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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This kind of thing was really quite incredible. They must have
found these skeletons, uncovered most parts of them, then dug a big block
around them and removed the entire earth as one piece. It was really
something to see them lying there as if they were still buried. They
often had them inset in the floor with a plexi-glass on top. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Inside one hall, there was a structure, about two stories high, and the width of the
entire wall, it was magnificent. This is a close up of one of the
massive carvings on it. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This is the same wall, with another close up of one of the carvings.
Aren't they something! |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This picture gives you a better sense of the sheer size of this display. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Can you imagine what some of these must weigh? |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Do you recognize the design on the wall straight ahead? This is a
replica from the ruins at Xochicalco that we saw in July. It was a really neat feeling to know we
had seen the original. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico These are some of the stone 'hoops' used in the ancient ball courts.
It is thought that a small, hard rubber ball was used in the game and it
would be directed through the hoop without the players using their hands.
When the game was complete, a sacrifice was made... either the captain of
the losing team or the captain of the winning team, OR the entire winning
or losing team! It is not known for sure... |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This was an interesting piece, in that it was huge, it was carved all
of the way around in great detail, and it had a basin or hole in it's
back. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This disk was probably 6ft or more in diameter, it must have weighed
a ton! |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This was the largest and the most beautiful piece of Black Onyx we
have ever seen. We were just in awe of it when we saw it. It
probably stood about 10 inches tall and it was flawless. Very beautiful! |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico The front of a huge sculpture... |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico ...and the back of the same sculpture. Sometimes it is really
good to have people in the picture, so that you can get a sense of how big
the piece is. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Incredible... also notice the massive disk up on the wall at the back, it
was a feature piece, and must have stood 12 ft tall. It looked
incredible up there. Very impressive. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This guy is so cool... |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This museum is really, really big. This picture probably shows it
the best. It is in a square, each of the 4 sides has two levels, and
there are displays both upstairs and downstairs. Some areas are for
offices, restaurant, gift shop, washrooms, etc, but most of it is the
museum, it is really beautiful. You work your way around, going in
and out of the building from this central courtyard. It has a great
set up, you work you way through it, trying hard not to miss anything.
And when you are done, you are exhausted. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Also, on some of the outer walls you go outside into these outer
courtyards and they have displays outside. Sometimes we were left to
wonder what was real and what were replicas. Next time, we'll rent
one of the dialogue phones. Look at the size of this structure! |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Back in the main part of the museum...notice how many things these two
people
were buried with, they must have been very important people.
Pottery, jewelry, statues of gods, food, spices, weapons, etc. were all
found in their graves. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico These guys were so neat. They are the indigenous Totonac people
performing their 'voladores' rite. Five men would
climb way up on this 20 meter high pole. They wrap four ropes around
the pole that are attached to a square platform at the top. One of
the five will then dance atop the platform & play his 'chirimia', a small
drum with a flute attached. When he is finished his tune, the other
four fall backwards off the platform, hanging from their ropes, upside down,
spinning around the pole slowly, doing
simple acrobatic routines, as the rope unwinds and they work
their way back down to the ground. Spectacular! Their costumes were so bright and
beautiful. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Shanty town on the outskirts of Mexico City. Very poor living
conditions, you see both extremes here. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Suburb on the outskirts of Mexico City. Houses of every size and
colour could be seen on both sides of the road as far as the eye could
see. They were built right up hillsides and really looked
incredible. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico One of the parks in Mexico City... we just loved the parks, town squares and zocalos
(pronounced So-kalo)
in Mexico, as we have mentioned many times, they are a great place to relax
and people watch. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Some of the statues in Mexico city were just magnificent and huge. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico This absolutely outstanding building was the "Bellas Artes"
(Palace of Fine Arts) Building, it
was just gorgeous. The grounds were manicured and beautiful. We
were in awe of this building and took many pictures of it, on this visit
into Mexico City and on another. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico The tall sky scraper is the 'Torre Latinoamericana'. You could go up to the
observation deck on the 44th floor for a spectacular view of the city. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico The top of the Bellas Artes building from 44 floors up.. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico One of the huge city parks, called Alemeda Central. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Massive, marvelous Mexico City!! |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico If you follow one of the main streets up the center of
the photo, you see this large rectangular grey area, that looks open, with
no buildings in it. This is the main Zocalo. It was huge and
had a central area, where people and vendors gathered, a road all
around the perimeter and surrounded by some of the oldest
buildings in Mexico City... 'Catedral Metropolitana', and the legislative building
'Palacio Nacional'. That is where we are headed next. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico Looking up from the observation deck of the Torre Latinoamericana ... |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico We got lucky and visited on a fairly clear day, we really enjoyed our time up
here. |
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Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico The building was very modern, very clean and had some really neat
architectural features. |
| This concludes August, Part 2... we hope you enjoyed your
visit with us through the Anthropological Museum and your tour of Mexico
City so far. There's a lot more of Mexico City to come. AND, another
incredible archeological site at Teotihuacan, possibly our favorite!!
See you in Part 3...
Click here to read the next segment of
this Travel Log Series |
