Mesoamerican pyramids

Mesoamerican pyramid bases are typical of Mesoamerican ceremonial centers. Body consisted of a pyramid with a temple or set of temples at its summit to be accessed by a steep staircase. The pyramids were decorated with stucco reliefs and painted different colors.

At the top, one meter more or less the end of the ladder, is the sacrificial altar, where they were taken out of sacrifice. Only the priests, dressed in black made up of the same color, could climb to the top of the pyramid. People also came up for slaughter by the staircase to the altar. Once there, they were seized by 4 priests, one for each limb, while the high priest, with great skill and speed, have the chest of the victim and removed his heart throbbing, rioja rose, it was offered to the sun and threw it against the face of the idol inside the temple. Later, deshacĂ­an of bodies thrown down the stairs rolling. The stairway, the Sanctuary, and even the priests were constantly drenched in blood, the blood was the essence of all, their beliefs related to the blood sacrifice to the gods were creating the world, and the duty of men to keep the world with his own blood, was a vital need for them.


The first buildings of this type appeared in the nuclear area call Olmec. In this region, near the Gulf Coast, is located in La Venta archaeological site where the remains of the oldest known Mesoamerican basement today. Another very old basement is the Cuicuilco (Distrito Federal), more or less contemporary to the sale. None of these have the shape of parallelogram that is so characteristic of the famous pyramids of the Sun and the Moon in Teotihuacan, or those of the Mayan cities. The basement has a sale like a star with rounded ends, and the Cuicuilco is circular.

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