Izamal

If you want to extend your stay in Chichén Itzá, you can take a few side trips. Among the nearby places we suggest are Izamal, an early Spanish Colonial town with a church and convent built on top of one of the Yucatán’s highest pyramids, and the Sacred Cave of Balankanche, which lies about 7 kilometers from Chichén Itzá. This cave contains chambers which were once filled with hundreds of ceramic incense burners and miniature metates (grinding stones) laid out on the cave floors, as offerings to the rain god. Caves were seen by the Maya and most other Mesoamerican cultures as sacred places and as entrances to the underworld. The one is still used by local shamans (priests) who continue to regard it as sacred.