The Mayan Ruins of Chattchoben

I like history and old stuff. My parents take me to lots of places and we learn about them. Do you like to learn about history? On our cruise to Mexico, we saw the Mayan ruins of Chattchoben. They were so cool.

On our cruise to Mexico we went to two ports. They were Cozumel and Costa Maya. At Costa Mayan we did lots of fun things. We went to the Mayan ruins of Chattchoben. It took an hour to get to the ruins. It felt like forever! We went with a tour company and there were other people in the van.

We visited the Mayan ruins. Ruins are old buildings. Sometimes people have to dig to find the old buildings. Scientists study the old buildings and things they find to see how people from long ago lived.

We could not see the ruins from the parking lot. We had to walk through a forest. The tour guide told us about the Mayan people and their culture. There was a king. They believed the king could talk to the Gods. The people built pyramids so the king could get close to the gods and talk to them. The king climbs to the top of the pyramid to sacrifice people or give offerings.

This city was very big. 26,000 people lived in this city. There are three pyramids. The first one is the Rain pyramid. The king would ask for rain. The king and his family lived in the pyramid because it was special. The king was the first to get food and water.

This is The Ways. Noble people lived here.

There were other important people called nobles. They lived in between the Rain pyramid and the base of the other two pyramids. This place was called The Ways.

The base of the noble's houses were made of stone. Some were tall. The taller the base, the more important the person was. Most bases were 3 steps high. Some were 7 steps high!

The other people lived in the forest and around the city. These people did the work. They hunted for food. They raised and gathered crops. They were not important to the king and nobles.

There were two other pyramids. These pyramids were very important because they were on a tall platform. We had to climb 30 big stairs to get to it. It was very high up. There was the Moon Pyramid and the Sun Pyramid. The Mayans thought the Sun, Moon, and Rain were very important. The Sun God had a very big pyramid. The Rain God had a medium pyramid. The Moon God had a small pyramid.

The platform was very tall. There were 30 stairs!

Only the King would climb the stairs up the platform and then up the pyramid. Only he to talk to the gods. The people thought the king was very special because he could talk to the gods. We were in a forest, but there wasn't a forest there a long time ago. The people would wait at the base and watch the king climb the stairs. He would talk to the gods. He would climb down. The people would celebrate.

When we were on the tall platform, we saw out over the forest. It was very green. We were very high, but could not see the ocean.

We were very high and could see the tree tops.

We saw monkeys in the trees. They were playing in the trees and swinging from branch to branch. We saw neat plants and trees. The jungle was very thick and green.

Going to the Mayan ruins was a lot of fun. I liked learning about the people and how they lived. There are many Mayan ruins in Mexico and other places in Latin America. On my next cruise, I want to go to another site.