Mexico » Travel Photography » The Great Pyramid of Cholula & the Quetzalcóatl Festival

Did you know that Mexico is home to the largest pyramid in the world? Tlachihualtepetl, commonly referred to as the Great Pyramid of Cholula, is almost twice the size (by volume) than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. It’s located in another Pueblo Mágico: Cholula, Puebla. Both the city and the pyramid were high on our list of “must see” places to visit. It was worth the hype.

I plan to write a separate photo blog documenting the colorful city of Cholula at some point, so today we’ll focus on the Great Pyramid of Cholula, and the church built on top, ‘Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios’. However, a little bit of history will help set the scene: The Great Pyramid Tlachihualtepetl is a completely unique ancient site, in that it’s actually a number of pyramids built on top of the previous, like giant stone nesting dolls. It’s not a tall pyramid, and being that it’s largely un-excavated, it just looks like a hill at first glance. But there’s no other site quite like it! Depending on what sources you read, there are four to six nested pyramids, and six to ten phases of construction, built over a thousand years, from 200 BC until 800 AD. Based on the evolution of the construction styles, it’s theorized that the site was first built by the Olmecs, then expanded upon by a handful of subsequent civilizations who occupied the area.

The pyramid itself has a base size of 94,500 square meters, and a hight of 55 meters, with a total volume estimated at over 4.45 million cubic meters. The protected archeological zone takes up 380 acres in the center of Cholula, but the actual footprint of the sprawling ancient site extends far beyond the borders into unprotected land, including privately owned property. This is where things get a little tricky today. The city is currently undergoing a number of large construction projects that threaten (and have already destroyed) parts of the pyramid on unprotected land. Thankfully, there’s a vocal group of local people fighting tirelessly to save as much as they can, despite the city’s efforts to build new rail lines and large buildings on the edge of the archeological zone. More on that later. It’s all super complicated and fascinating. I’ve spent more time reading about Cholula and the fight to save the Great Pyramid than any other site in Mexico.

When the Aztecs came across the uninhabited Tlachihualtepetl in the 12-1300 AD, they were so impressed, they gave credit for its construction to Xelhua, one of the seven giants from their creation mythology. Historians suggest that the Aztecs did not add any additional construction to the site. Supposedly, they understood it was an important site, but did not use it, and when they learned the Spanish were advancing into the area in the early 1500s, they buried it, prior to the Cholula Massacre. Nobody suspected it was anything more than a regular hill until the late 1800s! Really? Despite the fact that the Spanish built the church on top in the late 1600’s, intentionally placing it on top of an existing ancient temple. They didn’t realize it was also on top of the world’s largest pyramid. Really? I should also note that some scholars suggest settlement in the area originated as early as 800 BC, which, if true, would make it the oldest continually inhabited settlement in the Americas! But that contradicts the notion that the pyramid was abandoned prior to the Aztec’s arrival. This site really has a lot of questionable historical inconsistencies.

The modern city of Cholula is made up of two municipalities, San Pedro Cholula and San Andrés Cholula, with a combined population about 120,000 people. The history is a bit tense, as the two halves have a long history of rivalry, dating back to a time when the Olmec-Xicallancas were pushed to one side of the city by the rebelling Toltec-Chichimeca ethnicity. This division continued to deepen after the arrival of the Spanish. Residents, then and now, take great pride if their family’s heritage can be traced to one of the original eighteen ‘barrios’ (neighborhoods). Each of the barrios have their own church and patron saint. The separate patchwork of tiny factions within the city work together, by each hosting their own annual city-wide religious festivals, which as you can imagine, results in a very full calendar of events!

On a related topic, Cholula is known for its incredibly high number of churches per capita. It’s rumored that Hernán Cortés ordered 365 churches to be built in Cholula, one for every day of the year! It’s unconfirmed, but greatly suspected, that these churches were each built on top of 365 then-existing Mesoamerican places of worship (and we’ll see a few examples of that in the photos). Cholula doesn’t have 365 churches today, it has 45. But that number doesn’t include minor chapels, shrines, or other religious buildings. Also, reform laws in the mid-19th century required the closing of many religious institutions. So it’s not difficult to imagine that number could have easily been 365 at one time.

So why does such a unique ancient site sit covered in dirt? Let’s dig a little deeper.

The Tlachihualtepetl site is massive, and because it’s underground, it’s difficult to explain without photos. Fortunately, the museum has a scale model replica for reference. Note that most of what the model shows from this angle is actually buried under a “hill”.

Before we look at the Great Pyramid itself, let’s start with the church resting on top: ‘Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios’. The photo of the scale model above shows the back of the church, which you can also see in the photo below. We were fortunate to have one stormy day, during our week in Cholula, to capture this ominous look.

Chronologically, we toured the pyramid before the church, because I wanted to take photos from the top at sunset. But for the purposes of this blog and story, I think it will make more sense to reverse the order. This is the breathtaking view from the church gates, overlooking Cholula below, with the Popocatépetl volcano puffing out steam in the distance.

From this vantage point, we can see the ‘Convento de San Gabriel Arcángel’ which resides alongside one of the many famous churches, ‘Capilla Real de Naturales’, built in 1530-40. As seems to be the recurring theme, the church and friary were built on top of a destroyed ancient Mesoamerican temple to Quetzalcóatl, reusing many of the large stones.

These two photos were taken with my PaperShoot camera, inside the grounds of the ‘Convento de San Gabriel Arcángel’. You can see the large stones originally used to construct the now-destroyed temple to Quetzalcóatl.

Back to ‘Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios’, it was constructed in 1575, but oddly, it wasn’t consecrated until 1629. As I mentioned earlier, it was built on top of an ancient temple, that just happened to be built on top of a “hill”, that was actually a buried pyramid. Seems legit. This church is the sole reason the massive pyramid-on-pyramid-on-pyramid structure underneath has hardly been excavated, for fear of damage. The church itself is hardly original, as it’s been damaged and restored, not once, but twice. The church was almost completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1864, and it underwent a decade of restoration. Then again in 1999, the church took a whopping 80% damage in another earthquake. It seems to me that excavating a wildly unique pyramid complex would take precedence over the church. Or at least, could be done in a way that would ensure the safety of the church. But hey, who am I to say? It sure is beautiful.

It’s suggested that the Spanish built so many churches as symbols of their victoriess. Is it too far-fetched to suggest they could have built churches to impede excavation and knowledge of ancient sites? But I digress.

Here we see more of the colorful city of Cholula below, with the city of Puebla in the distance. The tree-covered overgrown “hill” you see in the foreground is actually the pyramid, like some sort of giant hibernating under a blanket.

Sadly, part of the underground ancient structure was recently damaged, to build the rail station seen at the bottom of this frame. As I mentioned earlier, the footprint of the ancient site extends beyond the currently preserved archeological zone.

In the opposite direction, we see yet another church nestled in another one of Cholula’s barrios.

Now that we’ve seen the church on top, and the layout of the city encroaching from all directions, let’s move down to the pyramid below. We’ll start by walking around that lower area, which is only excavated as much as the model portrays.

Once again, the photo of the scale model above corresponds to the photo below.

I find these retaining walls particularly interesting. As we peer into the excavated sections, it’s easy to see the ground level of the site sits a full 3-4 meters below the current ground level of the surrounding grass fields. Yet there are acres and acres of land just waiting to be uncovered. It’s easy to see there’s a lot more here, and it’s hard to imagine how they chose these arbitrary boundaries. Certainly excavating these far-reaching areas would not put the church at any risk. I look forward to reading about the “discovery” and various excavation projects, which took place from 1931 to 1974, when “the project was abandoned, leaving only fragmentary knowledge about it”.

If you read my previous photo blog covering three other pyramid sites, you may be able to recognize the method of preservation used in the next three photos. It seems, where the structure has previously been destroyed, the archeologists chose to cover the edges with concrete and round stones, rather than try to reconstruct them. This is more pleasing to the eye than some of the other sites, which just used concrete. Can you see where the ancient construction ends and the modern “capping” begins?

Here we see more of the 3-4 meter retaining wall, using the modern concrete and round stone “capping” method.

I find this area particularly interesting, referred to as the ‘Courtyard of Altars’ due to the number of large carved stones found around the courtyard. You can see that it seems to be more well-preserved than what we’ve seen so far. But what has me curious is the placement and design of the stones. Do they look out of place to you? Similar to the Toltec warriors on top of the Tula pyramid, these large carved stones don’t quite look like they belong here. It’s curious.

Here we see a small area protected by a covering. What’s odd about this is that it’s in the middle of the field, quite a distance from the rest of the site. The small excavated area also sits at the same 3-4 meter depth, and has had a retaining wall built around it. Just a little seemingly random square of excavation.

During the various excavations between 1931 and 1974, archeologists dug approximately 5 miles of tunnels, weaving around and through the pyramid, underneath the church. However, only 800 meters of tunnels are available for the public to view, and unfortunately, they were not open at this time. You can see an entrance here.

This is the last visible part of the complex: “Building F”.

Once again, the photo of the scale model above corresponds to the photo below.

I hate to burst your bubble, because it’s quite beautiful, but this part of the pyramid “has since been criticized by historians for being overly reconstructed”. It was rebuilt using commercially-made cement casts, leading to the structure being jokingly referred to as the ‘Tolteca pyramid’, named after the brand of cement they used.

Here we can see quite clearly the difference between the original ancient construction and the modern reconstruction…

On the left is the only example at this site of the “bumpy” stone surface, which we’ve seen at numerous other sites. It’s suggested that the stones were used as anchors for casing stones, which were ornately carved. There wasn’t any signage to explain what we were looking at, but based on information at other sites, including Tula and Teotihuacán, that would be my best guess.

Another entrance into the 5 mile tunnel system.

There are numerous unmarked areas around the pyramid, protected by these tall green fences. These are part of the officially protected archeological zone, and this dirt contains more of the massive complex! The questions remain: How much of the site extends onto private property? How much has already been damaged or destroyed, for construction of modern civilization that extend all the way to the edge of the protected area? The answer to both of these questions is: a lot, that we know about, and likely much more that we don’t.

This next image contains many elements important to this story. In the foreground, we have the pyramid “hill” covered in dirt and trees. the grassy flat area in the foreground is part of the protected archeological zone. On the right-side, you can see another small hill, which is the hill in the previous photo, protected by the tall green fence, meaning that it’s also part of the ancient site. Just below that hill, you can see the recently-built cement pad that looks like a parking lot, which is used for various festivals and events. Despite public outrage, it was built on the protected area, right next to the beautiful but overly-reconstructed “Building F” pyramid. One person speaking out against the construction commented, “It’s like putting a convenience store on Machu Picchu”.

That brings us to the end of this Great Pyramid story. But before we conclude, I’d like to give you a little hope for the future. I learned from this article, and other sources, that the fight to save the pyramid continues. The group has not been able to stop all construction projects from harming the site, like the rail station, and the festival space, both mentioned earlier. But there are large plots of land just outside the protected area, that have historically been used, and will continue to be used, as flower fields and small-scale agricultural purposes. More than just being beautiful, and providing income for these deeply-rooted Cholulan families, these fields ensure that the land won’t succumb to deep, invasive, heavy construction. You can see the flower fields below, just beyond the edge of the archeological zone.

As a fun bonus, let’s take a peek at the Ritual to Quetzalcóatl! This festival takes place on each equinox, and drew an audience of 10,000 people in 2022. We didn’t know what to expect, but it was a great cultural experience. In addition to their regular artisan market, there was a large night-time street fair and carnival. The highlight of the experience was a lengthy choreographed event showcasing the history and evolution of Mexico, from the beginning to modern times, depicted with elaborate costumes, dance, an epic battle, and live music played on pre-Hispanic instruments. We sat on the bleachers shoulder to shoulder with the crowd, and I was so enamored by the performance, I only took a handful of photos.

Of course the event started with the story of Quetzalcóatl. The actors were picked out of the crowd with spotlights, creating an immersive experience.

The dancers depict the story and culture of the native people who first settled in the area.

The burning of a sacrifice, which I can only assume, might be palo santo wood.

The traditional Mesoamerican ballgame. The athletes took care to follow the rules of the game, which allow for them to only touch the ball with their heads, elbows, legs, and hips. The ball is not allowed to touch the ground. After scoring a point by successfully getting the ball through the hoop, the ball was set on fire, and the players were allowed to use small sticks.

Continuing forward through time, the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores resulted in a bloody choreographed battle. After this, they depicted the integration of the Spanish culture into their own, and their welcoming of Christianity, with a beautiful rendition of the song Ave Maria.

Lastly, they took us through multiple different time periods leading up to the modern era, each with their own distinct outfits and dances. The grand finale was a modern mariachi band’s live performance, which everyone was quite excited for!

You can find more of our travel and house-sitting adventures, here:
Dani & Evan Benton | Benton Homestead | www.bentonhomestead.com
Currently traveling Mexico » Soon, rebuilding our homestead in Japan »
YouTube | Instagram | Facebook | Buy Me a Coffee

Mexico » Travel Photography » The Great Pyramid of Cholula & the Quetzalcóatl Festival

© copyright 2009-2023 Dani Benton Photography | Japan | All Rights Reserved | Previously Dani Mouser | Previously Located in Oregon, Louisiana, Mexico