also pierced their ears and had gems inlaid in their teeth. They would have had an otherworldly appearance.

Answer: A sacrificial pool

Chichen Itza was built near the Cenote Sagrado, one of two cenotes or natural sinkholes that are found there. Dredging of the Cenote Sagrado yielded artifacts and human remains with wounds in keeping with ritual sacrifice. Chichen Itza when translated means "At the mouth of the well at Itza".

In the Yucatan, rivers run underground and the cenotes were thought to be entrances to the underworld.

Answer: Sacbe

The roads interconnecting communities were called sacbe (plural scabeob). Literally translated this means 'white roads'. There are myriad sacbeob at the Chichen Itza site connecting the building in the complex with each other.

Answer: El Castillo

El Castillo is the central pyramid at Chichen Itza and was dedicated to the god Kukulkan, the feathered serpent. It is 98 feet high and consists of nine terraces with a temple at the top. Four steep stair cases ascend to the top. Like other Mayan temples, this temple was built on another temple.

At the spring and autumn equinoxes, a serpant can be seen descending the temple in the shadows cast by the pyramid on the stair case.

Answer: Thirteen

There are thirteen ball courts found at Chichen Itza with the largest being near El Castillo. The game was played with a rubber ball which was bounced off various parts of the body, but not the hands. The object was to get the ball through a circular disc set high on the walls of the ball court. Losers were sacrificed. Ollamaliztli or Ulama as it was called in Spanish, is still played by the indigenous people. Scenes of sacrifice are noted on the walls of the largest ball court at Chichen Itza.

Answer: The call of a sacred bird

When you clap your hands near the pyramid, you will hear an echo that sounds like a chirp. That chirp sounds like the call of the Mayan sacred bird, the Quetzal. Furthermore, if you enter the ball court near the pyramid, the acoustics are magnificent. The walls of the ball court are especially designed to magnify sound. The guides are particularly pleased to show you the effects.

Answer: It is an observatory

El Caracol, as the round building is known, functioned as an observatory. The Mayans revered Venus. Sight lines for the transits of Venus and many other astronomical events can be found in the walls of El Caracol. Unfortunately part of the rotunda has fallen away and some of the sight lines have been lost.

Answer: A U.S. Consul

In 1894, Edward Herbert Thompson, the U.S. Consul to the Yucatan bought the Chichen Itza site. He explored it for the next thirty years. It was he who dredged the sacred cenote with an apparatus that one can still see and touch near the gift shop at the site. Artifacts were sent to the Peabody Museum at Harvard University.

The Mexican government charged him with theft in 1926 but he was later exonerated.

Answer: The Spanish were driven out

In 1534, Spanish invaders led by Francisco Montejo the Younger, were driven from their camp at Chichen Itza. However, the Spanish returned with a large army and conquered the Yucatan, turning the area around Chichen Itza into a ranch. There had not been much success in evicting the conquerers in other areas and the locals are still proud of that fact.

Answer: One of the new seven wonders of the world

Cichen Itza was chosen as one of the "New7Wonders of the World" from 200 existing monuments by the New7Wonders Foundation. Included in the seven wonders were the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, Petra, Christ the Redeemer, Machu Picchu and the Roman Colosseum. The Pyramid of Giza was chosen as an alternate. I suppose this was in case the others were indisposed.