Showing posts with label Archaeology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archaeology. Show all posts

Wednesday, 12 March 2014

Teotihuacan - 'Place where Gods were born'




Pyramid of the Sun ☼


Pyramid of the Moon ☾






The pre-Columbian Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan is thought to have been established around 100 BC, with major monuments continuously under construction until about AD 250.

The city's broad central avenue, called "Avenue of the Dead" (a translation from its Nahuatl name Miccoatli), is flanked by impressive ceremonial architecture, including the immense Pyramid of the Sun (third largest in the World after the Great Pyramid of Cholula and the Great Pyramid of Giza) and the considerably smaller, but no less impressive pyramid of the Moon. Further down the Avenue of the Dead is the area known as the Citadel, containing the ruined Temple of the Feathered Serpent. (often identified with the much-later Aztec god Quetzalcoatl)

The city is thought to have reached its zenith around AD 450 and lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD. Teotihuacan was the largest city in the pre-Columbian Americas, with a population of 125,000 or more. Teotihuacan began as a new religious center in the Mexican Highland around the first century AD and the consensus among scholars is that the primary deity of Teotihuacan was the Great Goddess of Teotihuacan.

The site covers a total surface area of 83 square kilometres and is located in the Basin of Mexico, (30 miles (48 km) northeast of modern-day Mexico City).


Teotihuacan: Wiki
Great Goddess of Teotihuacan: Wiki


Monday, 1 July 2013

The Great Kyz Kala 'Girls Castle' - Turkmenistan




The breathtaking structure that is the 'Great Kyz Kala' in, Mary, Turkmenistan. The 'Kyz Kala' which means 'Girls Castle' features distinctive 'Fluted' or 'Corrugated' mud brick Walls which survive to a height of 12m and is rectangular in plan, with a length of 45m and width of 38m. Situated on the famous Silk Road the stucture is thought to have been an elite rural residence, constructed sometime in the 7th Century.


Tuesday, 23 August 2011

The 'Moai' of Easter Island







It still completely blows my mind, that in one of the remotest locations on earth, it's possible to encounter 887 of these (Moai) You don't always realise how big these things actually are, what with 2 thirds of their actual height being below ground level. In my view making them even more mysterious.


*Excavation Photo's from early 1970's.

Easter Island: Wiki