El Castillo Citation The above image is of the western face of El Castillo, or the Castle, probably the most well-known of any Mayan pyramid. It was erected around 1200 A.D. It is between 75 and 80 feet tall, covers 200 square feet at the base, and about 60 square feet at the top. The temple covers a great deal of the top of the pyramid, leaving only five feet on the west, south, and east sides and 10 to 12 feet on the north side. Note the great amount of vegetation on and decompostion of the pyramid. This is due to environment. Since it is so warm and moist, plants grow rather easily. Add to this the fact that some of the building materials used were wood which decomposes quite rapidly, and you can see how the pyramid would be in such a state of disrepair. Citation Above is a model of what El Castillo might have looked like just after it was completed. This model was made under the direction of Dr. W. H. Holmes by Delancy Gill, and was made for the U.S. National Museum, Washington, D.C. Citation As shown by the plan of the Great Pyramid,it has four sets of steps, which shows that the temple was used for human sacrifices. This, however, was not the only purpose for El Castillo. Recent evidence suggests that it is also a calendar. Every day of the year, the shadow of the temple would fall on a different step, 91 on the pyramid and 1 for the temple itself. This would allow for the inhabitants of the area to schedule the best time to plant their crops, using the sun and not just guessing. Back to Chichen Itza. 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