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Published: December 10th 2006
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Wonky cathedral
Largest cathdral in Central America, with quite a noticeable tilt inside Reminising about the past, a little late but my Mexico city update for Mama!
Mexico is a city of many layers. Something I had never realised is that the city is built on a lake by the Aztecs. Why build a city on a lake? Well you could consider the advantage of drainage, the ease of transport by boat, great irrigation of fields, no requirement to build a moat… or you could listen to the prophets and build a city in the first place you see an eagle, eating a snake, whilst sitting on a cactus. Seems to have worked pretty well, the city thrived. The arrival of the Spanish coincided with the predicted return of the Aztec God Quetzalcoatl. Fortunately for Cortes, he was the spitting image of the God (supposedly fair with curly hair), and was able to walk into the city, murder the leader Montezuma, and take over.
The first thing to do when taking over a foreign city with foreign gods (heathen of course), especially a wealthy city with impressive buildings and intelligent peoples, is to destroy everything. It was a popular method in the 16th century, especially in Latin America, and by the amount
Main Plaza
With a huge skeleton in the foreground, and Palacio Nacional in the background of Spanish speakers now living there, relatively successful. Of course there is no control city there for comparison, so one can hardly say what would have happened if the Aztecs, Mayans, Incas had been allowed to continue to practise their religion, and the temples allowed to stand. Possibly they might have looked at the European superior knowledge (gunpowder, wheel, Bible, theory of gravity, paper and ink etc) and decided to give up a host of gods requiring human sacrifice, tedious spear making and stone carving as a bad job. We’ll never know.
As a consequence of its history, Mexico is a fascinating city to visit. The ‘Centro Historico’ is located around the largest plaza in Latin America on the original island. From this square you are faced on one side by largest cathedral in Latin America (Cortes liked to do things big, to be honest he had quite a lot to beat when he arrived), The cathedral was built using stones from the destroyed temples. However, one of the disadvantages of building on a lake become apparent when you enter the impressive building, and that is that foundations are not always as solid as they could be, especially when
Templo Mayor
The main Aztec temple, now in ruins, with the cahedral in the backgound there is a very large heavy building placed for several centuries. Consequently one of the highlights of the building is a plumb weight hanging from the ceiling showing the degree of tilt. Currently the floor slants at a very noticeable 15 degrees.
On another side of the plaza you can see the uncovered ruins of the grand temples of the Aztecs (Templo Mayor), another the National Palace housing famous 20th century murals by Diego Rivero and on the other the familiar golden arches of a certain fast food store. On the plaza itself whilst I was there, was a reconstruction of one of the latest discoveries in the Templo Mayor and large plastic pink and yellow skeletons.
Outside the city are the ruins of Teotihuacan, an even more ancient city, built over several hundred years, and believed to have been started around 300BC. At its height it was home to over 200,000 people. No-one knows exactly who built this city, or why they left (when the Aztecs arrived it had been deserted for centuries), but its influences have been found as far as Guatemala and Honduras. The Pyramid of the Sun is supposedly one of the 3 biggest temples
Pyramid of the Sun
Very big, very steep, very hot.
Teotihuacan in the world (beaten only by a couple in Eygpt). Or at least it would have been if when it was being ‘restored’ in the early 1900s someone hadn’t removed the outer covering of stone ‘in error’. A mere 4m thick (23ft) - when will we learn to leave well alone? Still even without the extra 4m it is a hot, steep climb to the top, and yes I am speaking from experience! Other than the impressive temples, there are also some beautifully well preserved murals with original colours. Amazing to think they have survived some 2000 years intact.
Back in the Mexcio City I set aside a day to wander around the Anthropology museum, where most of the country’s Mayan and Aztec treasures are stored. Despite arriving early, a day was not long enough to walk around the whole building, where beautiful masks made from jade are displayed with giant Olmec stone heads standing over 2m high. Delicate pottery and huge carved stones…highly recommend a visit to anyone thinking of heading to Mexico!
I also made a pilgrammage to the famous Guadeloupe Basillica. The most venerated shrine in the whole of Mexico after the Virgin appeared 3
Old versus new
The Aztec ruins being restored after being buried when the Spanish arrived, new ofice blocks in the background. times to Juan Diego and imprinted her portrait on his cloak. Unfortunately thought the basilica has suffered the same fate as the cathedral and sloping floors have also turned into large cracks in the walls. A new Basilica has been built to hold the precious cloak, such a contrast of buildings can hardly be believed… but whilst I was there the pews were full, so full I couldn’t even get close enough to the cloak to get a good look….
I was expecting Mexico City to be a dirty polluted crowded city, full of people, museums and temples. For the most part it lived up to my expectations, except surprisingly the dirty part. Although during the day the streets become increasingly covered in dirt and rubbish there are armies of street cleaners that come and clean all the mess every day so by night the streets are yet again clean. I just hate to think what happens to the rubbish once it has been taken out of sight, I doubt there is much of a recycling program going on! But the multitude of people were friendly and I was very sorry to leave...
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