The Great Pyramid of Cholula, also known as Tlachihualtepetl (Nahuatl for "constructed mountain"), is a complex located in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico. It is the largest archaeological site of a pyramid (temple) in the world, as well as the largest pyramid by volume known to exist in the world today.
The adobe brick pyramid stands 25 metres (82 ft) above the surrounding plain, which is significantly shorter than the Great Pyramid of Giza's height of 146.6 metres (481 ft), but much wider, measuring 300 by 315 metres (984 by 1,033 ft) in its final form, compared to the Great Pyramid's base dimensions of 230.3 by 230.3 metres (756 by 756 ft). The pyramid is a temple that traditionally has been viewed as having been dedicated to the god Quetzalcoatl. The architectural style of the building was linked closely to that of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, although influence from the Gulf Coast is evident as well, especially from El Tajín.
Location and etymology
The Cholula archaeological zone is situated 6.4 kilometres (4 mi) west of the city of Puebla, in the city of Cholula. The pyramid is located in the San Andrés Cholula, Puebla municipality, and marks the area in the center of the city where this municipality begins. The city is divided into two municipalities called San Andrés and San Pedro. This division originates in the Toltec-Chichimeca conquest of the city in the twelfth century. These pushed the former dominant ethnicity of the Olmeca-Xicallanca, to the south of the city. These people kept the pyramid as their primary religious center, but the newly dominant Toltec-Chichimecas founded a new temple to Quetzalcoatl where the San Gabriel monastery is now. The Toltec-Chichimec people who settled in the area around the twelfth century AD named Cholula as Tlachihualtepetl, meaning "artificial hill".
The name Cholula has its origin in the ancient Nahuatl word Cholollan, which means "place of refuge".
History
The Great Pyramid was an important religious and mythical centre in preinvasion times. Over a period of a thousand years prior to the Spanish Invasion, consecutive construction phases gradually built up the bulk of the pyramid until it became the largest in Mexico by volume.
Classic
The temple-pyramid complex was built in four stages, starting from the 3rd century BC through the 9th century AD, and was dedicated to the deity Quetzalcoatl. It has a base of 300 by 315 metres (984 by 1,033 ft) and a height of 25 m (82 ft). According to the Guinness Book of Records, it is, in fact, the largest pyramid as well as the largest monument ever constructed anywhere in the world, with a total volume estimated at over 4.45 million cubic metres, larger than that of the taller Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt, which is about 2.5 million cubic metres. The ceramics of Cholula were closely linked to those of Teotihuacan, and both sites appeared to decline simultaneously. The Postclassic nahuas called the pyramid Tlachihualtépetl or "hand-made mountain", which means they believed the structure was built by human hands instead of by sacred beings.
At its peak, Cholula had the second largest population in Mexico of an estimated 100,000 people living at this site. Though the ancient city of Cholula remained inhabited, residents abandoned the Great Pyramid in the 8th century as the city suffered a drastic population drop. Even after this population drop, the Great Pyramid retained its religious importance.
The site was once called Cholollan meaning "the place of those who fled", a clear reference to the events written on the text Anales de Cuauhtinchan, where a group of tolteca-chichimeca arrive and conquer the city after running from their previous capital city, Tollan-Xicocotitlán.
Postclassic and Colonial
The Toltec-Chichimec History, a codex from the Cholula region, relates that an Olmeca-Xicallanca lord with the title Aquiyach Amapane resided at the Great Pyramid. In the 12th century, after the Toltec-Chichimecas took over the city, religious focus shifted away from the pyramid and to a new temple. Even during the Postclassic period, long after locals abandoned the pyramid, they continued to bury their deceased around the structure, demonstrating its continued importance. By the time the Spanish arrived, the pyramid was overgrown, and by the 19th century it was still undisturbed, with only the church built in the 16th century visible.
Modern history
Architect Ignacio Marquina started exploratory tunnelling within the pyramid in 1931. By 1954, the total length of tunnels came to approximately 8.0 kilometres (5 mi).
Today the pyramid at first looks like a natural hill. This is the Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Church of Our Lady of Remedies), also known as the Santuario de la Virgen de los Remedios (Sanctuary of the Virgin of Remedies), which was built by the Spanish in colonial times (1594) on top of the temple. The church is a major pilgrimage destination, and the site is also used for the celebration of many native rites. Many ancient sites in Latin America are found under Catholic sites, due to the practice of the Catholic Church of recognizing their significance and building atop them.
Because of the historic and religious significance of the church, which is a designated monument, the pyramid as a whole has not been excavated and restored, as have the smaller but better-known pyramids at Teotihuacan. Inside the pyramid are some five miles (8 km) of tunnels excavated by archaeologists.
Pyramid
The pyramid consists of six superimposed structures, one for each ethnic group that dominated it. However, only three have been studied in any depth. The pyramid itself is just a small part of the greater archaeological zone of Cholula, which is estimated at 154 hectares (0.59 sq mi). Building of the pyramid began in the Preclassic Period and over time was built over six times to its final dimensions of 300 by 315 metres on each side at the base and 25 metres tall. The base covers a total area of 94,500 square meters (1,016,669 square feet), nearly twice the size of the 53,108 square meter (571,356 square feet) base of Pharaoh Khufu's Great Pyramid of Giza. Tlachihualtepetl has the largest pyramid base in the Americas.
The earliest construction phase features talud-tablero architecture that is characteristic of the region, and that became strongly associated with the great metropolis of Teotihuacan. Some of the pyramid constructions have had burials, with skeletons found in various positions, with many offerings, especially ceramics. The last state of construction has stairs on the west side leading to a temple on top, which faced Iztaccíhuatl. During the colonial period, the pyramid was severely damaged on its north side to build the Camino Real to Puebla. The west was damaged later with the installation of a rail line.
Excavation history
The first study of the pyramid area was done by Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss-born American archaeologist with an interest in Mexico. He arrived at Cholula in 1881 and published his findings about the site in 1884. Most of Bandelier's work involved the unearthing of various burials in the area around the pyramid, principally collecting skulls, which was standard practice at the time. Many of these wound up in storerooms in U.S. museums.
Bandelier also took the first precise measurements of the structure, made some headway into how it was constructed and worked on domestic structures that coincide with the pyramid. He made the first precise field notes at the site and the earliest plan of the site. Bandelier also showed interest in two nearby mounds called the Cerro de Acozac and the Cerro de la Cruz, which at that time were totally covered in vegetation.
The pyramid was excavated in two phases. The first began in 1931 and ended in the 1950s. Excavations began again in 1966 and officially ended in 1970, with the publication of the reports of the various academics who worked on Proyecto Cholula.
Exploration of the pyramid itself began in 1931 under architect Ignacio Marquina who dug tunnels to explore the substructures. This was a time of political instability in Mexico, mostly due to the Cristero War. However, the decision was made to excavate the structure because of the success of the excavations of Teotihuacan by Manuel Gamio in the 1920s. The project was given to Marquina because of his experience working with Gamio in Teotihuacan.
While credit is given to Marquina, he spent little time at the site. Most of the work was really done by Marino Gómez, the site guardian, who directed the digging of the tunnels. These tunnels allowed for the mapping and modelling of the pyramid's successive layers. The pyramid had no obvious entrance, due to its deteriorated condition, but the archaeologists decided to begin tunnelling on the north side, where colonial construction had damaged it. On this side, the remains of walls and other structures could be seen.
Tunnelling techniques relied on various team members' experience at Teotihuacan and Tenayuca. These techniques were based on mining, even using small tracks and miniature coal cars to carry out debris. Examples of these are at the site museum. The base of the pyramid was constructed of sun-dried adobe bricks, which contained ceramic, obsidian and gravel for better compacting. This solid foundation allowed the excavators to only need to create "false arches" like those found in Mayan constructions, rather than adding beams and other supports.
The first two tunnels were built to criss-cross the centre, one north–south and the other east–west. When the tunnels reached substructure, they then followed the contour of the structure, and eventually the various tunnels created an underground labyrinth. By 1939, there were four kilometers of tunnels, with two more added by 1951. The tunnels demonstrate the real value of the pyramid, which is not visible on the surface.
During the first round of excavations, sixteen holes were dug in the area by Eduardo Noguera to extract ceramic materials and establish a time line. The results of these were published in 1954 as La ceramica arqueológica de Cholula. The pieces ranged from clay figures made when the settlement was just a village, to the Pre-classic. The latter ones include figures that are definitely nude females with complicated hair styles. Figures from later periods, such as those coinciding with Tula and Teotihuacan, tend to be of gods and priests. Various musical instruments, such as flutes, were also found, as well as tools for the making of textiles, amate paper and axes. One major find included a ceremonial scepter carved from bone, with images related to the concept of life and death as a duality.
The first round of excavation work ended in the 1950s. The second round of excavations took place from 1966 to 1974 under the name of Proyecto Cholula. This was spurred, in part, by reconstructed pyramids in Mexico, which had become tourist attractions. This project was sponsored by both the federal and state governments, who wanted to make Cholula an attraction, as well. The archaeology and anthropology fields had experienced changes since Marquina's work, mostly focusing on a more interdisciplinary approach.
The first person in charge of the site was Miguel Messmacher in 1966. After only six months of work, Messmacher released a preliminary report in 1967. One of the main finds during this time was that of Edificio I (Building I). In addition to the excavating of the main structures of the pyramid, Messmacher, Eduardo Matos Moctezuma and others in the project worked on more multidisciplinary tasks, such as determining agricultural patterns of the site, ceramic development and water distribution systems. However, this put them in conflict with the sponsors of the project, along with the INAH, which favored a more restricted approach that focused on reconstructing the pyramid.
In 1967, INAH decided to replace Messmacher with Ignacio Marquina as head of the team excavating the site, which prompted most of the younger researchers to leave the project. While the focus was placed back on the pyramid proper, the project did not lose all of its interdisciplinary character, keeping experts in areas such as geology, botany and paleozoology.