CHICH�N ITZ�, YUCAT�N, M�XICO

Chiché,n Itzá, is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage site, one of the largest and most accessible Maya archaeological areas in southern Mexico. The densely clustered architecture of the site core covers an area of at least 6.5 square kilometres, and smaller scale residential architecture extends for an unknown distance beyond the site core. Although the history of archaeological study of the site extends back over a century, the most significant and productive effort was that directed between 1924 and 1940 by Sylvanus G. Morley under the sponsorship of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. Morley prepared a draft of a Guide Book to the Ruins of Chiché,n Itzá, in 1946, which has since languished in the archaeological archives. Although dated and probably quaint by modern standards, Morley&rsquo,s guide to Chiché,n Itzá, remains the only synthesis of the site based on almost 20 years of excavation, consolidation, and restoration of the ruins. Our interest in publishing Morley&rsquo,s manuscript was based on several factors