Each year thousands of people from all over the world travel to the Mexican state of Yucatan to witness the "Shadow of the Equinox". There are actually several dates throughout the year that make up the complete "Shadow of the Equinox" but the one that occurs on the spring equinox, March 21, is the one that draws the largest crowd.
The Mayan civilization lasted over two thousand years and went through several different eras. The Classic era occurred between 300 A.D. to 900 A.D. and resulted in huge accomplishments. The Mayans provided Mesoamerica with the first form of written language, measured time using two different calendars, grew vegetables in the most unlikely of places, designed amazing and elaborate cities, and discovered the number zero (the number had been used several hundred years before but the Mayans learned of it on their own in Central America, far away from the other places in the world that used it). Pretty wild considering they were also very religious.
During one of their religious ceremonies about 3000 years ago they combined a rubber tree and a morning glory plant and discovered the process of vulcanization (the process of combining rubber with a different material to make it more durable). That's pretty impressive considering we didn't discover this process until the mid 1800's. They built incredible cities and monuments without access to metal or use of a wheel (the wheel had been invented in another part of the world but the Mayans didn't have this knowledge). And because of their religious beliefs they gained great knowledge of the stars which is demonstrated in their temples and pyramids.
Like most religions, the Mayans have a story of creation. Without going into much detail I will say they believe Snake Mountain is where it all began. The chief Mayan deity was Itzamna and the name of the site where they built some of their most amazing monuments is called Chichen Itza. The Mayans had also allied with other cultures around 1000 A.D. and incorporated some of the Toltec religious beliefs. That is why one of their most amazing constructions is known by several different names: Kukulkan's Pyramid, Quetzacoatl Pyramid, or as it is called today, El Castillo. It is Chicen Itza in the Mexican state of Yucatan where thousands of people today travel to watch the spring equinox event that centers around El Castillo.
The pyramid in Mexico is different from the pyramids in Egypt. Even though we now believe the Egyptians must have understood the world was round by our current understanding of the pyramids designs, slight curvatures and the shadows they cast, the Mayans understood much more about the stars and their place in the galaxy. The photo below demonstrates just how much they knew.
The colored lines represent the sunrise, sunset, moonrise, and moonset as they occur on March 21. This structure was built sometime between 900 A.D. and 1200 A.D. (the above photo is a combination of a satellite photo and a computer program from Google Maps taken on March 21, 2010).
Flashforward to 1616 on the other side of the world where the Roman Catholic church issued a decree suspending De Revolutionibus, Copernicus' book that stated the Earth orbited around the Sun, until it could be "corrected" because it was contrary to Holy Scripture. Four hundred copies were originally printed and it failed to sell out. Four years later, after nine sentences that dealt with the relationship between the Earth and the Sun were omitted (corrected) the decree was lifted. When Galileo followed Copernicus' ideas he was convicted of heresy for "following positions that were contrary to the true sense and authority of Holy Scripture" in 1633 and lived out the remainder of his days under house arrest. They should have built a pyramid instead of writing books.
Back to the Mayans. The Prime Meridian used by the Mayans was slightly different than the one we recognize today. This meridian is an arbitrary line that divides the Earth into two hemispheres using lines of longitude and our current one that runs through Greenwich, London was decided upon in 1884. The Mayans meridian differed from our current one by 31 degrees, 8 minutes, and .8 seconds. By our modern day measurements we place El Castillo at 88 degrees, 34 minutes, and 9.716 seconds. If you add our measurement with the variance to adjust for the Mayans longitude it comes to 119 degrees, 42 minutes, and 10.516 seconds. If you multiply 119, 42, and 10.516(including the long string of decimals that I rounded off) it totals 52,560. El Castillo is constructed of 9 terraces, 365 steps, 4 sides and 4 stairways. When these four numbers are multiplied together they total 52,560. Heresy.
Each staircase consists of 91 steps representing the days of the seasons. Each side of the four sided structure has a staircase that leads to one shared step at the peak. Four times 91 plus the additional step at the top equals 365 representing all the days of the year. Each side of the pyramid has 52 panels, equal to the number of solar years in the Mayan calendar cycle. The terraces are nine levels high with the stairs separating them into two different tiers on each side. These 18 segments represent the 18 winals (similar to months) that comprise the Mayan year. On the exact day of the two equinoxes of the year the Sun hits the pyramid in just a way as to create 7 light triangles and are contrasted with 6 shadow triangles adding up to the sacred Mayan number of 13.
I'll show this a little better in a video but I want to point out what to look for. On the above photo a serpent's (snake-remember Snake Mountain) head is at the bottom of the pyramid on the left wall. Running up the wall from the head are the seven light triangles. Between each light triangle is a shadow triangle (hard to see in this photo). As the Sun moves across the sky the light appears to make the serpent climb down the structure. This is what thousands of people come to see.
The full effect takes about thirty minutes. There are many more videos on You Tube with much more detail and length.
What an amazing relationship between religion, science, math and astronomy. What a legacy. What a testament to their higher power.
The Mayan calender completes its great cycle on the winter solstice in 2012. As we all know there are many theories as to what this means exactly. What it means is simple, the great cycle is complete. The only thing of real significance is how the galaxy would have appeared to the naked eye of the Mayans at this moment. The Earth and the Sun will be in alignment with the arbitrary line we have concocted as the equator of the galaxy. Without getting too deep into the 2012 topic I will say it really doesn't mean much other than it is truly amazing that this civilization could even possess this knowledge. We won't be in the center of the galaxy, nor will the Sun. A black hole sits in the middle of our galaxy and everything in the galaxy orbits it. This event happens once every 25,800 years (it's happened plenty of times before). Still it seems remarkable this civilization could have based a calendar on it. Some completely dismiss it as coincidence. Seems hard to do with the amazing structures the Mayans built and their display of great knowledge of how the Sun and planet relate to one another and the entire galaxy. No one can say for sure.
Even though I began this essay with the intent of figuring out how our modern day religion became at odds with science and math, I think it's irrelevant as to the when and why at this point. One thing should be clear to those that don't think these fields are compatible, the Mayans proved they most certainly are.
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