Chichen Itza Citation The picture above is an imagined panorama of Chichen Itza by Dr. W. H. Holmes. The view is looking north. The reason this view is imagined because at no point, from any of the ruins in Chichen Itza, is it possible to view all of the ruins. A major reason for the existance of this city is the natural wells, called Cenotes. Cenotes are caused by erosions of the underlying limestone of the Yucatan peninsula. Two of these cenotes are almost 200 feet across, and have depths anywhere from 100 to 150 feet, and are almost perfectly round. In fact, Chichen Itza takes it's name from the Mayan words Chi (mouth) and Chen (well), and literally translates to Mouth of the Well of the Tribe of Itza. These Cenotes were also used to conduct sacrifices and other religious rituals, which makes them important archaeological resources. For an overview of the Chichen Itza complex, click here. This site is maintained by Ryan Cohagan at Creighton University. Please feel free to visit our course syllabus. My e-mail address is cohagan@creighton.edu I would appreciate some feedback. Created: November 10, 2001 Updated: December 12, 2001