Dic 23 2011 El Tajin: the puzzle of the pyramid of the niches

• the tajin1

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/el-tajin1.jpg

  We arrived in El Tajin, Archaeology swallowed by the jungle, ancestral pulse between stones and weeds, leaving behind rain, heat, rain again, and a grocery store after another on the shoulders, dotted watermelon vendors. By Ricardo Coarasa.

• archaeological piece tajin

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/tajin-pieza-arqueologica.jpg

  We arrived in El Tajin, Archaeology swallowed by the jungle, ancestral pulse between stones and weeds, leaving behind rain, heat, rain again, and a grocery store after another on the shoulders, dotted watermelon vendors. By Ricardo Coarasa.

• tajin pyramid of nichos2

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/tajin-piramide-de-los-nichos2.jpg

  We arrived in El Tajin, Archaeology swallowed by the jungle, ancestral pulse between stones and weeds, leaving behind rain, heat, rain again, and a grocery store after another on the shoulders, dotted watermelon vendors. By Ricardo Coarasa.

• tajin pyramid of nichos3

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/tajin-piramide-de-los-nichos3.jpg

  We arrived in El Tajin, Archaeology swallowed by the jungle, ancestral pulse between stones and weeds, leaving behind rain, heat, rain again, and a grocery store after another on the shoulders, dotted watermelon vendors. By Ricardo Coarasa.

• tajin pyramid of the niches

  https://www.viajesalpasado.com/wp-content/uploads/tajin-piramide-de-los-nichos.jpg

  We arrived in El Tajin, Archaeology swallowed by the jungle, ancestral pulse between stones and weeds, leaving behind rain, heat, rain again, and a grocery store after another on the shoulders, dotted watermelon vendors. By Ricardo Coarasa.

We have reached El Tajin, Archaeology swallowed by the jungle, ancestral pulse between stones and weeds, leaving behind rain, heat, rain again, and a grocery store after another (our grocery or convenience stores) on the shoulders, dotted with watermelon vendors offering their wares friendly to motorists. Mexico, me reafirmo, is a fascinating country, daring, great pieces of surrealist. On a road trip there is no room for boredom.

The surroundings of El Tajin, "The place where they worship the god of thunder", is majestic, pulled a machete to weed papanteca patiently saw a goldsmith since, in 1785, Spanish inspector discovered the first remains while searching for illegal plantations of snuff. This sometimes writes history. When the conquistadors arrived, these mute stones were home to the Totonac, although it seems unlikely that their ancestors edify the city and ceremonial center which enjoyed its peak between the ninth and twelfth centuries AD. It was a city of craftsmen, farmers, merchants and their tentacles reached to the very Teotihuacán, to be discussed at another time.

The choking humidity every step. Minimum effort of sweat drenching. That same moisture spurs, now and forever, continued expansion of the forest of Veracruz, pounces that the pyramids and temples, hidden for many years to human curiosity. Thank God, perhaps Quetzalcoatl, their main deity, the sun only punishes the end of the tour, when the air is thick until almost chew left in each puff.

We walked among stones, as noted by Octavio Paz, "Are alive and dancing"

We walked among stones, as noted by Octavio Paz, "Are alive and dancing". The Pyramid of the Niches stands out among all the buildings with their 18 meters of carved stone blocks. He was one of the last buildings to rise and is, perhaps, the best preserved. It has seven floors of "niches" that challenge the imagination of the traveler, who reads the religious significance that should be in its day but does not dare to venture hypotheses about its ritual significance as his eyes lost in the staircase reminiscent of Mayan influence. This pyramid, no doubt, is the quintessential image of El Tajin. The profusion of identical compartments immediately arouse visitors' curiosity, that watches the symbolism of this building has a "niche" for each day of the Aztec calendar, 360 total minus five days considered harmful by the priests. Its religious symbolism is clear, but what was their role? Is this a great ritual calendar? Some researchers suggest that the Totonac placed candles at night in each niche as the year progressed. Those flashing lights sure the pyramid gave a ghostly, intimidatory, perhaps emphasized its religious magnetism.

Only the magnificent pitch the ball game, one of eleven that have been discovered in archaeological site (earning him the nickname "the Mexican Olympia", get distracted for a moment the attention. Forced to add a few lines on this fun life and death represented the indigenous worldview and served, passing, to feed the greed of the gods with human victims. Only the purest could take part in this game introduced by the Olmecs and full of symbolism, in which two couples trying to bring a rubber ball of just one kilogram of weight for a small diameter hole, hitting only with the knee, hip and elbow.

But there was another version of the game that ended at the stone of sacrifice. In this case, anyone could participate and each bleachers were located the supporters of either side, generally wealthy merchants. Who earned up to the stands where they were those who had bet on the loser, stripped them of everything that could save in a bag and then gave the loot to his "coach".

The facilities surrounding these excavations, still incomplete, because the weed hides a number of pyramids perennially "asleep" waiting for that money to bring them out let-, were inaugurated in 1992 by the then President, Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Salinas ended his term with a brother in jail for corruption and Mexicans do not keep very fond memories of his hero. An anonymous hand has been commissioned to remove your name from the plaque in memory of the event.