Las Ruinas de Xochicalco - Donde escritura de la epoca precolumbiana nacio

(The ruins of Xochicalco - Where writing of the Pre-Columbian times was born)

Wednesday we visited Xochicalco. Our very genial guide was Armando who only spoke Spanish to us which was great practice for me (though some JanTerm students were at a loss). It's an amazing archaeological site full of stone structures, stone carvings of glyphs and even 3 ball fields made of stone! Ballin' mesoamerican style fa sho!

(The ball field, el juego de pelota)

Here's a brief description of the history I typed up for a photo album I made:

The Xochicalcas dominated the Morelos valley from 700AD-900AD from their military stronghold of Xochicalco where the king, priests and aristocracy lived. By way of oral tradition we believe that they were the first of the Pre-Columbian times to develop a written language though any books they wrote were lost. There are stones in the city with glyphs for numbers, animals and events. The city was so secure that it took a rebellion to destroy the civilization. Of the many historical "camaras oscuras" (a dark light kind of x-ray) in the world this city has the only one that tourists are allowed to visit.

The pic to the left depicts a stone engraved with the Xochicalca



















Here's the full photo album:

Xochicalco