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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2023 9:33:23 GMT
Near Mexico City is an old city called Teotihuacan. Initially just a rural community but about 200BC it began to grow. It remained so until around 750AD. At its height it had a population of up to 175,000 people. It’s one of the major sites in Mexico due to its enormous size. There are several entrances to the area, I picked one that gave me access to the Pyramid of the Sun (third biggest in the world). This is one major pyramid, the other being the Pyramid of the Moon and as a bonus is a temple to Quetzalcoatl. The site is about 2km long. As I entered the Pyramid of the Sun was directly ahead -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2023 9:34:42 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2023 9:36:07 GMT
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 5, 2023 12:14:18 GMT
Around the world, so many things were dismantled and the building materials reused by later civiisations. Mexico was lucky.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2023 17:32:20 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2023 17:33:21 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2023 17:34:47 GMT
A few people caught my eye - Saw this woman pushing a pushchair with a bag on it. Wondered why. My first instinct was she has money and was quite a difficult person to get along with - That’ll be the husband trailing along. So where is the kid? - Ahh, the nanny has it - Anyway, you can see how steep all the steps are if normal people have to take care - On top of the Sun pyramid I spotted someone just ‘hanging around’. Later I saw a guard with a pair of binoculars watching him. No idea of the story behind it, but by then I was on my way out anyway - For sheer spectacle this site is quite extraordinary. But I also wanted to visit some of the more minor places to see what they were like. We’ll see them another time.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 5, 2023 17:39:56 GMT
The big paved walkway down the middle seems a bit out of place, as though they had closed a motorway. It seems that they could have done something a bit more aesthetic.
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Post by htmb on Mar 5, 2023 17:59:01 GMT
Pretty spectacular!
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Post by bjd on Mar 5, 2023 18:49:54 GMT
Interesting that they didn't know how to build archways.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 5, 2023 20:24:07 GMT
I did wonder about that walkway. I wondered if in ancient times it was lined by market stalls or something. That would have been good. htmb, certainly. bjd, here's what I think, from my limited knowledge. In the middle east arches as we know them were used but rarely until the Greeks/Romans perfected them. So in places their empire was established, arches continued after their empires fell. In Latin America they had empires of a time overlapping chronologically but they only knew one kind of arch, a corbelled arch. Those empires fell and it wasn't until the Spanish came and started building churches etc that the 'modern' arches were introduced to that area of the world. The Egyptians, master builders that they were, rarely knew of or used arches until the Romans came, but they did use corbelled arches previously. Normally they just stuck a horizontal stone over the top of two pillars. In the Egyptian and Sudanese pyramids of thousands of years ago there are arches inside, but again the corbelled type. Even Angkor Wat in Cambodia mostly has arches like the Egyptians had even though it is from a very more recent time. You've actually touched on a subject that interests me without knowing it and I often look for arches because of the many different styles and how they can make a place more attractive - so I did have my eye out for them. What I did find are examples and I'll probably include them in a later report. For now though here are a couple of photos from other Mexican sites of the same era - The technique of sticking one stone on another and overlapping them slightly is what I referred to as a corbelled arch. As far as I know it is the oldest type of arch and the first development after sticking one stone on top of the other like Stonehenge. I think in the era the Mexican building were constructed this was all they knew. I bet you wish you'd never asked.
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Post by bjd on Mar 5, 2023 20:37:19 GMT
I bet you wish you'd never asked. Not at all, that's interesting. The picture just above makes me wonder why nobody thought of putting a keystone.
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Post by htmb on Mar 5, 2023 22:43:45 GMT
I’m glad for the lesson! Thanks.
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Post by nycgirl on Mar 6, 2023 5:09:14 GMT
Just caught up on your interesting report. I love your market photos. I didn't take nearly as much market photos in Mexico City as I would have liked because I was nervous about being a bother. (One vendor did tell me not to take photos.) Anyway, you got some great captures.
I enjoyed your video of the sounds of Mexico, it really provides a snapshot of the lively atmosphere. I especially enjoyed your tour of Teotihuacan. Unfortunately, I ended up not going because I was the only one in my group who was really keen on seeing it. It looks really epic, hopefully I can see it one day. The minor ruins like Becan look really cool, too. It must be nice to have them to yourself.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 7, 2023 21:06:59 GMT
They are epic but I also enjoyed Becan and the lesser sites for sure.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 7, 2023 21:08:26 GMT
Ciudad del Carmen This is a place nobody ever probably goes to - Ciudad del Carmen. Not Playa del Carmen which must be 50% tourists and 50% locals. This is seems to have no tourists at all. I wanted to see a seaside town where there weren’t any and this fit the bill nicely. The receptionist at the hotel I had had difficulty understanding I didn’t speak Spanish other than a few basics and I could tell was wondering why I was there. She asked if I was there for work (oil industry) and when I said no, just tourism she had a bit of a puzzled face. There is tourism there, but I think it has been very slow to recover from Covid times. Nevertheless, and maybe because if that, it was about the friendliest hotel I stayed at. Several times they rang the room phone to ask if I wanted a coffee (free) - I came across several hotels where they did have free coffee in reception but this wasn’t one of them. Originally it was a fishing village until the discovery of oil in the 1970’s but it still wasn’t until the 1980’s there was a road link anywhere. Access could only be by boat until then. The place takes its name from Virgen del Carmen day which in 1717 was the day the occupying pirates were finally forced out. I’d had quite a long drive they day I arrived so relaxed for a while and it was dark when I went out for some food. This was a chicken and rice soup but obviously had lots of other stuff in it. It tasted really good - I didn’t walk round too much, I wanted to save that for the next day, but did take a couple of photos - I could tell even at night the town was quite colourful so the next morning I covered quite a lot of ground -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 7, 2023 21:09:32 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 7, 2023 21:11:01 GMT
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Post by mickthecactus on Mar 7, 2023 21:30:37 GMT
Great set of pictures and wonderful colours.
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Post by kerouac2 on Mar 7, 2023 21:30:38 GMT
You'd think they'd fly a flag from the mast on top. I suppose they do sometimes.
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Post by bjd on Mar 8, 2023 6:35:52 GMT
It's nice that the town is in such good repair and colourful for local appreciation, since you say it isn't a tourist draw.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 8, 2023 6:44:35 GMT
It's certainly cleaner than a lot of places I went.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 8, 2023 6:48:27 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 8, 2023 6:49:31 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 8, 2023 6:50:44 GMT
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 8, 2023 6:53:00 GMT
This is how you now get to the town - “El Zacatal Bridge: The El Zacatal bridge is the longest bridge in Latin America of its kind, with a length of 3861 meters and a width of 9 meters. It is one of the busiest in the country as it is the entrance to the Yucatán Peninsula,” - Eventually I got to the edge of the town where the modern buildings started - There is a monument on the roundabout leading out of town. At the base are two cannons discovered during some building works and date from the 18th or 19th century. A sign states they were from pirates - The monument, called the monument of the eagle and the lion (would you believe) is described as - “The duel of the Eagle and the Lion, recreates hegemony or supremacy, the balance of forces today, one hundred and fifty years after holding the title of city, forged us as a proud, hard-working and hospitable people.” So that answers that then - Nice, colourful and well maintained town. Glad I went out of my way a little to get there.
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Post by lugg on Mar 8, 2023 19:02:50 GMT
Really great to see all the additional details from your trip Mark.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 8, 2023 20:41:28 GMT
Thanks lugg, There just a few other things to post to fill in.
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 9, 2023 7:13:31 GMT
I’m away again tomorrow but will with luck gain access to the internet again at the beginning of the week, so I’ll put this up here as well. A place called El Tajin. Relative to the major ancient sites, this is one of the smaller ones, though still a nice handy size to walk around for a few hours. It was inhabited from about 600AD to 1200AD though there is evidence people have been there since 1150BC. During this later time lots of temples, palaces, ball courts (20 of them in total), and pyramids were built. It is said, “The 'Pyramid of the Niches', a masterpiece of ancient Mexican and American architecture, reveals the astronomical and symbolic significance of the buildings. The site is one of the most important in Mexico and the most important in the state of Veracruz.” First though this is when I left Teotihuacan (the previous Ciudad del Carmen was later in the trip, so we are not seeing things chronologically) - With its early morning balloons -
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Post by onlyMark on Mar 9, 2023 7:16:59 GMT
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