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Imagine you are walking through a hot jungle in Mexico.

The trees are tall.

You hear birds calling from the branches.

Suddenly the trees open and you see something amazing.

A giant stone pyramid rises in front of you.

It has steps going all the way to the top.

The stone is warm from the sun. You are standing in front of Ch. It has steps going all the way to the top. The stone is warm from the sun.

You are standing in front of Chichen Itza, an ancient city built by the Maya people.

Chichen Itza is one of the most famous ruins in the world. Long ago, it was a busy city full of people, markets, and temples. It was built more than 1,000 years ago

by the Maya. The Maya were a group of people who lived in what is now, Mexico, Guatemala, Belize,

and parts of Central America. They were very smart. They studied stars, made calendars, built

cities, and wrote books using pictures called

glyphs. Chichen Itza was one of the largest Maya cities. Thousands of people lived there. They built

homes, temples, ballcorts, and pyramids from stone. The most famous building is the big pyramid

called El Castillo, which means the castle in Spanish.

But the Maya had another name for it, the temple of Kukulkan. Kukulkin was a snake god.

The Maya believed he had great power. El Castillo was built to honor him. The pyramid has 91 steps on each of its four sides.

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