Quite close to the pyramid El Castillo there is the Chichen Itza ball court where Mayan men played a game which involved passing a ball through hoops 7 meters off the ground. The exact nature of this game was once thought to involve passing a football(ish) size rubber ball through a ring using any part of the body other than there hands. This theory came about after seeing pictures of Aztec men playing a ball game where they were passing the ball via the use of there hip.
This is a hoop 7 meters off the ground and they were supposed to be using their hips to get a ball probably made of solid rubber through them. Even if they used their feet it still seems a little implausible that this is the same game the Mayan people took part in on this ball court. Therefore common sense would suggest they did in-fact play a slightly different version of the ball game and by simply looking at the many different ball games played around the world today it’s by no means stretching the imagination to suggest that the Aztec and the Mayan played 2 different versions of a ball game. In fact, later on, small rubber balls have been found at the bottom of cenotes, so the Maya ball game could have involved hitting these smaller balls through the hoops with sticks.
This leads to another misconception made about the use of this ball court. It was originally said to have been used as a field for sport, when it is probably more likely to have been used as some sort of sacrificial ritual, Praying to the rain god and the finding of these balls in other cenotes may go some way to confirming this. The ritual would start at the ballpark and end at the sacrificial cenote.
Ball court carving
In the centre on one side of the ball court, there is a carving depicting two men. One headless on his knees with six snakes emerging from his neck and the other stood to his left holding a sword along with the other guys head. Originally when an assumption was made that this was depicting a game and that the guy on the left is the winner and the one on the right is the loser. Makes sense but after further inspection, it can be seen that there is a small germinating seed coming out of the severed head.
A seed is a symbol for life when using Mayan writing symbols so this picture is probably more likely to be denoting a sacrifice to the rain god and from that germinates life. It could even be the winner of the game that is being beheaded as some form of honour with automatic entry into the underworld. Either way, there is no denying the sacred importance of the game.
It has also been shown that the ball court was built during a long period of drought. Something like 10 years long which also backs up the suggestion it was a place of worship to the rain god who was their main god of worship due to them needing rain to survive.
