Juego de pelota - The Ball Court

Relief of the ball court: The leader of the defeated party has been decapitated, in the form of snakes, blood spurts from his neck, the winner keeps his head

Chichén Itzá has been found in at least twelve ball courts. The Juego de pelota is the largest and most important of more than 520 ball courts in Yucatán dar. It is located about one hundred meters northwest of the Pyramid of Kulkulkán. The dimensions of the playing field be 168 x 38 m and it is flanked by eight-meter high walls, which were intended, inter alia, for the audience. The shape of the court is aware of two "T".

The ball game was inhuman stressful in itself. At the height of 6.50 meters is mounted on each side ever a schlangenverzierter ring through which the ball had to be beaten. For the ball, there were different weight classes: 400, 1000, 2000 or 4000 grams, the ball had to) without the help of the hands and legs to be played (ie with shoulders, chest and hip. The reason was that the ball represented the path of the sun. In pictures you can see the clothing. This was made of hardened leather. In addition, some of the players wore two different shoes. One of them had a protection for the ankle to allow the player to the ball when slide not hurt. The ball went out of bounds, he was back with the aid of a stick put into play it (could not hit the ball even with the hand or foot touch). Each team had five to seven players who were sometimes also unevenly distributed.

The motives of the two rings allow conclusions on the game. Folklorists in Mexico are still not sure whether or not the team captain was sacrificed to the loser, but even the winner. On the reliefs on the stone rings are around the field, appears as a recurring motif that someone was beheaded. From the body of the beheaded, the gushing blood is presented in the form of 7 snakes, which existed when the Mayans as a symbol of fertility. From the blood that flows to the floor, creating for the "tree of life". This presentation is based on a myth of the Mayas, which shows the making of the game and allows things stand today, no conclusions on whether winners or losers lose their heads.

Here, too, sound effects and echoes due to the long smooth side walls are inevitable. However, what still works is that when you get on the field clapping their hands, one obtains a multiple echo. It springs from the imagination of the guide that the reason for this response was the establishment of the sidewalls of seven different types of limestone and sandstone, as the material is essentially uniform and sandstone nowhere to be found in the Yucatan. In addition, the material of the surfaces has no effect on echo effects.