Mexico. The World’s Largest Pyramid is Hiding in Plain Sight
If asked the location of the world’s largest pyramid, most people would likely say “Egypt.” The Great Pyramid of Giza is the world’s tallest pyramid (146.7 meters), but it is not the largest by volume. That distinction is held by Mexico’s Quetzalcóatl Pyramid, more commonly known as Cholula. Located 129 kilometers east of Mexico City, Cholula’s name comes from the native word “Tlachihualtepeti” meaning “made-made mountain.” Although only sixty-six meters tall, Cholula’s base is 450 by 450 meters, giving it a volume of over 4.4 million cubic meters. Nine Olympic-sized swimming pools could fit within the area of Cholula’s base. Egypt’s Great Pyramid has a volume of 2.6 million cubic meters.
The area surrounding Cholula has been occupied since the sixth century BC. The first pyramid on the site was constructed by Olmec-Xicalanca people in the third century BC. Oddly, later pyramids were built over existing ones, creating a structure that resembles a Russian nesting doll. Archaeological work involving exploratory tunnels has revealed six distinct pyramid structures layered on top of each other. Surrounding the pyramid, the ancient city of Cholula had a population of 100,000 when the Spanish arrived in 1519. At that time, the Tolteca-Chichimeca, a splinter group of the Toltec Empire, were in control of the city. At the top of the pyramid, the Tolteca-Chichimeca constructed a temple dedicated to the Aztec god, Quetzalcóatl.
According to legend, when native people realized the Spanish were coming, they piled layers of dirt and mud on the pyramid in an effort to hide it. Indeed, when the Spanish arrived the structure was overgrown with vegetation. Soon after the Spanish observed local residents climbed the low hill to pray at the temple on its summit. Hoping to rid themselves of threats posed by the Conquistadors, the Tolteca-Chichimeca invited Hernán Cortés and his soldiers as guests at an event with the intent to murder them. When the plan was discovered, Cortés and his men slaughtered 30,000 (nearly a third of the city’s population). Subsequently, the Spanish tore down the temple and replaced it with a church carved from stone and decorated with gold leaf. They called it Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Church of Our Lady Remedies).
In subsequent years, the pyramid’s existence remained unknown to Spanish and later Mexican authorities, even after the structure’s north side was damaged by road building. In 1910, local engineers excavating for the construction of a mental asylum discovered that the low hill topped by a church was in reality a massive pyramid. About twenty years later an architect named Ignacio Marquina began tunneling into the pyramid and by 1954, eight kilometers of tunnel had been completed.
Arriving at Hermanos Serdán International Airport, we took a cab to the City of Puebla. Located 6.4 kilometers west of Puebla, Cholula was described by Cortés as the most beautiful city outside Spain. Today, the city is famous for having a church for every day of the year. Viewed from a distance, I could understand why no one suspected that the nondescript hill was made by humans. We walked to the top for a view of distant Popocatépetl (5,393m), an active volcano and Mexico’s second highest peak. At the top, the lemon and tan colored Church of Our Lady Remedies blends indigenous symbols and designs with colonial architecture. Topped by two domes, the church’s main entrance is flanked by twin towers. On the day of our visit, workers were repairing some of the pyramid’s steps. In a few places around excavated sections of the pyramid are stone figures and altars. Excavations have also revealed clay figures, musical instruments, and hundreds of burials including those of both adults and children who were executed in ritual sacrifices.
Our guide led us to the tunnel entrance on the north side of the pyramid and through an eight-hundred-meter-long corridor. Although it is tempting to think that passageways were created at the time of the pyramid’s construction, all of Cholula’s tunnels were created in modern times with the purpose of documenting the structure’s design and layout. Tunnels are either horizontal or sloped to follow outside staircases. Data gathered through exploration of the pyramid’s interior was used in developing a three-dimensional model now displayed in a museum. Although Cholula draws about 500,000 visitors each year, archaeological interest in the site has declined since the mid-1970s. While a few parts of the outermost pyramid have been uncovered, experts believe that it would be difficult to restore the structure to its original appearance as has been done with Aztec pyramids in Mexico City and Mayan pyramids on the Yucatán Peninsula. Today, Cholula is mostly unexcavated.
