Thursday, February 12, 2009
Wall of Skulls [Tzompantli] at Chichen Itza
One of my favorite structures at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan jungle of Mexico is the Wall of Skulls, or Tzompantli. I took a bunch of photos of this area including these two. Another interesting site is the observatory. At the top of it is an observatory with three windows that perfectly align with three positions of Venus.
"The Wall of Skulls is called the Tzompantli, which is actually an Aztec name for this kind of structure, because the first one seen by the horrified Spanish was at the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan.
The Tzompantli structure at Chichén Itzá is a Toltec structure, where the heads of sacrificial victims were placed; although it was one of three platforms in the Great Plaza, it was according to Bishop Landa, the only one for this purpose - the others were for farces and comedies, showing the Itzá's were all about fun. The platform walls of the Tzompantli have carved reliefs of four different subjects. The primary subject is the skull rack itself; others show a scene with a human sacrifice; eagles eating human hearts; and skeletonized warriors with shields and arrows."
from Archaelogy.about.com
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