Chicanna: Enter the Maya House of the Serpent Mouth

A menacing serpent-like monster glares down at you as you cross the plaza of Chicanná in Mexico. While it is certainly an unnerving thought, you decide to step inside the gaping serpent’s mouth. Instead of fear you are filled with curiosity about what the Maya people used to do at this site.

Chicanná is an archaeological site located in the southeastern Mexican state of Campeche, in the Yucatán Peninsula. This site was discovered during the 1960s and belonged to the Classical period of the Maya civilization. Chicanná is notable for the architectural style of its buildings, i.e. the Rio Bec style, which was also used in other settlements in the region, including Becán, & Xpujil, two sites that are close to Chicanná. The site is believed to have been at its height of power from 300 BC to 250 AD. It was only abandoned around 1100 AD.

Structure XX at the Chicanná archaeological site. (Daniel Mennerich/CC BY NC ND 2.0)

The Famous Serpent’s Mouth

The name of the site, Chicanná, is derived from a combination of three words from the Mayan language, ‘chi’, ‘can’, and ‘na’. The first means ‘mouth’, the second ‘serpent’, and the third ‘house’. Therefore, Chicanná literally means ‘House of the Serpent Mouth’. This peculiar name was given to the site due to the design found on the most famous building discovered at the site, ‘Structure II’.