| Wandering out from the museum we headed west and
eventually reached the Avenue of the Dead. The original discoverers of the
ruins thought the smaller structures that line this road were burial sites,
hence the name which has since proved to be inaccurate. This is as wide as an English
motorway but slopes upwards as you go north towards the Pyramid of the
Moon. The steps are more like a wall with an up and a down thus separating
parts of the city and probably social groupings. Since the builders had
neither the horse nor the wheel a smooth road was not necessary. |  |
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Our hearts sank as we spotted all the people dressed in blue, but by the
time we reached the pyramid (this is a long shot!) they had all vanished.
You could lose thousands of people on this site. This pyramid is smaller
than the Pyramid of the Sun but reaches the same elevation because it is
built on higher ground. It was completed in 300AD |
| Close to, climbing this pyramid is no joke even though
you can't climb all the way to the top. We made it without stops and sat at the top and gloated as all these
folk who are younger than us had to stop on the way up. Two young Korean lads
almost ran up it - oh to be 18 again! It is really hard work for those with
short legs as the individual steps have really high risers. I guess you wouldn't run if you knew they
were going to cut your heart out when you got to the top. |  |
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Even though we are only at the top of the first section, the views are quite
something. This is looking south-east towards the Pyramid of the Sun. |
| This is the view due south down the Avenue of the Dead towards Quetzalpapalotl's
Temple almost 2km away. |  |
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And the view southwest. The Jaguar's Palace and Quetzalpapalotl's Palace are behind this set of minor
pyramids. |
| This is the Palace of the Jaguars with the Pyramid of
the Moon out of the picture to our right. We are stood on the remains of Quetzalpapalotl's
Palace. |  |
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Jan got collared at this point by a bunch of Mexican students practicing
their English skills. The two at the front were the inquisitors and the one
behind them videoed the interview. Some of the questions didn't fit well. I
think they expected Americans and our different take rather threw them. They
were floored when Jan told them how many languages she speaks. |
| On to the ruins of Quetzalpapalotl's Palace. This was
heavily populated by young scouts (in yellow - under 10s) having some sort
of lecture. |  |
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There are more murals - if it's got a roof there is something to look at
under it. This is of jaguars (we assumed). I suppose it was a bit like
Christians and lions - same time period. |
| There are lots of little shed-sized stalls selling
souvenirs on
the way out to all the car parks. |  |
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But there are just as many sales persons inside. They all said very cheap -
almost free. Some of it was ridiculously cheap and when you said no they
made it cheaper still. The problem for us is weight. And there are so many
you just have to say no to avoid being swamped. We did buy some bits from
this lady. |
| So to the Pyramid of the Sun. Those little dots on the
top are people. The base is 222m on each side and it is 70m high. It was
completed around 100AD using 3 million tons of stone but without the use of
metal tools, pack animals or the wheel. It is the third largest pyramid in
the world. |  |
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Apparently there are 288 steps to get to the top. Most folk lose count. It
is hard work and the first bit of the last section is even steeper than the
rest. |
| You can get vertigo looking down. There seem to be
stone spikes sticking out every so often. We weren't sure whether it was to
stop people accidentally falling all the way down, or to make a real mess of
any who were deliberately thrown off the top. |  |
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This is the view from the top looking south over the remains of
Quetzalpapalotl's Citadel and Temple. Our campsite in San Juan is a couple
of kilometres to the west
of this. |
| There are hundreds of buildings on the site and they
don't have names for most of them. A lot of people lived here. The city
eventually covered 20 sq kms, much larger than today's site |  |
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The Pyramid of the Moon from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun. |
| And just to prove we were there and that by now the
sun was shining. |  |
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The view east showing one of the almost empty car parks. |
| We climbed down and walked back to the museum shop
past these adobe style walls. We weren't quite sure what they were for. We
bought a couple of books and then set off for Quetzalpapalotl's Temple. |  |
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In comparison with the rest this seemed a bit of an anti climax. We were
tired and wondered about coming back tomorrow to do this bit but our exit
was down this end. |
| We entered the main courtyard and climbed what we
thought was the main
pyramid, and found another one behind it. They are still working on
excavating this area and uncovering more carvings. |  |
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This is particularly ornamented with lots of infill decoration.. |
| Some of the outbuildings in the courtyard are still
being actively excavated. |  |
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Overall the scale just blows your mind. We think of Mexico as a third world
country and yet there is all this evidence of sophisticated cultures
existing at a time when we were still in the Dark Ages.. |
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