Mexico

Archeology - Tajin

The views expressed here are not necessarily the views of ernestartist.org

The site is on the outskirts of Papantla and is easy to find because of the road signs - the communities in the area want you to find El Tajin .

Tajin means 'place of much smoke, incense, lightning, and thunder.'

Tajin is a product of the Totonac civilization, though Covarrubias states that "the builders of El Tajin were the Olmecs proper - the Paleo-Olmecs" (flourishing about 600 AD)

The great pyramid is built of volcanic rock and adobe, covered in whitish basalt; stuccoed in various colors, mainly red and green. The four sides of the pyramid represent the four seasons - spring, summer, fall, winter - and the niches represent the 365 days of the year.

Somehow, I get the feeling that there were some left over rocks that needed to be delt with, so they were gathered up and thrown onto the roof of the damaged pyramid.

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