Why go
Understanding that divide explains why conservation has involved more than excavating temples. The archaeological city occupies a broad landscape, and the 2010 purchase of its central tract was a major change in the land history of the ruins. The monuments and the land beneath them followed different legal paths.
The full story
Edward Thompson bought the estate containing Chichen Itza in 1894. After his death in 1935, his heirs sold it to the Barbachano family. The designation of the ruins as an archaeological site protected the monuments, but did not by itself erase private claims to the underlying land. That distinction shaped research and conservation throughout the twentieth century. In March 2010, Hans Jürgen Thies Barbachano sold an approximately 80-hectare tract containing the principal buildings to the government of Yucatán. The transaction changed ownership of the site’s central area, although the ancient city extends over a much wider landscape. Buildings, settlements and living communities are part of that wider setting. The familiar cleared monuments therefore represent only one part of the place that archaeologists study and public authorities conserve.