Read aloud by your device's voice. It sounds different on each device.
Hummingbirds
Its name means place of hummingbirds, and it was the Purépecha capital
Tzintzuntzan was the ceremonial center of the Purépecha capital of the same name. The name comes from the Purépecha word Ts’intsuntsani, "place of hummingbirds". Power moved here from Pátzcuaro in the mid 15th century. The empire grew and held off attacks by the neighboring Aztec Empire until the Spanish arrived. The Purépecha language is unrelated to any other Mesoamerican language, and the city had between 25,000 and 30,000 people in the 1520s.
Five yácatas
Five round pyramids face the lake from a platform dug into the hill
Five yácata pyramids stand in a row facing Lake Pátzcuaro, on a Grand Platform 450 by 250 meters excavated into the hillside. Unlike Aztec or Mayan pyramids they are rounded, not square: roughly keyhole shaped, linked at the back by stepped platforms. Their rubble cores are faced with stone slabs carved with spirals, circles and other geometric designs. On each stood a wooden temple for the most important rites, including burials.
Stones reused
The Spanish friars built their monastery from the stones of the pyramids
When the Spanish conquered Tenochtitlan, Tzintzuntzan was the capital of the second largest empire in Mesoamerica, and it surrendered without a fight. In the 1520s it became the first capital of the new Spanish province of Michoacán. Franciscan friars built their monastery in part from stones taken from the five yácatas. By the 1530s the capital had moved to Pátzcuaro and the population plummeted.
1930s
No one dug here until the 1930s, and a site museum opened in 1992
Because of a lack of interest in the old Purépecha dominion, excavation did not begin until the 1930s. Nicolas León did the first fieldwork in 1888, and in 1930 Caso and Noguera began the first formal excavation. A series of eleven seasons led by Alfonso Caso began in 1937. The Site Museum was inaugurated in 1992. The site is still used for events such as the Festival Cultural de Fin de Año.
The last emperor
The young emperor who hoped to avoid war was burned at the stake
Epidemics of smallpox and measles, even before the Spanish arrived, had severely affected the Purépecha population and likely killed the emperor. A young emperor was hastily installed. He hoped to work around Spanish rule and avoid the utter destruction of Tenochtitlán. That hope ended when some Spanish administrators, acting without the authorization of the crown, burned him at the stake.
Day 4, midday
It comes after Janitzio. Then Santa Clara del Cobre.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Tzintzuntzan (Mesoamerican site), and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.