The great ball court from Chichen Itza
- The court of Chichen Itza is a massive 225 feet wide and 545 feet long.
- At the ends of the court, the stone walls featured stone hoops, engraved with feathered serpents - images of the deity Kokulkan.
- The court has excellent acoustic qualities, amplifying the cheers of fans and the calls of the ballplayers.
- The sides of the court are lined with benches for spectators. The benches are sloped to help keep the ball in the courts.
- At the end of many games, the losing team was beheaded and sacrificed to the Mayans' deities. That said, the Ball Game occasionally served as a substitute for war.
- A variation of the Ball Game, Ulama is still played today— minus the ritual killing of the losing team.
59
152 reads
CURATED FROM
IDEAS CURATED BY
The idea is part of this collection:
Learn more about history with this collection
Different Easter traditions around the world
The significance of Easter eggs and bunnies in modern culture
The importance of the holiday in the Christian faith
Related collections
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates