After leaving Campeche we headed for Merida, and took a couple of days to acquaint ourselves with three spectacular Mayan ruins close(ish)by, namely Chichén Itzá, Uxmal and Kabah.
Chichén Itzá was the biggest site we visited. Just enormous (including the queues to buy an entrance ticket)!!! Listed as one of the seven wonders of the world by Unesco, has a celestial observatory and dozens of temples, buildings, remains of houses, as well as the largest ball game court in Mesoamerica. It's worth googling to understand more of its history - too much to share here!
Largest court in Mesoamerica for the infamous ball game
This is incredible... If you can't already guess from its shape, its a celestial observatory. Just like the ancient Egyptians, Mayans were brilliant with predicting celestial movements and constructing buildings in line with various moons, stars and planets.
Not sure of the year (early 1900s I think), but this hole was created with a dynamite blast by a French archeologist... Who wanted to prove what was inside the pyramid. Nice work.
Sacrificial altar (as if you can´t tell by the carved skulls), dominated these days by iguanas who find it a fabulous spot to bask in the sun
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