El Castillo De Kukulkan
El Castillo De Kukulkan
The Castillo is a radial temple-pyramid with nine terraces and four stairways of 99 steps leading up to a corbel-vaulted temple at its summit. Shown here in winter, the deciduous trees have lost their leaves.
The Castillo occupies the central ...
The temple at the summit of the Castillo has a doorway on each of its four faces, with the southern one divided by two central columns. This mask looks out over the eastern doorway, facing the Temple of the Warriors. (Image Credit: Michelle ...
A dog basks in the early morning sun at the base of the Castillo, unmolested by this giant serpent head whose tongue forms the pyramid's ballustrade. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)
The crowd watches the serpent descend the Castillo on the spring equinox, 2005. This is a light and shadow effect that happens on this particular day, when the day is of equal hours night and day, and the bodies of the pyramid pick up the suns ...
End of the day at the Castillo, on the spring equinox. A shadow serpent is making its final descent of the pyramid, and the crowd of hot tourists beholds the spectacle. This event has become quite large in recent decades owing to publicity by the ...
On the spring equinox, when day and night are of equal length, the sun is in just the right spot to cast a shadow of the nine bodies of the pyramid onto the side of the staircase, or the outside of the ballustrade, shown here in profile. A ...
Descent of K'uk'ulkan
The serpent descends the north stairway of the Castillo on the spring equinox. Thousands gather to witness the event. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)
Tourists braid hair on the pyramid steps at the end of the day, as the last of the serpent makes its way down the pyramid, not to reappear for another year. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)
At the foot of the staircase at the Castillo
(Image Credit: Bryan Mendez, UC Berkeley)