Pyramid of Cholula
Coordinates: 19 ° 3 ′ 27 ″ N , 98 ° 18 ′ 7 ″ W.
The Pyramid of Cholula is the largest known pyramid in the world by volume .
Naming
As with most Indian temples on the American continent, the original name of the building is no longer known. In Mexico the pyramid is known as "Gran Pirámide de Cholula", which leads to the German translation "Great Pyramid of Cholula". Other common names are: Tlachihualtepetl ( Nahuatl for "man-made mountain") and Teocalli (Nahuatl for "house of the gods"), the latter being used for many pyramids in Mexico.
geography
The pyramid is in San Andrés Cholula , a suburb of Puebla . The Cholula plain lies in a central Mexican valley at an altitude of 2,175 m. In the west the valley is bordered by the volcanoes Popocatépetl and Iztaccíhuatl . In the north is the inactive volcano La Malinche and in the east of the valley rises the 5,747 m high Pico de Orizaba , which belongs to the Sierra Nevada . The plain is drained by the Atoyac River, which today flows through Puebla and is connected to Lake Valsequillo .
Dimensions
The pre-Hispanic building has a volume of around 4.45 million cubic meters with a floor area of 450 × 450 m. However, with its current height of 66 m, it is significantly smaller than the Great Pyramid of Cheops in Egypt and also 4 m lower than the Pyramid of the Sun in Teotihuacán . However, the excavations show that it must have been higher earlier. The top of the four platforms, on which a church now stands, is very large and the lowest steps are also a few meters below the present-day ground.
history
The first settlements in Cholula began in the 3rd century BC. And started by an unknown people with the work on the temple-pyramid complex dedicated to Quetzalcoatl . Different peoples built it for several centuries until around 700 AD.
The descriptive panels on the excavation site indicate that the pyramid was expanded every 52 years. The number 52 had a special meaning in Indian cultures and can be found in many areas.
The first pyramid, which was built from adobe bricks, had a side length of 190 m and a height of approx. 34 m. Like the pyramids of Teotihuacán, which were built around the same time and 100 km away, it was oriented 17 degrees to the northeast.
The last (5th to 7th) superstructures in the 8th century with the final size of approx. 450 × 450 m were built in the Talud-Tablero style, which suggests a strong connection to the builders of the Teotihuacán complex because this architectural style dominates there. From the 8th century, the city, again parallel to Teotihuacán, recorded a drastic population decline of 100,000 inhabitants in its prime. This giant monument was no longer built afterwards (end of the classical period) and the pyramid grew partially over. (Elsewhere in the city, however, sacred buildings were still built in the post-classical period, around the 12th century by the Toltecs ).
After the Spanish conquest, the church "Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios" was built on the top of the pyramid in the 16th century. In 1804, Alexander von Humboldt determined the height and geographical position of the complex, which was built over several times.
research
The pyramid has been scientifically researched since 1917. The 10 ton main altar found nearby suggests that it was dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl (coatl = snake, quetzalli = green feather). This mysterious deity was worshiped by many Indian peoples. From 1931 to 1956, an accessible tunnel system was created under the direction of Ignacio Marquina. These 8-kilometer-long tunnels were mainly dug into the interior of the pyramid in order to be able to understand the different layers of the building. At least five construction phases were identified, which are clearly visible in the part accessible to tourists. In 1966, parts of the temple began to be exposed again. Today you can therefore understand the pyramid as such on the west and south sides. It has not been conclusively clarified why the pyramid today looks more like a densely overgrown mountain than a building made by human hands. Some sources report that Hernán Cortés had it filled up and built the Christian church "Santa Maria de los Remedios" on it with the stones of some smaller pyramids nearby. The remains of the smaller pyramids in the immediate vicinity are still visible from the church. Other reports say that when Corté arrived, the pyramid was no longer recognizable as such and therefore he did not destroy it.
See also
literature
- Felipe Solís, Patricia Uruñuela, Patricia Plunket, Martín Cruz and Dionisio Rodríguez: Cholula, la gran Pirámide . Grupo Azabache, México 2006, ISBN 970-678-027-0
- Miguel Messmacher: Cholula - Reports Preliminar . Editorial Nueva Antropologia, México 1967.
- Eduardo Noguera: El Altar De Los Craneos Esculpidos De Cholula . Talleres Graficos De La Nacion, México 1937.
- Leonardo López Luján, David Carrasco and Lourdes Cué: Arqueología e Historia del Centro de México . Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia [u. a.], México 2006, ISBN 968-03-0180-X
- Guinness World Records 2008 . Bibliographisches Institut, Mannheim 2007, ISBN 3-411-14078-X
Web links
- Report of the Institute of History and Culture of Mexico (Spanish)
- Alexander von Humboldt: "Picturesque views of the Cordillera and monuments of American peoples" , Tübingen 1810
- Rudi Oeser (1989): The Pyramid of Cholula ( Memento from May 16, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
- Background information on the Native American culture by Javier Sierra (Spanish)
- Theory about the connection between the construction of the pyramid and volcanic eruptions around 100 AD (Spanish)
- George and Audrey DeLange (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ tlachihualtepetl. | Nahuatl Dictionary. Retrieved April 24, 2020 .
- ↑ teocalli. | Nahuatl Dictionary. Retrieved April 24, 2020 .
- ↑ Renate Löschner: Alexander von Humboldt's significance for ancient American studies . In: Wolfgang-Hagen Hein (Ed.): Alexander von Humboldt. Life and work . Boehringer, Ingelheim 1985, ISBN 3-921037-55-7 , pp. 258 .