PYRAMID OF KUKULCÁN - EL CASTILLO
The main temple of Chichen and by far the best preserved and most spectacular
The pyramid of Kukulcán, commonly known as el castillo, the castle, is the main temple of Chichén and by far the best preserved and most spectacular. The pyramid of Kukulcán is actually made up of two superimposed temples: the Itzáes built the visible part of the Castillo on top of a much smaller Mayan pyramid. The whole has a square base of 55 meters on each side and 30 meters high, with a calendar vocation. It is related to the annual solar cycle of 365 days. Each side of the pyramid has 91 steps (some say there are only 90), which makes 364 steps. If you add the one at the entrance of the temple, you get 365 days. An extraordinary phenomenon happens at each equinox: the sun's rays come to illuminate the angular edges of the pyramid and project onto the northern staircase (which ends at the bottom with a sculpture of a snake's head) a snake's body that descends in a few hours along the temple. A singularity called the "descent of Kukulcán", the return of the feathered serpent God to the earth. This phenomenon can be observed, to a lesser extent, the week before and after the equinox. The observatory, El Caracol or Snail in Spanish, , similar in construction to the current observatories with its dome, is also a testimony to this astronomical knowledge. It allowed the Maya to study the movement of the stars, but also the planet Venus, attributed to the god Kukulcán.
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