Tag Archives: Templo Mayor

Shrine of Guadalupe

On the way home from Peru, we had a 2 day stay in Mexico City. There were a few sites I wanted to see, but for some reason I was a little nervous about being there. The Metropolis that is Mexico is home to over 21 million people. It is the largest city in North America, so you can see why it would be a little intimidating! That said, we managed the metro, and navigating the bus system to everything we wanted to see.

Obviously the city is very old which brings along a lot of interesting, dingy, smelly places. The um, how to explain…aroma? of the City was olfactory assault in its highest art form. On certain streets, just walking around brought on an onslaught of odour. Seriously, I can’t even explain it. Surprisingly, the metro system was actually fairly clean. (At least we didn’t see the same amount of human feces on train cars in Mexico as we did in Paris!) There were sanitation people sweeping platforms and stairways 24/7.

The touts were inescapable, but at least humourous on the metro. People would hop on trying to sell literally everything and anything. We were offered crossword puzzle books, ancient computer repair manuals, rulers, CD’s, and my personal favourite–back scratchers.

While in Mexico, we visited the pyramids at Teotihuacan and Templo Mayor as mentioned previously. We climbed the Pyramid of the Sun. (FYI: It is the 3rd largest pyramid in the world.) I didn’t include photos earlier; here they are now.

When we arrived at Teotihuacan there was an insane performance going on. Thanks to Google, I now know that it is called the Danza de los Voladores de Papantla. The geek in me loves that the ceremony is recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage.

We also went to the Shrine of Guadalupe. The history of the shrine is similar to that of the Orvieto Duomo. To shorten up the lesson for you–in 1531 a catholic peasant had a vision of the Virgin Mary. She told him to build a church where she was standing so that she could offer love, compassion and protection to the people. The peasant, Juan Diego, spoke to the Bishop. The Bishop didn’t believe him and wanted some miraculous proof.

The Virgin appeared to Juan Diego again, and told him to pick flowers and gather them in his apron. Though it was winter, the flowers grew at his feet, he gathered them and went to the Bishop. An image of the Virgin Mary was imprinted on the apron. Thus, providing the miracle the Bishop wanted and the rest is history.

The Shrine of Guadalupe is the most visited Catholic Shrine in the world. The original basilica that was completed in 1536 is beautiful. There is a new basilica on the site as well. It is kind of gaudy, round shaped, and looks like it should for a building of the late 1970’s. We didn’t enter the new basilica to see the actual apron, or tilma on display above the alter. Church service was going on, and out of respect we stayed out. I was surprised how few people were at the site as I was expecting more visible pilgrimage that I’ve seen elsewhere (e.g.: people crawling or on their knees in hopes that their prayers would be answered.) Still, a site of such importance for so many people is humbling.

Now for science: The cloth has been examined with infrared photography, ultraviolet imaging, and stereo-microscopy. The earliest analysis shows that no under-drawing to rough out the image and no over-varnish on the image. The latter 2 show several layers beneath the current painting with all sorts of different pigments consistent with artist’s materials used in the 1500’s. There are also cracks, flaking of paint and sketch lines that would make it seem that the image was sketched before being painted.

Even with all the scientific analysis to create doubts of the miracle, the tilma still has some pretty impressive attributes. Thanks Wikipedia for the info.

The tilma has maintained its structural integrity over nearly 500 years, while replicas normally last only about 15 years before suffering degradation; it repaired itself with no external help after a 1791 ammonia spill that did considerable damage, and in 1926 an anarchist bomb destroyed the altar, but left the icon unharmed.

In 1929 and 1951 photographers found a figure reflected in the Virgin’s eyes; upon inspection they said that the reflection was tripled in what is called the Purkinje effect, commonly found in human eyes. An ophthalmologist, Dr. Jose Aste Tonsmann, later enlarged an image of the Virgin’s eyes by 2500x and found not only the aforementioned single figure, but images of all the witnesses present when the tilma was first revealed before Zumaragga in 1531, plus a small family group of mother, father, and a group of children, in the center of the Virgin’s eyes, fourteen persons in all.

Numerous Catholic websites repeat an unsourced claim that in 1936 biochemist Richard Kuhn analyzed a sample of the fabric and announced that the pigments used were from no known source, whether animal, mineral or vegetable. Dr. Philip Serna Callahan, who photographed the icon under infrared light, discovered from his photographs that portions of the face, hands, robe, and mantle had been painted in one step, with no sketches or corrections and no visible brush strokes.

I have no doubt that there is paint on the image–whether the miraculous image itself has been painted upon over the years, or painted completely is debatable, but you have to admit that the eyeball thing is a little bizarre.

ps: Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico. Juan Diego was also made a saint in 2002. He’s the first Mexican to achieve sainthood.

 

Huaca Pucllana

For something to do in Lima we went to Huaca Pucllana. This active archaeological site restricts visits to certain tour times, and each tour must be escorted. Our little guide was quite informative. She told us that Huaca Pucllana was originally about 8 city blocks square, and now is about 3 at most. In 1984 the land belonged by a private business owner, and he was just bull dozing chunks of it for development. Over half of the site was destroyed until the government took possession of the site for preservation. What is left is what has been salvaged beneath the surface.

The handmade mud bricks are all placed vertically, book-end style, to create layers. There are literally thousands upon thousands of bricks; in some you can still see finger prints from when they were made. The pyramid structures are similar style to those of Templo Mayor in that the buildings would be made bigger by adding several different surrounding layers. There would be many prior structures under the most visible top layer. It is tragic to think what sorts of artifacts, tombs, or human remains were destroyed prior to the preservation efforts.

All in all it was worth the short visit to the site.
Happy Travels,
~j

Is my forehead red?

At the airport waiting for the flight home. Should be back in Vancouver in 11 hours and home in about 15 or 16. Today we took the metro to the historic center of Mexico City. (ps: the Mexican Metro is set up the same as the French Metro. Easy peasy!). We visited an archaeological site that basically shows 7 different evolutions of the buildings and the people that lived in them.

It is kinda crazy when you can see what the modern day buildings are built on top of. Yesterday we ended up taking a bus to Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan is an interesting place but most of it is scorched earth with no shade. (kind of like The Kumsheen Resort in the pre-pool/pre-air conditioning days) Not a good day to forget the sunscreen! Oops!

I would have enjoyed the site a lot more if there weren’t so many touts and chatzski sellers trying to sell their crappy crap to me every second step.  So annoying!

The bus ride on the way there should have been a good indication of what to expect. For the hour long drive there the driver kept picking up people selling ice cream, candy, cold drinks etc. And then he picked up Mexican Stevie Wonder who serenaded us for about 20 minutes. Jon took some good video. (NB: Video to be added after we get home. I’m not that technologically advanced when we’re on the road!)

The bus ride home was 2/3 the price of the one there and I’m guessing there was some sort of deal for standing room only.  We are still alive, so no worries. Maybe Greyhound should look into new pricing policies?

More on the bus system later friends, must go find Squatzi some more clothes.
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