The Templo de los Guerreros was named is named after the sculpture of warriors on the pillars of the front and supporting columns.

The cornice of the upper temple which was built over an earlier temple is almost completely covered with motifs imported from central Mexico such as images of heart-eating eagles and jaguars. These images refer to the military elite to whom the Platform of the Eagles and Jaguars was dedicated. There are also images of Kukulcán as the Sun of Earth. Local Maya artists are believed to have hung masks of the god Chaac, the Maya rain god, which helps to distinguish this temple from others in the Yucatán. Inside the building there are many colorful paintings showing daily life during the Maya/Toltec period of Chichen Itza's history.

The upper temple has two enclosures whose entrance is an impressive entrance guarded by a statue of Chac-Mool . It is believed that offerings were placed on the stomach of the reclining figure who would act as messanger to the gods. At the main entrance there are two serpantine columns sculpted in the form of the feathered serpent whose bases are the heads and crowns are the tails of rattlesnakes.

[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.]