The rise and fall of the Maya Empire’s most powerful city - Geoffrey E. Braswell
During an important calendrical
celebration in 889 CE,
Lord K’ak’ Upakal may have sat
atop his ornate palace
and observed the bustling hub
he’d helped Chichen Itza become.
The Maya city’s golden age would outlast
K’ak’ Upakal’s own life,
but he couldn’t have known
the crises that lay ahead.
A century before, warfare and failing
agriculture forced Maya people
to abandon numerous
Central American settlements.
This shifted the center
of their civilization north,
to hotter, drier Yucatan.
During the early 800s,
cities like Chichen Itza, Izamal,
and Uxmal expanded.
But Yucatan presented its own challenges.
Surface water was scarce
and the region’s limestone bedrock
rapidly absorbed rain.
This forced many Yucatecan cities
to collect rainwater in cisterns.
But the land surrounding Chichen Itza
is pocked with sinkholes,
where collapsed bedrock reveals an
abundant supply of fresh groundwater.
Because of this freshwater access, when
drought seized Yucatan in the early 900s,
Chichen Itza survived to become
the most powerful Maya city.
People immigrated from hundreds
of kilometers away,
and, at its height, Chichen Itza’s
population possibly reached 50,000.
The city came to reflect a diverse
international culture
in all spheres of life.
Its challenge then became sustaining
a large population
in an unpredictable environment.
During the 10th century,
following K’ak’ Upakal’s death,
Chichen Itza’s government shifted
from a focus solely on the king
to a more flexible system
that also included ruling councils
of the city’s elite.
Unlike traditional Maya kings,
who reinforced their legitimacy with
destructive wars and costly monuments,
the new rulers focused largely
on economic growth.
They channeled the city’s military might
into establishing long-distance trade
and political dominance.
Merchant-warriors traveled from
coastal ports and captured valuable goods.
Using obsidian, gold, copper,
turquoise, and jade
from various parts
of Central and North America,
Chichen Itza’s inhabitants crafted
sharp tools and precious ornaments.
They traded food, textiles, feathers,
minerals, and metals,
sometimes using cacao beans as currency.
And they transported seafood
from the coast
to supplement the city’s locally grown
staple crops.
Farming was essential
to Chichen Itza’s survival.
The city’s architecture and religious
practices reflected this importance
by keeping track of time,
the transit of celestial bodies,
and agricultural cycles.
As the city grew, its citizens built
a vast platform
to support new temples, pyramids, altars,
ballcourts, and colonnades.
Builders carefully aligned a round temple
to mark solstices, equinoxes,
and the passing of the planet Venus,
an avatar of K’uk’ulkan,
the feathered serpent god.
K’uk’ulkan became Chichen Itza’s
central deity,
and his worship transformed the city
into a center of religious pilgrimage.
Architects designed a stepped pyramid
and temple dedicated to K’uk’ulkan
that towers 30 meters high,
and features four stairs
with a total of 365 steps,
each representing a day in the solar year.
It’s oriented so that,
around each equinox,
the setting sun creates snake-like shadows
that slither down the balustrades,
evoking the serpent god.
Several buildings feature representations
of Flower Mountain,
the sacred paradise realm inhabited
by gods and ancestors.
And rulers from far and wide
were inaugurated
at Chichen Itza’s Great Ballcourt
under the auspices of K’uk’ulkan
and in the presence
of thousands of spectators.
However, Chichen Itza’s
golden age wouldn’t last forever.
Around 1020 CE, an intense drought hit
and lasted nearly a century.
In an effort to end the disaster,
people made offerings to rain deities
in nearby caves and sinkholes,
which were seen as entrances to the
watery underworld realm of the gods.
Despite Chichen Itza’s natural advantages
and the ingenuity of its people,
the city couldn't support itself
through this extended drought.
Population plummeted
during the 11th century,
and many people resettled on the coast.
At the end of the drought,
the new city of Mayapan emerged
and replaced Chichen Itza
as the principal city of Yucatan.
Yet, Chichen Itza was never fully
abandoned or forgotten.
When the Spanish arrived centuries later,
it was still a small, local capital
of a Maya province.
Chichen Itza’s original name
was preserved,
and its ancient stone constructions
were still standing,
as they do to this day.
