Structures Found at Chichen Itza

Chichen Itza was composed of nearly 50 different structures. These were anything from the great temple of Kukulcan or "El Castillo," which stands nearly 100 feet tall. There is also a ball court that is 545 feel long, from end to end, and is shrouded in mystery. Let's look at those, along with other structures in the city with more detail.

Kukulcan
Standing nearly 100 feet tall, this is the most prominent feature of the city. This is also the most sought after tourist destination of Chichen Itza. It is a four sided pyramid that resembles the Egyptian Pyramids with the exception that the sides of the pyramid have more of a terraced structure and each of the four sides have a staircase that leads to the top, where a room sits at the top. This room was a throne for the God Kukulcan. Kukulcan is the Mayan's feathered serpent god. Another amazing aspect of the pyramid is that the Mayan's were ingenious enough to be able to build the pyramid to be a representation of the Mayan Calendar. This is how they did it. Each of the sides has nine steps, which is intersected by the staircase, which creates a total of 18 steps and that matches the 18 months in the Mayan Calendar. Each of the staircases has 91 steps, which adds up to 364 steps total, the number of days in their year. Every year on the spring and fall equinox, Kukulcan is said to return. He does this by the sun lighting up the 9 sections of the serpentine figure on the front of the pyramid. Scientists are still dumbfounded as to how they knew about the equinoxes and how they knew about other astronomical events.(Maybe Extra Terrestrial intervention?) The video link below shows the return of Kukulcan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAwzfSqMNk4

El Caracol(observatory)

El Caracol is an ancient observatory that is located at Chichen Itza. This observatory served the purpose of helping the Mayans record important astronomical events. They were able to track equinoxes, eclipses, and solstices. One of the most amazing features of the observatory was that they could track the planet Venus. The reason for them wanting to track venus was so that they could record longer intervals in the Earth's orbit. They also wanted to track Venus because the planet held an important religious meaning to them.

Plaza de Mil Columnas(Plaza of One Thousand Columns)
The Plaza of One Thousand Columns is perhaps one of the most bizarre features of Chichen Itza. In the day that the Mayan's inhabited it, it may have not been as bizarre, but today it is. The reason is because columns, when they were first built, supported an extensive roof system. This structure was housing for soldiers that was in front of the Warrior Temple.

Ball Courts

Yes, the Mayans enjoyed a little contact sport watching as much as you and I, with one contrast to today's sports. In Chichen Itza, there was a little more at stake. By a little, I mean a lot! The young men who played this "game" were in a battle between life and death! Not getting a bonus if you win a game! There are three ball courts located on Chichen Itza's grounds. The biggest ball court, which is 345 feet long, isn't though to have been used. It was used more or less to show their power. The other two ball courts were very real. It isn't known how many times they played the game or when they played the game, but what we do know is that this game was very rough, and lots of blood was spilled. The rubber balls were to weigh a minimum of 12 pounds and the stone hoops on the sides of the courts weren't much bigger than the ball, so the game was difficult. Some other rules that were found in ancient writings were that the players could not use their hands or feet, they had to bounce the ball off of their head and body. OUCH!!! Now, about those sacrifices. Some historians believe that the game was played one on one, others believe that it is a team sport. Either way, the games weren't always life or death. But, when they were the player or players that lost the game, also lost their lives. When they sacrificed their player or players, they would then throw the head or whole body into the sacrificial Cenote. This is a giant fresh water filled hole in the ground with steep walls, so if you fell in, you're not getting out. The middle photo is of the biggest ball court in Chichen Itza, and the bottom is a photo from the bottom of a Cenote, not necessarily the cenotes found at Chichen Itza. 

I only highlighted a few of the structures that are found in the city of Chichen Itza. A more complete listing and description of the structures found there can be found at: http://archive.cyark.org/chichen-itza-info