The Great Ball Court of Chichen Itza
This recreational area was constructed by the Mayans to play a sport simply called “ballgame”. The Mayans were big into sports and built a lot of these during their existence. Many of the existing courts have only been discovered in recent years. The sport is believed to have originated around 1400 BC.
The Great Ball Court of Chichen Itza is one of the largest courts discovered. It is located in Chichen Itza, Mexico. It measures 225 feet wide and 545 feet long overall. What is interesting about this arena is that there is no discontinuity in the walls and is completely open-air. The acoustics of the arena are strange as well. A whisper can be heard clearly from one end of the arena to the other (over 500 feet). The sound waves are unaffected by factors such as wind direction and time of day. In 1931, a man by the name of Leopold Stokowski tried to recreate the arena for use as an outdoor concert venue. He was unsuccessful.
The rules of the game are unknown to this day, but some people it may be similar to today’s racquetball rules. The goal of the game was to get a ball through a stone ring attached to the side of the arena. The ball was usually made of solid rubber and weighed up to 9 pounds. The stone rings are actually a recent addition to the game. How the original game was played and how score was kept is still unknown.
The game was actually very ritualistic most of the time. The game was often played for recreational purposes by women and children, but a lot of games were major, formal matches meant to be rituals. Contrary to what most people would think, the winner of the game was actually decapitated. Legend has it that the winning captain would present his head to the captain of the losing team, and he would then be decapitated. The reason behind this was that the winning captain supposedly got a “direct ticket” to heaven instead of having to go through the 13 steps that the Mayans believed people had to go through to get to heaven.
People can still visit this court today. It is open year round to tourists. Chichen Itza doesn't have its own airport, so tourists would have to fly in through Cancun or Cozumel and commute there by bus. Locals still hold games of the more modern version of ballgame. This court is the most visited court since it is the largest and most well-known of all the ball courts discovered thus far.
Sources:
http://www.mysteriousplaces.com/mayan/BallCourt.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_ballgame#Ballcourt
http://www.chichenitza.com/listingview.php?listingID=28
http://www.onejungle.com/travel-resources/articles/mayan-history/item/358-sports-at-chichen-itza
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