Features associated with the Central Mexican highland traditions — including the serpent columns, the chacmool sculpture types, and certain decorative programs — appear alongside forms clearly derived from the earlier lowland Maya tradition.

This has generated a long scholarly debate about whether the Terminal Classic florescence at Chichén Itzá represented conquest or colonization from central Mexico, influence through trade and cultural exchange, or the independent development of a cosmopolitan architectural tradition within northern Yucatán.

The current scholarly consensus, developed over decades of comparative architectural analysis and epigraphy, tends away from the conquest hypothesis and toward understanding Chichén Itzá’s distinctive character as the product of a city that was genuinely cosmopolitan in its networks and influences — a city that drew on multiple traditions because it occupied a position in regional exchange and pilgrimage networks that brought diverse inputs to its builders and planners.

The ball game, which is prominently featured in the Popol Vuh’s Hero Twin narrative and which was central to Mesoamerican religious and political life across many cultures and periods, is represented at Chichén Itzá by the largest ball court in the ancient Americas.