Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of Graph Search.
Concept
Twin-pyramid complex
Summary
A twin-pyramid complex or twin-pyramid group was an architectural innovation of the Maya civilization of ancient Mesoamerica. Twin-pyramid complexes were regularly built at the great city of Tikal in the central Petén Basin of Guatemala to celebrate the end of the 20-year kʼatun cycle of the Maya Long Count Calendar. A twin-pyramid complex has been identified at Yaxha, a large city that was to the southeast of Tikal. Another has been mapped at Ixlu, and Zacpeten appears also to possess at least one twin-pyramid complex and possibly two. These examples outside of Tikal itself indicate that their cities were closely linked to Tikal politically.
The basic layout of a twin-pyramid complex consists of identical pyramids on the east and west sides of a small plaza, with a walled enclosure to the north housing a sculpted stela-altar pair and a range building to the south. Plain monuments were generally raised at the foot of the east pyramid. The term "twin-pyramid complex" was first used in 1956 by Edwin M. Shook when he recognised that five such groups conformed to a similar architectural pattern.
Twin-pyramid complexes had identical radial pyramids on the east and the west sides of a small plaza; these pyramids had a stairway climbing each of its four sides. Usually they had a range building on the south side that possessed nine doorways and a small enclosure on the north side that housed a sculpted stela-altar pair. These sculpted monuments recorded the king performing the kʼatun-ending ceremony. Up to nine plain stela-altar pairs were erected in a line at the foot of the eastern pyramid, facing west; at Tikal no stelae were ever placed in front of the western pyramid. The whole twin-pyramid complex may be a miniature representation of Tikal's Great Plaza, mirroring the placement of pyramids on the east and west sides, an ancestral shrine to the north and a simple palace on the south side. The twin pyramids were never designed to support a summit temple.
The walled northern enclosure faced southwards onto the plaza.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.