Kukulkan, the feathered serpent at Chichén Itzá

During the 11th century AD, Chichén Itzá was a powerful Mayan, then Toltec city. In the city, there was a cult dedicated to Kukulkan, the feathered serpent deity. To keep the believers in a state of adoration combined with fear, the Mayan priests had a pyramid built: during the spring and autumnal equinoxes, the pyramid’s staircase casts a shadow shaped like a serpent, the head of which is sculpted from stone.