Today we got to see our first Mexican ruins. It is a site called El Tajin. You may have seen one of their famous pyramids from this location called Pyramid of Nichos. It is very tall with 7 sides that have exactly 365 windows or niches that represent 365 days of the year.
Carvings along some of the buildings depicted self mutilation as a sacrifice to the gods of the earth and sea.
There is a special ritual ball game they played where the winner was sacrificed for the fertility of the land the the good of the people. This was an honor to be the winner and to die. The guide explained that to the Mexicans this was no different that Christ's sacrifice for the people.
The people who built in this area were called HUASTECAN (previous to Mayan). They lived here in the 800 - 900 AD and were gone by 1200 AD.
1 comment:
Looks awesome. The slow going would be tedious but sounds like you are having fun. It's hard to imagine actually what really went on during that time period.
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