The Caracol: A Maya Observatory

The Maya Skies Project is an ambitious mission to photograph the Chichén Itzá ruins. These are no ordinary photos but a collection of HD laser and photographic data. The project is a collaboration between CyArk, the Chabot Space and Science Center and InSight Digital and ArtsLab.

The 3D images collected of the Mayan skies as seen from Chichén Itzá were used in the short film called “Tales of the Maya Skies,” which showed at the Chabot Space and Science Center. The half-hour film was created specifically for a planetarium.

It took three weeks to collect the images and lots of advanced technology. Some of the equipment the team used include close-range laser scanning tools, panoramic and HDR cameras, measuring apparatus, and LiDAR, a light sensor which measures distances.  

Dozens of scans were produced of the Caracol structure alone, which is believed to have been an ancient Mayan observatory building and provided a way for people to observe changes in the sky above the canopy. 

Get an idea of what it was like to sit atop the Caracol Mayan observatory with this 360-degree panoramic image.