Are the Mexican pyramids Mayan?

Who built the pyramids in Mexico? Pre-Columbian cultures like the Olmecs, Mixtecs, Toltecs, Zapotecs, Aztecs (or Mexica), and Maya created these impressive structures. For the most part, each civilization had a specific building style, although they all used materials like clay, stone, and mortar.



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The pyramids of the Aztecs were very similar to those of the Maya. The main difference was that the Aztec would sometimes build more than one temple on the top of a pyramid. Many times new pyramids were built on top of old pyramids. Archeologists have found several more pyramids inside and under existing pyramids.

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Maya, Mesoamerican Indians occupying a nearly continuous territory in southern Mexico, Guatemala, and northern Belize.

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The Maya Indians were so short that some scholars called them the pygmies of Central America: the men averaged only five feet two, the women four feet eight.

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Mesoamerican peoples built pyramids from around 1000 B.C. up until the time of the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century. (Egyptian pyramids are much older than American ones; the earliest Egyptian pyramid, the Pyramid of Djoser, was built in the 27 century BC).

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Many of these were depicted in Maya artwork and sometimes took place after the victim was tortured (beaten, scalped, burned, etc.). If the sacrifice happened through heart removal it took place in the courtyard of the temple or summit of the pyramid-temple.

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In contrast to the significant Native American and European ancestry of Guatemalans, the average African component is very low in Guatemala, and it appears almost exclusively in 'Ladinos' (3.6%). There was only one Maya who shows a moderate percentage of African co-ancestry (4.4%).

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