The equinox at Yucatan pyramid Chichen Itza

I have often read the description of how the construction of the of the side of the pyramid made the phenomenon possible and even watched videos on YouTube to see this incredible marvel but it didn’t click until I sat in front of the edge of the pyramid that caused the shadow of the snake. I think it was because the videos and pictures I saw, didn’t include the wall that caused the shadow. The shadow lines up perfectly with the head of the snake at the bottom of the pyramid.

You might recall, the Mayans became very popular in 2012 because they had an ancient calendar that began Aug. 11, 3114 BC and ended Dec. 21, 2012. Many believed the world would end at that time. While touring ruins in Mexico, they arrange to have actual Mayans or mixed Mayans to lead the tours. One explained to us that the ending of the calendar didn’t mean the end of time or the world, it was just the end and the beginning of one cycle or phase in time. What the next cycle or phase was supposed to be wasn’t entirely clear but the Mayans believed that these cycles occur about every 5,000 years.

If you’re a regular reader of my astronomy column, “Look Up,” you might recall that last week was the spring equinox. That is when the sun crosses the celestial equator going south to north. It’s called “celestial” equator because it’s an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator. Equinox in Latin means “equal night,” where aequus means equal and nox is night. On the equinox, the length of day and night is nearly equal in all parts of the world. Ancient civilizations lived by the equinoxes since they signified when it was time to start planting or harvesting.

Making the trek out to Chichen Itza means flying out to Cancun, Mexico (the direct flight from SFO took about six hours). Then driving for about 2.5 hours from Cancun into the jungle. The entire site is called Chichen Itza, but the pyramid is actually called the Pyramid of Kukulcan or The Castillo. Kukulcan was a feathered serpent worshipped by the Mayans and others in the area, such as, the Aztecs and Toltecs but they called him Quetzalcoatl. They believed this god brought good things. Unfortunately, most of the Mayan myths and stories associated with this god no longer exist due to the Spanish Conquistadors burning most of the Mayans’ books, in addition to crumbling stone where their version of hieroglyphics are no longer readable.

I really wanted to go the day of the equinox but the tour company didn’t recommend it because it’s gets so busy. They told us there were times their buses didn’t make it to the pyramid on the equinox because traffic on the one road that takes you there was so bad. Fortunately, the phenomenon is visible a few days before and a few days after, so we opted for going the day after.

It was a cloudy on Monday and even poured rain for a few minutes in the early afternoon. Our tour finished about 3 p.m. and the shadow was due to start showing at around 4:30 p.m. I was on a mission to get that corner spot of the pyramid where I watched videos and promptly planted myself at the corner of the pyramid at the edge that forms the shadow. For most of the afternoon, clouds covered the sun but once in a while it would break through. We weren’t able to watch the phenomenon start due to the clouds, but it made its appearance in between. The crowd would “eeeew” with delight when the sun caused the shadow to appear or groan with disappointment when it disappeared. We all became really nervous when a big dark cloud appeared and stayed in front of the sun and it really looked like we wouldn’t be able to see the shadow when all the sudden, it disappeared! The equinox lasts for about 45 minutes. We were able to watch the last 20 minutes with no interruptions and until the shadow disappeared. Later we were told there was a crowd of about 10,000.

It was awe inspiring and mind blowing to witness the incredible planning that must’ve been completed for this building to have been constructed and without any modern-day tools. We learned that the structure we see today was about 800 years old and that it was built over two other pyramids. It is believed that the first pyramid is 1,200 years old. It also shouldn’t be too surprising to learn that the pyramid was also used as a calendar. Each side has 91 steps and then when you include the platform at the top, it totals 365, just as our own calendar year. There was a time when you could walk all over the ruins, but we were told that as it began to crumble and became damaged, it was decided it was best to keep people off of them. As it turns out, the stairs were actually closed after a woman fell to her death in 2006.