Rise of Chichén Itzá in northern Yucatán

The core of Chichén Itzá took shape in an earlier phase of occupation, between about 750 and 900, south-west of the Xtoloc cenote, where its substructures now lie beneath the Las Monjas group and the Observatory (El Caracol). The Itza, a Maya group of debated origin who gave the city its name, began arriving around 800. The earliest hieroglyphic date found at the site corresponds to 832. The texts of the Las Monjas group, of the Late to Terminal Classic, repeatedly name Kʼakʼupakal, a ruler or high officeholder active around 869–890, whose name also appears at Uxmal.

The rise of Chichén Itzá roughly coincided with the decline of the great cities of the southern lowlands. In the north its neighbours Yaxuna and Cobá lost ground, and Chichén Itzá may have contributed to their fall. Its wealth came from tribute taken from conquered towns and from trade: through its port on Isla Cerritos on the north coast it joined the sea route around the peninsula, obtaining obsidian from central Mexico and gold from lower Central America. After 900 the city acquired its final layout, with monumental buildings such as the Temple of the Warriors, whose resemblance to Temple B at Tula in central Mexico points to some form of contact between the two.

Archaeologists once suggested that Chichén Itzá was ruled not by a king but by a council of noble lineages (multepal); this view, popular in the 1990s, has since been questioned, and scholars now lean towards the traditional model of Maya kingship. Between 900 and 1050 the city controlled north and central Yucatán, and by about 1100 it had declined as a regional centre. Its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.