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We went to the large flat city square and saw the huge Ball Court - as big as a footbal stadium!  These ball courts are found all over the Yucatan.  The game was described in the sculptures on the walls.  Teams of men had to get a ball through a small hoop mounted on the sides of the court.  They wore padding on their right sides and used something like a cricket paddle to hit the rubber ball.  Like flying the Space Shuttle, they could only use their right hand.

The winning team's captain was sacrificed to the gods, it was considered a great honor.  On many of the temples you could see remnants of the bright paint that used to cover all the intricate carvings.  What glory they must have been!  Inside a few of the buildings like the Temple of the Warriors are very well preserved examples of the painted scultures, but these are not currently available to visitors.

We climbed the large temple which was pretty scarey.  Only a rope guided you to the top.  What a view - you could see the Mexican farmer's burning fields everywhere.  Down in the field and in the ball court we clapped and you could here the most amazing reverberations that amplified all sounds.  It was designed so that the people could easily hear the voices of the priests.

The Mayan priests were all powerful next to their ruler.  The warriors were next on the social scale and then the merchants, peasants were on the bottom - the farmers and builders. The priests would sacrifice 'the holy chosen' to the rain gods - these chosen would be treated like royalty for one year before the sacrifice.  Prisoners of war were also sacrificed, like when the Spanish soldiers who were captured by them in the war that eventually ended the Mayan civilization.

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