Puebla was just a quick two night stop on our way to Mexico City, although we had a lovely little hostel in the centre of the city and wished we had stayed a few more days. The main reason we went was to head over to the town of Cholula and see if we could catch a glimpse of the Popocatepetl volcano.
Cholula is famous for a great Aztec pyramid known as Tlachihualtepetl. From a distance it just looks like a grass hill but hidden underneath is the largest pyramid in the world. It was most likely used as a place of worship and for sacrificial purposes before the Aztecs moved to a smaller site nearby and it became overgrown. Then the Spanish came along, slaughtered thousands of people, destroyed their religious structures and built a church on top of what they thought was just a big hill.
This is the reason the main pyramid remains relatively unexplored, as in order to discover more they would need to knock down the Church. And that’s not going to happen in Mexico. There are two tunnels that you can walk through and other parts of the archeological site have been excavated nearby.
The Popocatepetl and Izataccihuatl volcanoes loom over the town of Cholula and are usually covered in mist, but we managed to catch a glimpse of Popo before the clouds rolled in. An absolutely spectacular sight and a really nice town for a day trip from Puebla.
Comments (2)
Great photos!!!! Loved the volcano a.fascinating xxxxx
oooh…sounds like we will need to pay a visit to Cholula!