After visiting the South Edifice, we walked over to the Embedded Platform and the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl. This Pyramid is 1 of the 3 main pyramids in Teotihuacan. The Pyramid is only partially restored and publicly inaccessible, so I could not walk up it. The energy of the Pyramid feels harsh and warlike. Although cool looking from a distance, I ddi not care for this pyramid.
According to the INAH Plaque accompanying this Pyramid, the inhabitants built the Embedded Platform over the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl several decades after completing the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl. This Platform is pyramidal, measuring 50 meters (162 1/2 feet) wide at the base, and composed of 4 stepped levels in “slope and panel” design typical of the Teotihuacan style. A single flight of stairs leads to the Platform’s upper part, with a temple on the west facade. The Embedded Platform has mural paintings only on the panels and done on a red background, which are partially preserved. Archaeologists suspect that the inhabitants built the Embedded Platform over the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl due to a change in the ruling groups.
According to the INAH Plaque accompanying this Pyramid, the inhabitants built the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl between 150 and 200 A.D. The Pyramid consists of 7 stepped levels with “slope and panel” designed walls on all 4 sides. the inhabitants decorated these walls with plumed serpents, carved in stone, which move among sea shells. The serpents’ heads emerge out of a flower’s petal, while the bodies (which are located along the stairway borders) enter the flower. Archaeologists interpret other figures of a monster with large fangs, no jawbone, 2 circles in front as well as 2 lateral circles (eyes), an indentation underneath and towards the maxillary inside, a tuft on the head, and a grid texture, as being serpents of Tlaloc, Yohualcoatl, and Xiuhcoatl. This monster is a headdress that the snake carried on its back. This headdress represents time, since among its attributes is another calendar sign: Cipactli (the “Eye of the Reptile”), symbolizing time. And the inhabitants considered Quetzalcoatl the originator of human activities on Earth, creating the land and the calendar divisions. Based upon these observations, archaeologists suspect that the inhabitants dedicated the Pyramid of Quetzalcoatl to the concept of time.
