Priceless treasures inside the Maya pyramids

The Mayan pyramids are not only tombs to bury the remains of kings and nobles, but also contain many precious objects from jade and stingray bones.

The jaguar throne in the pyramid of El Castillo.

The ancient Mayans built hundreds of pyramids in ancient Mesoamerica, from about 1000 BC to 1500, and placed a variety of artifacts inside. Like the Egyptian pyramids, the Mayan pyramids contain rich treasures, but also include some strange objects. Some even contain smaller pyramids inside.

For example, the pyramid "El Castillo" at the site of Chichén Itzá on the Yucatán peninsula contains a smaller pyramid. The ancient inhabitants of the Yucatán peninsula, when they arrived at a previously inhabited place, they did not destroy the old structure, said Andrés Tejero-Andrade, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), . Instead, a new pyramid was built on top of the existing one, which is why El Castillo has a structure that resembles a Russian doll.

In addition to El Castillo, many other Mayan pyramids were built in the same way, according to Denisse Lorenia Argote Espino, a researcher at Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). Espino shared that building pyramids on top of other pyramids was a common practice in the period before the arrival of the Spaniards.

While some Maya temples were used for rituals, others served as mausoleums for kings or the nobility. Those tombs often contain precious artifacts such as jade masks (for the dead), jade beads, volcanic glass blades and the spines of rays, a symbol of Mayan sacrifice. ancient.

The Maya attach great importance to objects made from jade. One of the most famous examples is the jaguar throne in the pyramid of El Castillo. For the Maya, jade was not only favored for its rarity and beauty, but also as an iconic stone, according to Karl Taube, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Riverside. For example, the Mayans believed that jade represented corn, dominion, and the wind. This type of jade is an important part of funeral rites and summons the spirits of gods and ancestors.

The Maya pyramids also contain many other special artifacts. For example, a pyramid at the site of San Bartolo in northern Guatemala contains fragments of the first Mayan calendar, dating back more than 2,200 years. The pyramid at Copan, Honduras, contains a giant carving with more than 2,000 characters carved on the steps, telling the history of Copan rulers. The Mayans used a writing system called Maya hieroglyphics. That writing system consisted of many characters representing sounds, forming words that could be read and translated by scholars.