The Sun Temple

The Temple of the Seven Dolls, built around 700 A.D., received its name from seven small ceramic figurines found inside the temple. These figurines now reside in a museum in Mexico City. This Late Classic building functioned as an observatory by ...

Flowers bloom in November near the Temple of the Seven Dolls. Note on the lower right the remains of a pyramid which at one time encased this entire temple before it was dug out again. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

The sun rises! Approximately 6:22 am in early February, nearly six weeks before the equinox will be registered here at the Temple of the Seven Dolls, or Sun Temple, in Dzibilchaltun. (Image Credit: Jim Spadaccini, Ideum)

The House of the Seven Dolls, also known as the Sun Temple, is extremely important to Mayan archaeoastronomers because of its function in charting the sun's movement. Dzibilchaltun's urban core is aligned along an east-west running sacbe, ...

The sun rises on the spring equinox. The Temple of the Sun at Dzibilchaltun is aligned so that its doorways and windows serve to mark the passage of the sun throughout the solar year, and would have been used by priests to predict equinoxes and ...

The sun has risen on the spring equinox. On this day the Temple of the Sun frames exactly the rising sun. At other times of the year the sun will appear to one side or the other, slightly on the days close to the equinox, and will deviate the ...

The Temple of the Sun is aligned so that on the equinnoxes, the sun will project itself through both door jambs, eastern and western facing, and shine through to the population that would have been awaiting this event, along with an announcement ...

The sun shines through the eastern window on the spring equinox. The temple of the Sun serves as an instrument for marking the passage of the sun throughout the solar year. Note the upper niche visible in this western wall and the light spot ...

A close-up of the sun shining through a corresponding window to this one on the opposite wall, spring equinox, 2005. The sacbe that leads to the rest of the city, and a platform construction, are visible through the window. (Image Credit: Jim ...