Day 1Chichén Itzá TourChichén Itzá is located in the jungles of Mexico and Guatemala and stretching into the Yucatan Peninsula are the mysterious temples and pyramids of the Mayan people. The ancient city whose name means "at the mouth of the well of Itzáe", was, in its time of greatness (between 800 and 1200 AD), the center of Yucatán's political, religious and military power, if not of the entire southeast of the country. Mesoamerica. While Europe was still in the Middle Ages, the Mayan people had developed the only true writing system native to the Americas and were masters of mathematics. They invented the calendars we use today. Without tools or metal wheels, they were able to build cities across an immense jungle landscape with an astonishing degree of perfection and architectural variety. Their stone legacy, which has survived spectacularly in places such as Palenque, Tikal, Tulum, Chichén Itzá, Copan and Uxmal, lives on as do the seven million descendants of the Classic Mayan civilization. The Mayans are probably the best-known classical civilization of Mesoamerica. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large areas of tropical rainforest and, where groundwater was scarce, building large underground reservoirs for rainwater storage. The Maya were also skilled as weavers and potters, and they opened routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples. This city is divided into two main areas. Chichén Viejo (Old Chichén) and Chichén Nuevo (New Chichén). Chichén Viejo was founded around 400 AD by the Mayans and ruled by priests. The architecture here is characterized by numerous representations of the god Chaac, the Mayan god of rain. Chichén Nuevo began around 850 AD with the arrival of the Itzá from central Mexico. The city was rebuilt by the Itzá and is characterized by images of the god Kukulcán, the feathered serpent. Around 1150 AD, a new wave of Itzá took over the city and ruled for another 150 years until Chichén Itzá was finally overtaken by the rival city of Mayapan. Chichén Itzá was suddenly abandoned around 1400 AD, perhaps due to internal fighting or lack of food. There are many theories but no one knows for sure.