Mention the word Pyramid to anyone and it is normal to think of the famous Egyptian pyramids at Giza, where the pyramid of Cheops build around 2,480BC is said to encompass all sorts of fabulous properties such as the ratio of the mathematical constant pi, dimensions relative to the size of the Earth, it's weight and distance from the sun etc as well as a "sacred" system of cubits derived from the size of the Earth. When Napoleon took his army on a conquest of Egypt, he brought with him a team of Savants to prise open the lost secrets of the "great" pyramid.

With a base side of 756 feet or 440 Egyptian cubits, it is a well engineered and impressive monument, awesome in it's construction and general size. Egypt is sometimes thought of as "the land of the pyramids", but there is another land of the pyramids - America

Here is a little known fact. The pyramid known as "the Sun Pyramid" at Teotihuacan in the heart of Mexico has a base side of 738 feet - almost identical to the base of the Great pyramid in Egypt and only 18 feet shorter per side! It is sometimes called "the City of the Gods," or "where men ascended and became Gods". Little is known about the fabulous city of Teotihuacan except that it was constructed around AD100 - 200. In it's day it was the sixth largest city in the world with a population of 60-80,000 people occupying an area of 20sq kms.

A long avenue leads to the "Pyramid of the Moon" and it is sometime thought that this avenue might have been filled with water to make a sort of canal or waterway approaching the pyramid.

Not far from Teotihuacan in the valley of Mexico lies another more famous city - Tenochitlan, the Aztec city sacked by Cortes who attempted to carry off it's treasures and returned later to raze it to the ground, constructing Mexico City out of it's ruins. Tenochtitlan was built on an island in a lake and had it's fair share of pyramids - some of which were used for gruesome sacrifices where it is said that as much as 20,000 victims were killed to appease the gods in a single day.

At Cholula, in Mexico is said to be the largest pyramid in the world, the Tepanapa, like a giant hill with a church on top. Until 1910, nobody knew it was a pyramid. Almost certainly it was already a tree-covered hill at the time of the conquest. Archaeologists say it was contemporary with the great Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon at Teotihuacan. If so, it would have been in use a thousand years before the time of these events, and could have been covered and forgotten.

Throughout the whole of Yukatan, lie the impressive remains of the Mayan civilisations, with countless pyramids such as those at Palenque, or at Uxmal   or Chitzen Itza where is to be found the Temple of Kukulcan, sometimes called "el Castillo". This magical monument at a certain time of year casts a shadow in such a way that a giant snake is seen to be descending down the staircase in honour of the god, Quetzelcoatl.

North America is home to numerous pyramids in the form of mounds of earth in varios formations such as that at Monk's Mound which covers 16 acres; it rests on a base 1,037 feet long and 790 feet wide, with a total volume of approximately 21,690,000 cubic feet, a base and total volume greater than that of the pyramid of Khufu, the largest in Egypt.

But when we turn to South America, the pyramids get bigger, bolder, and older.

At Cochasqui in Eguador there is a litle known pyramid complex linked to astronomical alignments

Tiahuanaco, until recently considered the oldest city in the Americas has the largely un-excavated Akapana pyramid with internal water channels, sometimes said to be a site for refining tin.

The city of Chan Chan on the Peruvian coast had a giant adobe pyramid which the Spanish engineers diverted a river to so they could wash its bulk away in their search for some hidden treasure.

At Tucume, again in Peru, Thor Heyerdahl found the pyramids to be so massive that at first they were thought to be natural mountains. The largest of these measuring some 1,476 x 328 x 131ft is rectangular in shape with it's longest side almost double that of the Great Pyramid in Egypt.

At Trujillo in Peru, the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon date from the Moche period of around 600AD and used 140 million adobe bricks in their construction.

And the latest site discovered, again in Peru in the Supe valley is at Caral where the pyramids are said to date to 2627BC - making them older than the first Egyptian pyramids.

At the well known site of Machu Picchu - said to be the last stronghold of the Inca and built on a sheer mountain top, the casual visitor is probably unaware that the valley below along the edge of the Vilcobamba River contains a giant flat topped pyramid, engineered so that it is only visible at certain times of the year. This kind of sacred engineering seems to have been a feature of ancient American cultures.

On the Marcahuasi plateau in Peru, there exist numerous giant sculptures including a Sphinz-like head, but these features can only be seen properly from a key vantage point.

In Bolivia, not far from the petrified or enchanted city of Pumiri, is to be seen a "Cheops"-like pyramid in the distance, but closer inspection at any other angle suggests it is a natural mountain. Similarly at a remote site in the village of St Bartolome on the Bolivian Altiplano, a part of a pyramid is seen to be propped up against a natural rock face.

In ancient South America it would seem, natural features sometimes look man-made and man-made features look natural, why build a whole pyramid when from where you are standing the landscape can be improved by building or improving a site to give the appearance of a pyramid in the distance!

Reaching across the Atlantic to the Canary islands, step pyramids are also to be found on the island of Tenerife where the complex known as the Pyramids of Guimar have been investigated by Thor Heyerdahl. Did ancient explorers from the Americas stop this way on their way to the Mediterranean? These are flat-topped pyramids in the American style since the majority of American pyramids were flat-topped stepped platforms often with a small temple on the top, not unlike the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, but Egyptian pyramids, with the exception of the stepped pyramid at Saqarra which is one of the earliest ones, were largely smooth faced and sharply pointed.

J.M.Allen 14th November 2002

Teotihuacan location 19º 42´N 98º 50´W