File:Pyramid of Kukulkan Chichen Itza 2012 (8952118044).jpg
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[edit]DescriptionPyramid of Kukulkan Chichen Itza 2012 (8952118044).jpg |
El Castillo (Spanish for "the castle"), also known as the Temple of Kukulkan, is a Mesoamerican step-pyramid that dominates the center of the Chichen Itza archaeological site in the Mexican state of Yucatán. The building is more formally designated by archaeologists as Chichen Itza Structure 5B18. Built by the pre-Columbian Maya civilization sometime between the 9th and 12th centuries CE, El Castillo 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 pyramid consists of a series of square terraces with stairways up each of the four sides to the temple on top. Sculptures of plumed serpents run down the sides of the northern balustrade. During 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. Each of the pyramid's four sides has 91 steps which, when added together and including the temple platform on top as the final 'step', produces a total of 365 steps (which is equal to the number of days of the Haab' year).[1] The structure is 24 m high, plus an additional 6 m for the temple. The square base measures 55.3 m across. The Mexican government restored the pyramid in the 1920s and 1930s, concurrent with the Carnegie Institution’s restoration of the Temple of Warriors. Archaeologists were able to reconstruct two sides of the pyramid in their entirety. It was not uncommon for Mesoamerican pyramids to be successively built over the core and foundations of earlier structures, and this is one example. In the mid-1930s, the Mexican government sponsored an excavation into El Castillo. After several false starts, they discovered a staircase under the north side of the pyramid. By digging from the top, they found another temple buried below the current one. Inside the temple chamber is a Chac Mool statue and a throne in the shape of jaguar, painted red with spots made of inlaid jade. The Mexican government excavated a tunnel from the base of the north staircase, up the earlier pyramid’s stairway to the hidden temple.[2] In recent years, the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), which manages the archaeological site of Chichen Itza, have been closing monuments to public access. While visitors can walk around them, they can no longer climb them or go inside their chambers. Climbing El Castillo was stopped in 2006. At the same time INAH closed the public access to the interior throne room.[3] Today "El Castillo" is one of the most recognized and widely visited pre-Columbian structures in present-day Mexico |
Date | |
Source | Pyramid of Kukulkan Chichen Itza 2012 |
Author | Kirt Edblom from Albany, Oregon, United States |
Camera location | 20° 40′ 58.63″ N, 88° 34′ 07.41″ W ![]() | View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap | ![]() |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by Kirt Edblom at https://flickr.com/photos/27190564@N02/8952118044. It was reviewed on 14 January 2023 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. |
14 January 2023
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current | 01:03, 14 January 2023 | ![]() | 4,000 × 3,000 (3.93 MB) | Let me take you down, (be)cause… (talk | contribs) | Transferred from Flickr via #flickr2commons |
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Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Camera manufacturer | NIKON |
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Camera model | COOLPIX P5100 |
Exposure time | 5/434 sec (0.011520737327189) |
F-number | f/4 |
ISO speed rating | 64 |
Date and time of data generation | 22:33, 16 July 2012 |
Lens focal length | 8.5 mm |
Orientation | Normal |
Horizontal resolution | 300 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 300 dpi |
Software used | COOLPIX P5100V1.0 |
File change date and time | 22:33, 16 July 2012 |
Y and C positioning | Co-sited |
Exposure Program | Normal program |
Exif version | 2.2 |
Date and time of digitizing | 22:33, 16 July 2012 |
Meaning of each component |
|
Image compression mode | 4 |
APEX exposure bias | 0 |
Maximum land aperture | 2.9 APEX (f/2.73) |
Metering mode | Pattern |
Light source | Unknown |
Flash | Flash did not fire, compulsory flash suppression |
Supported Flashpix version | 1 |
Color space | sRGB |
File source | Digital still camera |
Scene type | A directly photographed image |
Custom image processing | Normal process |
Exposure mode | Auto exposure |
White balance | Auto white balance |
Digital zoom ratio | 0 |
Focal length in 35 mm film | 40 mm |
Scene capture type | Landscape |
Scene control | Low gain up |
Contrast | Normal |
Saturation | Normal |
Sharpness | Normal |
Subject distance range | Unknown |