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We began our trip to Xochicalco by
visiting a small museum nearby. It housed a few artifacts and this
model of the whole site. The Xochicalco complex is built on the top
of a hill.
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This is the site of one of the famous Juego de Pelota or
"ball game" sites. There is some speculation that the
inventor of basketball heard about this idea and it influenced his design
for a sport that could be played indoors in a gym in bad weather.
The hoops in this court have fallen, but you can see one of them in
the grass. Before it fell, the hoop was suspended on the steep,
ramp-like wall. Spectators could sit at the top of the wall and
watch.
Until recently, the theory was that the losing team was sacrificed.
Charlie Goff, our leader, suggested that being sacrificed was a great
honor and that winning team may have been the ones to claim that
honor.
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Xochicalco was also equipped with an
advanced water system. This allowed them to gather rainwater that
would have otherwise run off. At left is a shot of one part of the
system.
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By far the best-known feature of Xochicalco is the underground
observatory. We believe that this is a solar observatory that would
have allowed them to check the accuracy of the calendar as well as
observe the sun itself. There were also other kinds of
observatories that allowed the astronomer to watch one part of the sky
consistently to observe changes and record them. |
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At this observatory, a very tall, very
straight chimney allows only light from directly above to come
through. Charlie had a theory that there may at one time have been
some sort of covering with a small hole to produce a focused image on the
ground. That would have allowed the observatory to record things
like solar eclipses and sun spots. He and a colleague even tried it
and got perfectly focused image of the sun projected on the floor.
However, as it stands today, there is no cover.
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Near the solstice, when the sun is almost directly over Xochicalco, an
interesting effect occurs at solar noon (not always 12:00 because of
distance from the equator and seasonal variation). In the picture
at right, a guide has thrown dust into the air to allow us to see the
column of light shining through the chimney onto the ground below.
This picture was taken at solar noon when sun shines very brightly into
the room. |
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This picture links to an animation of
the image on the floor as the sun passes over.
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We watched the whole process as the sun
appeared at the edge of the observable area and moved toward the
center. At solar noon, the whole room is lit up with brilliant
light. The guide had people with color shirts stand under the shaft
of light and the whole room was filled with that color. Some people
believe that this light has special healing properties. I have made
a short animation from snapshots taken as the sun moved across the
floor. Click the link at the left to see it. (Warning: it may
take awhile on a modem.)
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