Great Pyramid of Cholula

A thousand years

It was built up over a thousand years and means constructed mountain

The Great Pyramid is also known as Tlachihualtepetl, Nahuatl for "constructed mountain". Over a thousand years before the Spanish invasion, consecutive construction phases gradually built up the bulk of it. The temple-pyramid complex was built in four stages, from the 3rd century BC to the 9th century AD, and it was dedicated to the deity Quetzalcoatl.

4.45 million

It is shorter than the pyramid at Giza, and larger by volume

The pyramid stands 25 meters above the plain, far lower than the Great Pyramid of Giza, but it is much wider: 300 by 315 meters at the base. According to the Guinness Book of Records, its total volume is estimated at over 4.45 million cubic meters, against about 2.5 million for Giza. Its base covers 94,500 square meters, nearly twice that of Giza, and is the largest pyramid base in the Americas.

4.45 millioncubic meters, the estimated volume

1594

By 1594 a church stood on top, and the pyramid looks like a hill

By the time the Spanish arrived, the pyramid was overgrown. In 1594 they built the Church of Our Lady of the Remedies on top of the temple. Today the pyramid at first looks like a natural hill. The church is a major pilgrimage destination, and the site is also used for the celebration of many native rites. Because the church is a designated monument, the pyramid as a whole has not been excavated and restored.

1931

About eight kilometers of tunnels were dug inside it from 1931

The architect Ignacio Marquina started exploratory tunneling in 1931, and by 1954 the tunnels came to about 8.0 kilometers. Most of the work was done by Marino Gómez, the site guardian, who directed the digging. The methods came from mining, with small tracks and miniature coal cars to carry out debris, and examples are in the site museum. The tunnels allowed the mapping of the pyramid's successive layers.

8 kmof tunnels dug inside the pyramid by 1954

Cholollan

The name means place of refuge, and people kept burying their dead here

The name Cholula comes from the Nahuatl word Cholollan, which means "place of refuge". At its peak Cholula had the second largest population in Mexico, an estimated 100,000 people. Residents abandoned the Great Pyramid in the 8th century. Even so, long after it was abandoned, they continued to bury their deceased around the structure, which shows it still mattered to them.