WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The Myths of Mexico & Peru cover

The Myths of Mexico & Peru

Chapter 45: The Hill of Flowers
Open in WeRead

About This Book

An illustrated survey of pre-Columbian civilizations and their myth systems, beginning with Mexican society and its pantheon and presenting major myths, rituals, cosmologies, and legends—including Aztec and Maya traditions and representative figures such as the feathered‑serpent and night and rain deities. It examines Maya origins, narrative cycles, and ritual practice, then turns to the civilizations of the Andean world and their mythic motifs, and offers comparative interpretation alongside archaeological observations, bibliographic references, a glossary, and numerous illustrations that connect mythic narratives to surviving monuments and artifacts.

The Hill of Flowers

Near Tezcuco is Xochicalco (The Hill of Flowers), a teocalli the sculpture of which is both beautiful and luxuriant in design. The porphyry quarries from which the great blocks, 12 feet in length, were cut lie many miles away. As late as 1755 the structure towered to a height of five stories, but the vandal has done his work only too well, and a few fragmentary carvings of exquisite design are all that to-day remain of one of Mexico’s most magnificent pyramids.

Ruins of the Pyramid of Xochicalco

Photo C. B. Waite, Mexico