A blog about pre-columbian civilisations. The Olmecs, the Mayans, the Zapotecs, the Incas, the Toltecs & the Aztecs.
The name Tōllān means “Among the reeds” in the Nahuatl language, with the figurative sense of a densely populated “place where people are thick as reeds”.Names with the same meaning were used in Maya and other native Mexican languages.
This is the celebrated home of the Toltecs, it was a city of about 13km (8 miles). It contained two pyramids, two plazas, a council hall and two ball courts. Its population of up to 60,000 was spread out in outlying areas and lived by farming, mining basalt, making chert tools and working obsidian.
The most important structure, facing on th the main plaza, Building C.
Pyramid C was once a pyramid temple platform, but Aztec pilgrims dismantled the temple and removed the stone facing. All that remains is the small mountain of rock and earth the formed the core of the pyramid, together with a few pieces of carved stone. It is believed that it was a modest two-room building with an antechamber and a shrine, but it is not known what god was honored here.
Toltec warriors
To the north of the plaza, Toltec builders erected a five-stepped temple pyramid sacred to Quetzalcoatl. On the top of the pyramid the temple roof was is supported columns, some in the shape of warriors 3.5m (11ft) tall.
Tollan, city of the Toltecs
Sacred snakes feast on human skeletons on the coatepantli or serpent wall that runs along Building B's side.
