Cacaxtla Archaeological Ruins
Tlaxcala, Mexico
Travel Pictures And Photos, Page One

George And Audrey DeLange

Cacaxtla Archaeological Ruins With Xochitécatl In Background

Cacaxtla Building B, The "Great Platform". Looks Like It's Under An Aircraft Hanger.

Cacaxtla, whose name means "place of the merchant's pack," is located on a hilltop site in the Mexican state of Tlaxcala. Due to the way the toll road exits are constructed you can only get to Cacaxtla by two ways at the time we were there. Otherwise you can get lost for several hours running into dead end trails and roads. It can be frustrating because you can often see the road you need to get on but there is no access to the road. We think that the government will change the way these exits are constructed in the future so we would advise you to ask directions before attempting to drive to Cacaxtla. We were there on January 16, 2004 at about noon. One way to get there is that you must take the toll highway going from Mexico City to Puebla, taking the detour in the city of San Martín Texmelucan, and by then going through the towns of Villa Alta, San Mateo Ayecac, Tepetitla, San José Atoyatenco and San Miguel Xochitecatitla, then turning left towards San Miguel del Milagro. Or the second way is from the city of Tlaxcala, you take the federal road to Santa María Nativitas, going through the towns of Concordia, Victoria and Capula, then turning right towards San Miguel del Milagro. Cacaxtla was the principal seat of the “Olmeca”, also known as the Olmeca Xicalanca. An archaeological study of the region confirmed that Cacaxtla was the most powerful capital in the Tlaxcalan region during the first half of the Texcalac cultural phase from A.D. 650-1100. At this same time Teotihuacán’s power had been eroded allowing small successor states like Cacaxtla to take over the trade route that linked the Basin of México to the Gulf Coast and to the Mayan realms of the Usumacinta Basin. Cacaxtla covers about 180,000 square feet of which only Building B has been fully excavated. This residential area is made up of a labyrinth of rooms, patios, and passageways built around two main plazas oriented on a north-south axis. The architecture copied much of Teotihuacán’s talud-tablero style, together with a ground plan similar to Mayan palaces such as in Palenque. Frescoes are found throughout the palace site. The best preserved are found in the rooms adjoining the North Plaza, which is a six hundred square meter courtyard which was the focus of Cacaxtla’s ritual life. At first the Early Classic Mayan lords copied Teotihuacán’s architectural and artistic style as a means of showing a special relationship with Mesoamerica’s most powerful state. After Teotihuacán’s influence had eroded, the reverse occurred. The Cacaxtla paintings show that these Central Mexico warlords later on incorporated the Late Classic Maya style. When you walk past the museum and resturant area you will see Building B with its three levels and sloping talus which faces west. It has been discovered that Building B has had nine different levels of construction. A few pillars and walls remain in its upper level. The upper level of the Great Platform is a courtyard with three porticoes located on its south, east and west sides, to the north we find the "Battle Mural". The West portico has a structure whose staircase can still be seen. When this portico was covered, a pillar was preserved. It has on its central part a relief figure of unbaked clay covered with stucco, but only part of its skirt and sandals have survived. From his sandals a maize plant, and probably a cacao plant arise. The remaining pillars of this portico are framed by a series of circles or chalchihuites made with clay and covered with stucco. We have included photos of these structures. To the south we can see the area known as El Palacio. The Palace is made up by a series of rectangular chambers of different sizes. In the center of one of them there is a courtyard with a bench for the collection of rain water through the drainage placed in the southwest corner. The walls of the porticoes in this courtyard were decorated with diamond-shaped stucco images. The Building B "Battle Murals" depict two groups of warriors engaged in a ritual combat. They show the winners wearing jaguar skin capes and their unarmed victims dressed as quetzal birds and parrots. The piers of the Star Chamber show a pair of blue anthropomorphic creatures. The male wears the arms and tail of a Scorpion signifying the constellation Scorpious. According to Aztec legends such beings were called Tzitzimime, who are spirits of defeated gods that were cast out of the sky after they destroyed a sacred grove of fruit trees. Looking down from Group Two, you can see the "Temple of Venus", a small chamber with painted pillars. The museum, and restrooms are clean. However we noticed a general lack of concern about keeping the grounds of the site free of trash. We hope someone will soon take care of this situation.