What to Look For at Chichén Itzá’s Great Ball Court

At Chichén Itzá, El Castillo gets your attention from across the plaza. The Great Ball Court asks you to look in the opposite direction and at a different scale. Give yourself a few minutes here to follow a carving with your eyes before moving on to the next monument.

Where is the Great Ball Court in relation to El Castillo?

Look toward the northwest corner of the main plaza for two tall, parallel walls. On the INAH site map the court is labeled Gran Juego de Pelota. Find its long rectangle and El Castillo’s square footprint before you leave the pyramid. That difference in shape is easier to recognize on a small phone screen than the closely spaced labels for the surrounding temples.

Where can I see the stone rings and carvings?

Start halfway along the length of the court. Look up at the middle of one wall for a stone ring, then turn to find its counterpart across the playing alley. Now drop your gaze to the low benches along the walls. Their carved figures are easy to miss after looking so far up. Take one wide photograph with both walls before zooming in on a single carving.

Is the Temple of the Jaguars part of the ball court?

Yes. Look along the eastern wall for the temple built into the court complex. INAH identifies jaguars, shields and intertwined serpents in its carved bands. The separate temple at the north end gives you a second point of reference. A good way to remember the arrangement is to sketch the court as a rectangle and put one mark on its side and another at its end.

What should I see after the ball court?

Continue to the nearby Tzompantli if the reliefs caught your eye. Here the repeated motif is a row of skulls. For a change of scene, follow the signed route north from the main plaza to the Sacred Cenote. This follows a sacbé, one of the raised roads that connected the city’s spaces.