Chichen Itza is a ruined Maya city in the north of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula and one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.
UNESCO calls Chichen Itza the most important surviving example of Maya-Toltec civilisation, the period when Maya builders took up styles from central Mexico. The Chichen Itza site lies between Mérida and Cancún, within a day trip of the Cancún and Riviera Maya resorts.
Chichen Itza is in the state of Yucatán, Mexico, 2 km (1.2 mi) from the village of Pisté.
The ruins lie 115 km (71 mi) east of Mérida, 45 km (28 mi) west of Valladolid and 188 km (117 mi) west of Cancún, which is in the neighbouring state of Quintana Roo.
The following routes reach Chichen Itza.
To get to Chichen Itza from Cancún, drive west on the 180D toll road, which costs MXN 427 per car each way. The free Highway 180 runs beside the toll road and adds about 45 minutes.
ADO's direct bus runs on Sundays only, so on other days take a bus to Valladolid and a colectivo from there.
To get to Chichen Itza from Tulum, drive north-west on Highway 180, 150 km (93 mi) in a little over 2 hours with no tolls.
ADO runs one morning bus from Tulum, returning at 4pm.
Halfway along the road, both bus and car pass Cobá, a ruined city of the same Maya civilisation that built Chichen Itza.
The first Chichen Itza was a Maya town in the Puuc style of northern Yucatán. Estimates of Chichen Itza's population at its height run from 35,000 (Britannica) to 50,000 (INAH).
Chichen Itza was built between about 550 and 1200 AD, according to archaeologists. But Maya chronicles written down after the Spanish conquest put the founding of Chichen Itza earlier, between 415 and 455 AD.
The earliest date carved on a building at Chichen Itza is 30 July 878 AD, on a lintel in the Serie Inicial group of buildings.
The large buildings at the centre of Chichen Itza, including El Castillo and the Temple of the Warriors, date from the Early Postclassic period, 900 to 1200 AD.
The Maya built Chichen Itza. The Itzá, a Maya people who ruled the northern Yucatán Peninsula between the 6th and 9th centuries, gave Chichen Itza its name.
In the 10th century, invaders built El Castillo, the Great Ball Court and the colonnades in the style of Tula, the Toltec capital in central Mexico. Archaeologists once took the Tula-style buildings as proof of a Toltec conquest. Most archaeologists now think Maya builders under strong Toltec influence put up the Tula-style buildings.
The Maya founded Chichen Itza for its two large cenotes, natural sinkholes that held the only water in the area. From 987 to 1200 AD, Chichen Itza was the religious, military, political, and trading capital of northern Yucatán.
Chichen Itza was abandoned after Mayapán, a rival city, took over as the ruling power of the peninsula. The Maya stopped putting up major buildings at Chichen Itza after the 13th century. By about 1440 AD, Chichen Itza was empty.
Chichen Itza was first described to the outside world by the American writer John Lloyd Stephens and the English artist Frederick Catherwood, who visited in 1841 and 1842. Stephens's book Incidents of Travel in Yucatan came out in 1843.
In the 1890s, the American Edward H. Thompson bought the hacienda that contained the ruins. From 1904 to about 1910, Thompson dredged the Sacred Cenote and shipped the finds to Harvard's Peabody Museum. The Carnegie Institution of Washington excavated and restored the main buildings of Chichen Itza from 1924 to 1935.
Private owners kept the land until 2010, when Yucatán state bought about 80 hectares (198 acres) around the ruins for MXN 220 million. INAH, Mexico's federal institute for archaeology, manages the ruins that visitors see at Chichen Itza today.
The main buildings of Chichen Itza, El Castillo, the Great Ball Court and the Temple of the Warriors, stand around the main plaza near the entrance. The older buildings of the first town, including El Caracol, lie a short walk to the south.
El Castillo is a stepped pyramid of nine tiers with a temple on top and a stairway up each of its four sides. Each stairway has 91 steps, and with the top platform, the four stairways add up to 365, the days of the year. Carved serpent heads sit at the foot of the north stairway, for Kukulcán, the feathered serpent god of the temple.
El Castillo is 30 m (98 ft) high to the top of the temple and 24 m (79 ft) to the top platform. Each side of the base measures 55.5 m (182 ft).
Inside El Castillo is an older pyramid, whose temple contains a jaguar throne painted red and set with jade, and a Chac Mool, a reclining stone figure with a bowl on its stomach. The inner temple has been closed to visitors since 2006.
A third, smaller pyramid about 10 m (33 ft) high sits inside the second one, found by a UNAM survey in 2016. A cenote lies under El Castillo, found by the same team in 2015, between 20 m (66 ft) and 25 m (82 ft) across and up to 20 m (66 ft) deep, under about 4 m (13 ft) of limestone.
On the equinox, the afternoon sun casts seven triangles of light and shadow down the balustrade of El Castillo's north stairway, ending at the carved serpent head at the bottom, so a serpent of light seems to slide down the pyramid.
The serpent appears for about five days either side of the equinoxes in March and September, between about 3pm and 5pm. The serpent of light stands for Kukulcán coming down from his temple to fertilise the earth.
32,872 people visited Chichen Itza during the spring equinox of 2025.
The Sacred Cenote is a sinkhole 60 m (197 ft) across, with the water 22 m (72 ft) below the rim and 13.5 m (44 ft) deep. The sinkhole lies 300 m (984 ft) north of El Castillo along a raised stone road called a sacbé.
The Sacred Cenote held jade, gold, copper, textiles, copal incense, pottery, and human bones, thrown in as offerings to the rain god.
The Great Ball Court is the largest in Mesoamerica, 168 m (551 ft) long and 70 m (230 ft) wide. Two stone rings are set high on the side walls. Carved panels along the walls show the winners holding the severed head of a member of the losing team.
From the temple platform at the north end, a whisper carries 46 m (150 ft) across the court.
The Temple of the Warriors is a four-tier pyramid with a Chac Mool and two serpent columns at the top of its stairway.
The pillars in front of the temple are carved with warriors and keep traces of the original Maya blue paint. The Group of a Thousand Columns is the colonnaded plaza beside the temple, whose stone columns once held up roofs.
El Caracol is a round tower on two platforms, named for the spiral stairway inside it, since caracol means snail in Spanish.
Openings in the tower line up with the positions of Venus on the horizon (Aveni et al., 1975). El Caracol dates from the first town, before the central Mexican styles arrived.
Chichén Viejo is a group of 25 buildings on two plazas 1.5 km (0.9 mi) south of the car park, opened to the public in September 2023.
Chichén Viejo is visited only in escorted groups of up to 50 on Fridays and Saturdays, booked at the ticket office on the day.
A visit to Chichen Itza starts at the visitor centre north of the ruins, which contains the car park, ticket windows, toilets, guide kiosks and the Gran Museo de Chichén Itzá. The visitor centre is about 900 m (0.6 mi) from El Castillo. One ticket covers the federal and state entry fees.
The best time of year to visit Chichen Itza is November to March, when daily highs average 30°C (86°F) and little rain falls. April and May are the hottest months, with highs of 36°C (97°F). The rainy season runs from late May to late October, with September the wettest month. The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June to November.
The busiest days are Semana Santa (Holy Week), the two equinoxes and the rest of March. Semana Santa 2025 brought 39,278 people in three days.
The best time of day to visit Chichen Itza is at the 8am opening. Tour buses from Cancún arrive between 10am and 11am, so the first two hours are the quietest and the coolest. Afternoons are the hottest part of the day.
You need 3 to 4 hours at Chichen Itza to walk the main site at an easy pace. The main site covers about 4 km (2.5 mi) of paths. Day tours from the coast give 1 to 2.5 hours at the ruins. Chichén Viejo adds a 2.5-hour escorted walk.
Visiting Chichen Itza costs MXN 697 (about USD 41) for foreign visitors, made up of a federal fee of MXN 105 and a Yucatán state fee of MXN 592. Mexicans and foreign residents of Mexico pay MXN 310, and get in free on Sundays with ID. Residents of Yucatán, children under 13, adults over 60, students and teachers get in free with ID.
Tickets are sold at the visitor centre only, in pesos or by card. A permit to film with a video camera costs MXN 63.
Chichen Itza's opening hours are 8am to 4pm every day of the year, with last entry at 3pm.
The night show, Noches de Kukulkán, projects lights onto El Castillo at 7pm from Wednesday to Sunday, lasts about 30 minutes, and is ticketed separately at nochesdekukulkan.com.mx.
No, Chichen Itza does not need a guided tour, since the paths link every building and the ticket covers the whole site. Official guides at the visitor centre kiosks charge about MXN 1,000 per group in Spanish and MXN 1,200 in English for a 45-minute walk, so a group of six pays about MXN 200 each. There is no official audio guide.
Day tours from Cancún cost from about USD 49 to USD 185 per person. The cheapest tours do not include the park entry fee. The more expensive tours include the fee, a cenote swim, and a buffet lunch.
Use the following travel tips to get the most out of your visit to Chichen Itza.
Visitors who stay near Chichen Itza sleep either in Pisté and the hotels beside the ruins, or in Valladolid, a colonial town about 40 minutes away by car with restaurants and its own cenotes.
Staying in Pisté gives you easy access to the ticket windows in minutes. Valladolid is better if you want somewhere to eat and walk in the evening.
Chichen Itza is pronounced chee-CHEN eet-SAH, with the stress on the second syllable of Chichen and the last syllable of Itza. The accents in the Spanish spelling, Chichén Itzá, mark those two stressed syllables.
Chichen Itza means "at the mouth of the well of the Itzá". In Yucatec Maya, chi means mouth and chen means well.
Chichen Itza is famous as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World, and is one of the most visited archaeological sites in Mexico.
No, climbing El Castillo or any other building at Chichen Itza is banned. The ban followed the death of Adeline Black, an 80-year-old visitor from San Diego, who fell about 18 m (59 ft) from the steps of El Castillo in 2006.
Yes, Chichen Itza is worth a visit, particularly if you arrive at the 8am opening.
Visitors who came early and on their own describe the same ruins as the best-preserved Maya city they saw in Mexico.
Yes, Chichen Itza is safe to visit. The problems most visitors report are touts on the road in, vendors on the paths, and heat.
The US State Department's travel advisory for Yucatán state is Level 1: exercise normal precautions. Level 1 is the lowest of the four advisory levels, and that rating covers Pisté and the ruins as well as Mérida.
Chichen Itza is the better site for ruins, and Tulum is the better site for a beach.
Chichen Itza is a bigger site with the largest buildings of the Maya world, while the Tulum ruins are a small walled town on a cliff above the Caribbean.
Choose Chichen Itza for the largest and most famous Maya ruins, and Uxmal for ruins of the same quality without the crowds.
Visitors who have seen both mostly rate Uxmal higher, for its carved stone facades and empty plazas. But Chichen Itza is the site most people ask about and gives the better Instagram photo opportunities.
Chichen Itza was originally painted, mainly in red and blue.
The Casa Colorada, the Red House, is named for the red paint found inside it. Restorers working on the Temple of the Warriors identified pigments made from iron oxide and the blue pigment known as Maya blue. The original colour of El Castillo's outer walls is not recorded.
About 2.2 million people visit Chichen Itza each year.
On the busiest days of the high season, about 8,000 people pass through the gates.