El Castillo – The Temple of Kukulcan in Tinúm

The Temple, is a Mesoamerican step-pyramid that dominates the center of the Chichen Itza archaeological site. Built by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization sometime between the 8th and 12th centuries CE or AD, the Temple served as a temple to the god Kukulkan, the Yucatec Maya Feathered Serpent deity closely related to the god Quetzalcoatl known to the Aztecs and other central Mexican cultures of the Postclassic period.

**The Temple of Kukulcan before excavation, 1860 / Image: Wikipedia**

The pyramid consists of a series of square terraces with stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top. Each of the pyramid’s four sides has around 91 steps. The structure is 24 meter high, plus an additional 6 meter for the temple. The square base measures 55.3 meter across.

Around the spring and autumn equinoxes, the late afternoon sun strikes off the northwest corner of the pyramid and casts a series of triangular shadows against the northwest balustrade, creating the illusion of a feathered serpent “crawling” down the pyramid. The event has been very popular and is witnessed by thousands of visitors at the spring equinox.