The Pyramid in Cholula

It is about a 20 minute drive from our house in Puebla to the pyramid in Cholula.  The area that we live in is San Andreas Cholula, so I think we are technically in the district of Cholula, but we're not in the actual city.  This pyramid is the largest pyramid ever constructed anywhere in the world (by volume -- the Great Pyramid in Giza is taller).  It has at least three layers of different pyramids from different time periods.  Each time the area was conquered, a new pyramid was built on top of the existing one.  The last group to conquer the area before the Spaniards, let the pyramid fall to ruin, although it was still the town center, so when the Spaniards conquered the area, it looked like just a natural hill.  They built a catholic church on top of the hill and it is now a major pilgrimage destination.  The pyramid has only been partially excavated partly because the church is also an important relic from the colonial era.

We started our tour by entering a tunnel that goes beneath the pyramid.  There are tunnels off to the sides of this tunnel.  Some just seem to be dead ends. Somewhere in the middle is a spiral opening where one of our ward friends repelled accompanied by an archaeologist.

This picture shows the main path.  Only within the last century did they add the lights :).

Some paths lead to stairs going down.

Others lead to stairs going up.  (This is Stephen sitting on the stairs, which were quite steep).

After leaving the tunnel, we walked around one side of the hill.  This was our first glimpse of the outside of the pyramid.

It got more spectacular as we walked on.

In this picture you can see the Catholic Church at the top of the pyramid.

A very realistic image of the king. Life size at 3 feet tall.

This was one of three different alters from different time periods.

Here is the second.  If you stood back about fifty feet from here and clapped your hands, you would here a unique sound which they say is the sound of the nearly extinct quetzal bird.  National Geographic is supposedly investigating to see whether this was intended in the construction or not. We had fun testing this out!

Here is the third alter.

The kids were really excited to discover that there were lots of caterpillars at this site.

Chiara watches Daniel play with a caterpillar.

This alter is in front of the pyramid and you go down to it.  I think it is newer construction than the pyramid.

Here you can see the alter of the previous picture in relation to the rest of the pyramid.

Here on the side of the pyramid you can see what the one of the older layers of the pyramid looked like with steps going up the middle.  The outer layer had steps going all the way around the pyramid.

Here we are on the steps.

The church on top of the pyramid is called Nuestra Señora de los Remedios.

This is a view of Cholula from on top of the pyramid.