The 'Caracol' observatory is a Mayan ruin situated in the Chichén Itzá area in Yucatán, Mexico. The name “Caracol” (snail) comes from the spiral staircase in the center of the building, that leads from the first floor to the second floor, where a small rectangular chamber with windows was located. Today, three windows still exist and help us understand why the building was created and what it was used for. Archaeologists date the final version of the Caracol to A.D. 900-1000.
The square plataform of the building is aligned with the point where the sun sets on the day of the zenith passage on May 20, whilst the stair case which is unsually rotated, faces the northern and southern extremes of Venus’s setting point on the horizon as well as identifying the position of the sun on the equinoxes.
We have added a bit of our own fantasy to the model with a huge sextant/gyroscope pieces on its top, which can be added by the modeller or simply left to show its original structure. We opened up the 'room on the top' which is where they took their alignments from, because we thought it would look better this way and users could see the inside of the turret. We were not able to show the spiral staircase inside which is a pity because it takes its name from this, but we were able to simulate the rotated front stairway pointing to venus, which we are quite happy about.
The Caracol Observatory is part of our Mesoamerican collection.
