El Castillo, Temple of Kukulcán

The serpent head at the foot of this staircase belongs to Kukulcán, the Maya feathered serpent and northern cousin of central Mexico's Quetzalcoatl, to whom the pyramid at Chichén Itzá was dedicated. El Castillo rose in the Postclassic era, after the great cities of the southern Maya lowlands had declined and power shifted north to centers like Chichén Itzá and later Mayapán. Its nine terraces of weathered limestone, steep central stairway, and diagonal balustrade, lit here by warm sun against a deep blue sky, show a Maya world remaking itself far from the jungles where its earlier kings had ruled.