Chichen Itza
by Kathy Strauss
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Price
$200
Dimensions
20.000 x 16.000 x 1.000 inches
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Title
Chichen Itza
Artist
Kathy Strauss
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This photo is part of my "Reflections of Spirit" series. It was taken in Chichen Itza. Each of the images has a symbolic meaning to them.
This sacred site was one of the greatest Mayan centres of the Yucatán peninsula. Throughout its nearly 1,000-year history, different peoples have left their mark on the city. The Temple of Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent God (also known as Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs and Toltecs) is the largest and most important ceremonial structure at Chichen Itza. Called El Castillo (the Castle) by the Spaniards, the ninety-foot tall pyramid was built during the 11th to 13th centuries directly upon the multiple foundations of previous temples. The architecture of the pyramid encodes precise information regarding the Mayan calendar. Each face of the four-sided structure has a stairway with ninety-one steps, which together with the shared step of the platform at the top, add up to 365, the number of days in a year. These stairways also divide the nine terraces of each side of the pyramid into eighteen segments, representing the eighteen months of the Mayan calendar. The pyramid is also directionally oriented to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The axes that run through the northwest and southwest corners of the pyramid are oriented toward the rising point of the sun at the summer solstice and its setting point at the winter solstice. The northern stairway was the principal sacred path leading to the summit. At sunset on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, an interplay between the sun’s light and the edges of the stepped terraces on the pyramid creates a fascinating—and very brief—shadow display upon the sides of the northern stairway. A serrated line of seven interlocking triangles gives the impression of a long tail leading downward to the stone head of the serpent Kukulkan, at the base of the stairway.
Uploaded
April 10th, 2016
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