Temple of the Warriors - A Tula Look-Alike
Photo: Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China, CC0 (cropped)
A stop on Chichen Itza Self-Guided Tour, a free self-guided tour.
Rising in front of you is a stepped pyramid fronted by rows of square stone columns, each carved with warriors in full regalia. At the top of the stairway, a reclining figure called a Chac Mool rests on its elbows, holding a dish on its stomach, possibly for offerings. The Carnegie Institution excavated and restored the temple from 1925 to 1928 and found an older building, the Temple of the Chac Mool, buried inside.
This temple sits at the heart of a long debate. It closely resembles Temple B at Tula, a city in central Mexico far to the west. Earlier scholars read the likeness as proof that Toltec invaders conquered Chichen Itza. Most today see it instead as a sign of trade, travel and a shared international style, and they still argue over which city influenced which.
Look closely at the warrior columns: each figure is a little different, with its own headdress and gear.
Getting here: Walk back south along the causeway, then bear left (east) across the plaza to the colonnade at the foot of this pyramid.
Did you know?: Chac Mool is not an ancient name: it was coined in 1875 by the explorer Augustus Le Plongeon, and archaeologists still use it today.
Photo op: Stand back on the plaza and frame the forest of warrior columns with the temple stairway rising behind them.
Stops on this tour
- Main Entrance - Gateway to a Maya City
- Great Ball Court - The Biggest Game in Town
- Temple of the Jaguars - Best Seat at the Game
- Tzompantli - The Wall of Skulls
- Platform of Venus - Tracking the Morning Star
- Sacred Cenote - The Well of Offerings
- Temple of the Warriors - A Tula Look-Alike
- Group of a Thousand Columns - A Forest of Stone
- El Castillo - The Pyramid of Kukulcan
- The Ossuary - High Priest's Grave
- El Caracol - The Maya Observatory
- Las Monjas - The Palace They Called a Convent