Las Pilas    *

A minor site that is really only worth the trip if one is visiting neighbouring Chalcatzingo at the same time.

It is to be found right next to the open-air public swimming baths in the north part of Jonacatepec.

History.

Culture: Classic, Central Mexico

After neighbouring Chalcatzingo entered its period of decline around 500BC, the city of Las Pilas was established and developed trading links with the growing Teotihuacan. It's decline was never complete and it remained a religious and ceremonial centre well into the Post-Classic era.

For more about other Classic cities of Central Mexico, see Cultural History.

Tour.

We enter the site via the swimming pool area and come into Plaza A, which one supposes is the site's most unique and note-worthy feature. Here we see the remains of walls and rooms composing a complex which could have been a palace.

The west side of the plaza was destroyed to make way for the swimming pool, but to the north stands a platform known as Structure 3, while to the west in front of us is the larger, stepped Structure 2.

An even lower platform with a partial stair-way is found on the south of Plaza A and is called Structure 1.

On the other side of Structure 2 we find Plaza B which is smaller and this time framed only by the building just mentioned on the west and by another stepped platform to the east known as Structure 4. Just in front of the stairs to this building are two small altars; the one on the right with a stone that we are led to believe functioned as an oven to cast metals.

There was originally a canal that surrounded the site but it is difficult to distinguish now. Some small figures found here can be seen at the Anthropological Museum in Mexico City.