Warriors' Sanctuary

Why go

This temple's serpent columns, warrior imagery and Chac Mool are among the strongest visual clues to the city's ceremonial art. Give the facade time before moving into the neighboring colonnades. Viewing from below also keeps the scale of the pyramid and the attached column groups in perspective.

What to look for

• Serpent columns flank the temple approach
• Warrior reliefs and a Chac Mool mark the facade

The full story

The Temple of the Warriors stands on a stepped base with its sanctuary set toward the rear of the upper platform. Reliefs on the base repeat eagles, jaguars and reclining warriors. Some dress details resemble imagery known from central Mexico, and the feathered-serpent entrance pillars have close parallels at Tula; their precise historical relationship is an interpretation, not a complete explanation of the building. A reclining Chac Mool figure stood before the sanctuary. Its name came from nineteenth-century explorer Augustus Le Plongeon and should not be confused with Chaac, the Maya rain deity. Square pillars once supported roofs over the halls and interior. Their carvings include armed figures and eagles consuming human hearts. Along the temple’s south side, a colonnade extends into the complex conventionally called the Group of a Thousand Columns. The surviving stones therefore outline a much more enclosed architectural setting than the open rows visible now.

Useful to know

• View from the public visitor path; do not climb or enter protected structures.

Your next visit

Estimated · Declared scenario and planning estimates; no live opening, weather, queue or booking service.