MÉRIDA, Yucatán, March 16, 2023.- The Yucatán 2023 International Reading Fair, held in Mérida, was the launching platform for 20 FACTS CHICHÉN ITZÁ, THE CITY OF MYSTERIES, a guidebook based on 20 questions about the site that describes the most relevant facts about the sacred city of the Maya.
Is the Pyramid of Kukulcan a Mayan calendar? Were maidens thrown into the Sacred Cenote?, Were human sacrifices made in the Great Ball Game?, How were the pyramids built?, these are some of the questions that find interesting, serious, documented answers about this pre-Hispanic site, Cultural Patrimony of Humanity.
In the book, myths such as that of the maidens and the warriors of the Great Ball Game are dispelled. Of the 42 skeletal remains extracted from the Sacred Cenote, the majority correspond to children and older adults and the fewest are women, so everything seems to indicate that it is false that virgin women were thrown into the great water well.
Likewise, it is erroneous the version that in the ball game -Pok Ta Pok, in Maya- the winners were sacrificed as an offering to the gods. In reality, the losers were sacrificed, another myth that is cleared up in the book.
Among the 20 Facts or facts, other interesting topics are addressed such as the construction of the great pyramids with monumental carved stones that were piled up without the help of the wheel and animal traction, something that did not exist at that time, but which was made up for with an extraordinary technique that continues to amaze the world.
Chichen Itza has been studied for 150 years and, despite the time and effort made by archaeologists, epigraphers, and researchers, to this day it refuses to reveal all its secrets. Hence the subtitle: THE CITY OF MYSTERIES.
20 FACTS CHICHÉN ITZÁ is a new concept of cultural and touristic promotion in which through 20 facts or data we talk about the archaeological zone, from its foundation in the year 800 of our era until its decadence in the year 1200, passing over its period of greatest splendor, in which surprising advances in architecture, art, mathematics and astronomy were made.
The journalist Félix Ucán Salazar, a long-time communicator, is the author of the concept and communication design of this book, with the collaboration of Eduardo Pérez de Heredia y Puente, Ph.D. in Archaeology from La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and former director of the archaeological zone of Chichén, who wrote the academic script that supports the content.
The 104-page book, which is easy to read and use, contains valuable ancient photographs, maps, and illustrations. It also has 10 words and 10 phrases in Maya to invite tourists and readers to learn basic aspects of the language of this great culture.
It also contains 20 tips illustrated by the brilliant cartoonist Tony Peraza, to recommend a comfortable and safe tour of the site and encourage a responsible visit, respecting the buildings and the environment of this archaeological site, an icon of the Maya World.
The book presentation was held as part of the FILEY this Wednesday, March 15 in the Eduardo Urzáiz room of the Ek Balam Hall of the Siglo XXI Convention Center. The event was hosted by Laura Castro Gamboa, an experienced Yucatecan radio and television communicator.
20 FACTS CHICHÉN ITZÁ is the first of a series of books that the authors plan to produce to disseminate the history and relevant facts of other archaeological zones and other sites of world interest, always under this innovative concept of 20 questions and answers that facilitate the quick and enjoyable reading of the content.
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