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.