Cholula and the Great Pyramid
Zona ArqueolóGica (INAH) / Pueblo MáGico · Cholula, Puebla
The largest pyramid on earth by volume, and it looks like a hill with a church on it. Tlachihualtepetl, Nahuatl for made-by-hand mountain, is about 450 m on each side and holds roughly twice the volume of the Great Pyramid of Giza, built up in stages over many centuries as successive peoples raised a bigger pyramid over the last one. Abandoned and grassed over, it was crowned in the sixteenth century by a chapel to Our Lady of the Remedies. Archaeologists have since bored roughly eight kilometres of exploratory tunnels through the interior, and a stretch of them can be walked; a ticketed zone with excavated plazas and a site museum sits on the north side, while the walk up to the yellow church on the summit is free and separate. From the top you see Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl on a clear morning. Cholula has been inhabited for about 2,500 years and is a lively university town, 10 km west of Puebla, with the extraordinary baroque churches of Tonantzintla and Acatepec close by.
Zona Arqueológica de Cholula, San Andrés Cholula, Cholula, Puebla, 72810, Mexico
⚠ TWO SEPARATE VISITS, TWO SEPARATE ENTRANCES. The archaeological zone and its tunnels keep INAH daytime hours and charge admission, with the entrance on the north side; INAH Sunday free admission applies to Mexican nationals and residents only. ⚠ THE CHURCH ON THE SUMMIT IS FREE, reached by a public path on the western side, and keeps its own hours as a working church - many visitors do one and miss the other. ⚠ THE TUNNELS ARE NARROW AND LOW and are not suitable for anyone claustrophobic or with mobility limits. ⚠ SANTA MARÍA TONANTZINTLA, 10 minutes away, is free and PHOTOGRAPHY INSIDE IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. ⚠ POPOCATÉPETL IS ACTIVE, MONITORED DAILY BY CENAPRED AND CLOSED TO CLIMBERS. ⚠ HOURS AND PRICES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.
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