Temple of Kukulcan
— — a serpent the equinox draws down the stairs.
Not only on a wall.
“El Castillo, the Temple of Kukulcan, stands at the centre of Chichén Itzá on the dry plain of northern Yucatán. The pyramid is roughly twenty-four metres tall, four sides of ninety-one steps with a platform on top — three hundred and sixty-five in total, the days of the solar year. Twice a year, at the equinoxes, the late-afternoon shadow draws a serpent down the northern balustrade. — from the studio
Temple of Kukulcan, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Temple of Kukulcan, called El Castillo, is a Mesoamerican step-pyramid at the centre of the ancient city of Chichén Itzá, in the municipality of Tinum, Yucatán, Mexico. Built between roughly 800 and 1000 CE in the Maya Terminal Classic and Early Postclassic periods, the pyramid rises about twenty-four metres (seventy-nine feet) over an older inner structure, and thirty metres including the temple at the top. Each of its four sides has ninety-one steps; with the upper platform, the total is 365. Chichén Itzá was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988 and a New Seven Wonder of the World in 2007.
On the afternoons of the spring and autumn equinoxes, a row of seven triangular shadows runs down the northern balustrade of the pyramid, connecting at the base to a carved serpent's head — the descent of Kukulcan, the feathered serpent god. The effect lasts about forty-five minutes and draws tens of thousands of visitors twice a year, on March 21 and September 21. The same phenomenon recurs in fainter form on the days flanking the equinox. The play is engineered: the pyramid is oriented so the late-day sun strikes the nine terraces at the angle the Maya builders calculated.
Chichén Itzá is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with last entry at 4 p.m. The general admission for foreign visitors runs about 614 Mexican pesos as of 2024, combining the federal INAH ticket and the Yucatán state cultural fee. The site lies about two hours west of Cancún by car or ADO bus, and ninety minutes east of Mérida along Highway 180. Climbing the pyramid has been prohibited since 2006 to preserve the stone. Sound-and-light shows run after dusk on most evenings, and the equinox days draw the largest crowds of the archaeological year, particularly the spring equinox.