Chichen Itza is located east of Merida, 120 kilometers along the Highway No. 180 to Valladolid and Cancun. It can be easily accessed by bus or rented car from anywhere in the Yucatan Peninsula. If you are planning to drive a rented car I would strongly recommend using the toll free (or libre) part of the Hwy. No. 180.

Organized tours are recommended by the tour operators but are expensive. Guides rush and do not show everything you might like to see. Personally , again, I would recommend going on your own with a good guide book and allow for plenty of time to wander around this spectacular site.

Chichen Itza is the first sign of settlement going back to around 432 AD. It was then abandoned for unknown reasons, and rediscovered around 964 AD. Mayan speaking Itza developed this place and again abandoned it around 1224 AD. You can notice strong signs of Toltec influence.

About both here and at Uxmal I have heard asked : What happened to the Mayan knowledge? To answer this question I would use my own interpretation: Society is divided by different levels of influence, restricted access to education, and privileges can not exist and function normally for a long time. The so called "upper classes" with knowledge can easily be eliminated by an enemy or social unrest. The rest of the society is then left in darkness because the privileged classes are gone. This was exactly what happened in the Mayan society.

I hope that my two part Chichen Itza presentation can be used by you as a tool for planning your future visit to this amazing place.

The rest is for you to explore this magnificent place with the bloody past.

Continuation on Chichen Itza, Part 2.

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