In the older part of Chichén Itzá we find a complex of buildings, one of which was named Eglesia (Church), by the early Spanish visitors. The Church is one of the most outstanding examples of Puuc ornamentation with elaborately carved masks of Chaac, the Mayan rain god covering the front of the structure.

On either side of the masks are smaller carvings of a crab, a snail, an armadillo and a turtle which some researchers say represent the forces which the Mayas believed supported the sky in each of the four directions.

Above these carvings is an image of a moving snake and a roof with even more big-nosed masks of the rain god.

Chaac, the god of rain, was the guardian of the Maya groups who lived on the Yucatan penninsula from around 600 A.D.. A giver of water, Chaac became the core of a civilization that depended on agriculture for its existence. The engraving of the masks evolved gradully from the beginning in other parts of the Yucatan to the elaborate work on the monuments at Chichen Itza.

When Stephens and Catherwood visited the site in 1843 they wrote:

[Based on Let's Learn about Chichén-Itzá , Chichén-Itzá: The City of the Wise Men of the Water. by Roman Chan, All About the Mayas. by C. Dorese. published by Producción Editorial Dante (Mérida, Mexico) and Incidents of Travel in the Yucatan by Stephens and Catherwood published by Smithsonian Institute Press (Washington D.C.). All available in paperback and highly recommended.]