Veracruz Resources |
| Veracruz Directory |
| State Overview |
| Port of Veracruz |
| El Tajín |
| Veracruz Hotel Reservations |
| Maps of Veracruz |
| Hotel Reservations in Poza Rica |
El Tajin Archaeological Site
Location and Access:
El Tajín archaeological site is located in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental mountains, near the vanilla-producing village of Papantla to the southeast of Poza Rica, Veracruz and is accessed via Federal Highway 130.
The site is open to the public daily from 9 am to 5 pm, and offers an on-site museum, cafeteria and crafts and food stands.
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El Tajín Ruins
El Tajín is a word of Totonac origin meaning Place of Thunder. Many of the structures at El Tajín date from 300 - 600 A.D. although this Totonacan center is thought to have reached its peak between 800 and 1150 A.D. The study and restoration of the ruins was begun in 1924.
The principal structures and conglomerates of structures are the Plaza Arroyo Group, the Ball Courts, the Pyramid of Niches, the Tajín Chico group, the Building of Columns and the Great Xicalcoliuhqui.
The Pyramid of Niches, or Building 1, is the outstanding structure in this site, comprised of seven sections and a total of 365 niches, coinciding the the number of days in the solar year. In the interior holds a 14 meter long passageway and has only been partly explored.
The ballcourts - and there are 17 of them that have been discovered on the site to date - present fabulous reliefs depicting the ritual of the ball game and the ball players, the Tajín Rain God, lunar and Venus glyphs, the gods of the wind, moon and pulque.
There
are long, columned buildings - the columns carved to relate the
feats of the Totonacan heroes such as 13 Rabbit, a political figure
who was considered the incarnation of Quetzalcoatl, the main deity
of El Tajín; other building display colored frescoes and
tablets with carved figures of the prehispanic deities.
