Great Ball Court - The Biggest Game in Town

Photo: edenpictures, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Chichen Itza Self-Guided Tour, a free self-guided tour.

Step into the long grassy alley and look up at the stone walls rising on either side. This is the largest and best-preserved ball court in ancient Mesoamerica, about 168 meters long and 70 meters wide, with walls 8 meters tall. High on each wall sits a carved stone ring decorated with intertwined feathered serpents.

The ballgame was played across Mexico and Central America for thousands of years. Players kept a heavy rubber ball in play with their hips rather than their hands, and sending it through a ring set this high must have been rare. The game was sport, spectacle and religious ritual all at once.

Along the base of the walls run sloping carved benches. One famous panel shows a kneeling player who has been beheaded, his blood drawn as wriggling snakes. Scholars read it as a ritual and mythic scene; how often real games ended in death is simply not known.

Try speaking at a normal volume toward a friend at the far end and notice how well sound carries.

Getting here: From the entrance, follow the main path north-east toward the open plaza; the ball court's long walls appear on your left.

Did you know?: Each of the two side platforms is about 95 meters long - roughly the length of a soccer field.

Photo op: Stand in the middle of the alley and frame one stone ring against the sky, with the long wall running away beside it.

More on Wikipedia: Mesoamerican ballgame · Chichen Itza · Mesoamerica

Great Ball Court - The Biggest Game in Town

Stops on this tour