Chichen Itza, Yucatan, Mexico

Chichen Itza stands near the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula, its name meaning at the mouth of the well of the Itza, a reference to the Sacred Cenote that drew people to this ground long before any of the great buildings rose. It was a capital rather than a single temple: the Pyramid of Kukulkan, the Great Ball Court, the Temple of the Warriors and the round observatory known as El Caracol all belong to one ceremonial and political centre that once governed much of northern Yucatan.

Maya settlement here reaches back to around the sixth century. The monumental core was raised mainly between roughly 800 and 1100, a period when the city absorbed strong influences from central Mexico and stood at the height of its reach. Power began slipping away after about 1100, and by around 1250 Chichen Itza had ceased to function as a capital, its authority passing to Mayapan. It was never wholly forgotten. The Sacred Cenote remained a place of pilgrimage for another three centuries, and people were still coming to it when the Spanish arrived in the 1530s. The precise dates continue to be argued over, and ongoing radiocarbon work keeps moving them.