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01 · Ancient & Classical World

Mesoamerican

c. 1000 BCE–1500 CE

Stepped stone pyramids with steep ceremonial staircases and carved friezes.

Look for

Stepped platform Monumental stairway Carved stone relief
El Castillo, Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico: an example of Mesoamerican architecture
El Castillo, Chichén Itzá, Yucatán, Mexico. Photo: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0
Tikal Temple I, Tikal, Guatemala
Tikal Temple I Tikal, Guatemala · Raymond Ostertag, CC BY-SA 2.5
Pyramid of the Sun, Teotihuacan, Mexico
Pyramid of the Sun Teotihuacan, Mexico · Burkhard Mücke, CC BY-SA 4.0
Temple of the Inscriptions, Palenque, Mexico
Temple of the Inscriptions Palenque, Mexico · Lousanroj, CC BY-SA 3.0
Pyramid of the Magician, Uxmal, Mexico
Pyramid of the Magician Uxmal, Mexico · Rob Young from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0

what it is

Mesoamerican ceremonial centers are laid out around plazas lined with stepped pyramids, platforms and ball courts. Pyramids have a core of earth and rubble faced with cut stone and painted lime plaster, with steep stairs leading to a small temple on top. Teotihuacan and the cities it influenced used talud-tablero, a sloping wall (talud) topped by a vertical framed panel (tablero), repeated at each level. Maya builders roofed rooms with corbel vaults, in which each course of stone projects past the one below until the two sides meet.

The Pyramid of the Sun at Teotihuacan, near Mexico City, is about 71 m high and 230 m on each side. Temple I at Tikal in Guatemala (about 732) rises about 47 m. El Castillo at Chichén Itzá in Yucatán has about 91 steps on each side. At Copán in Honduras, the Hieroglyphic Stairway carries about 2,200 glyphs, the longest known Maya text. Unlike Egypt's smooth-sided pyramid tombs, these were stepped temple platforms, often enlarged by building over the older structure.

how to spot one

Stepped platform A base built as a series of stacked terraces, each smaller than the one below, with a temple or building on top. Mesoamerican pyramids and Mesopotamian ziggurats use this form. Monumental stairway A wide outdoor staircase leading up to a building's main entrance, often spanning much of the front. It is common on classical temples, government buildings and museums. Carved stone relief Figures or patterns carved into stone so they project from a flat background, called low relief when shallow and high relief when deep. It appears on ancient temples and Gothic churches.

Also look for

Battered wallFlat roofGeometric ornament

history

Monumental building in Mesoamerica began with the Olmec on the Gulf Coast of Mexico. At La Venta, which flourished from about 900 to 400 BCE, the Great Pyramid is an earthen mound about 34 m high and one of the earliest pyramids known in the region. The oldest known talud-tablero dates to about 200 BCE at Tlalancaleca, in the Puebla-Tlaxcala region. Teotihuacan built the Pyramid of the Sun to nearly its present size around 200 CE, and during the city's peak the talud-tablero profile appeared at sites from Tikal to Monte Albán.

Maya cities built their largest temples in the Classic period (about 250-900 CE), including Temple I at Tikal and Copán's Hieroglyphic Stairway, rededicated in 755. El Castillo at Chichén Itzá dates from between the 8th and 12th centuries. The Mexica (Aztecs) began the Templo Mayor in Tenochtitlan soon after 1325 and rebuilt it in seven stages, with twin shrines to Huitzilopochtli and Tlaloc. Spanish forces under Hernán Cortés took the city in 1521 and demolished the temple. In the 1920s, Mayan Revival buildings such as Robert Stacy-Judd's Aztec Hotel in Monrovia, California (1924-1925), borrowed Mesoamerican motifs.

where to find it

Teotihuacan and Chichén Itzá in Mexico, Tikal in Guatemala, and Copán in Honduras.

easy to confuse with

Karnak Temple, an example of Ancient Egyptian Ancient Egyptian Massive stone walls that lean inward, giant gateway towers, and columns shaped like papyrus and lotus plants. Gate of All Nations, an example of Persian (Achaemenid) Persian (Achaemenid) Vast halls of tall columns with bull and lion capitals, reached by wide stairways lined with carved processions.