List of Mesoamerican pyramids

This is a list of Mesoamerican pyramids or ceremonial structures. In most cases they are not true pyramids. There are hundreds of these done in many different styles throughout Mexico and Central America. These were made by several pre-Columbian cultures including the Olmecs, Maya, Toltecs, and Aztecs. In most cases they were made by city states that created many structures in the same style. The style for each city state is usually different. These are usually made out of stone and mortar but some of the earliest may have been made out of clay.

Site	Name of Pyramid	Culture	Base length (m)	Height (m)	Incli- nation	Approximate Time of Construction	Function	Notes
Altun Ha Belize		Maya		16		200 to 900 CE
Cañada de la Virgen Mexico	Pirámide Chichimeca de los 7 Cielos	Otomi		15+		540 to 1040 CE	The Pyramids and surrounding complex were built to house priests, along with serving as a burial ground.	These are the only Otomi pyramids we currently know of.
Caracol Belize	Caana	Maya		43				A triadic pyramid, Caana is the highest man-made structure in Belize
Caracol Belize	Temple of the Wooden Lintel	Maya
Lamanai Belize	High Temple	Maya		33		Pre-Classic Period
Lamanai Belize	Jaguar Temple	Maya		20		Pre-Classic Period
Lamanai Belize	Mask Temple	Maya		17		Early Classic Period
Lubaantun Belize		Maya				730 to 890 CE		Lubaantun's structures are mostly built of large stone blocks with no mortar, using primarily black slate rather than limestone.
Tula Mexico	Pyramid B	Toltec						The pyramid is dedicated to Quetzalcoatl, and topped with Atlantean columns, carved like warriors.
Lubaantun Belize		Maya				730 to 890 CE		Lubaantun includes many small step pyramids in addition to its far larger one.
Nim Li Punit Belize	Building	Maya		12		400 to 800 CE		Nim Li Punit has several small-step pyramids, but none that possessed the sheer mass of other examples.
Xunantunich Belize	El Castillo	Maya		40		600 to 900 CE
San Andrés El Salvador	the Bell of San Andrés	Maya				600 to 900 CE		This is a scale model of structure 5. There are several other smaller structures that may be similar to pyramids on the site.
Tazumal El Salvador		Maya				250 to 900 CE
Aguateca Guatemala		Maya		6		760 to 830 CE		This temple pyramid was left unfinished when the city was abandoned. Its purpose is still unknown.
Dos Pilas Guatemala	LD-49	Maya		20		after 629 CE		This pyramid's main stairway (known as Hieroglyphic Stairway 2) contains at least eighteen hieroglyphic steps. However, some glyphs are undecipherable due to age.
Dos Pilas Guatemala		Maya				after 629 CE		This temple pyramid was built by enlarging and terracing a natural hill some way from the site core, giving the impression of a single massive structure.
Kaminaljuyu Guatemala		Maya				250 CE		Kaminaljuyu contains some 200 platforms and pyramidal mounds, at least half of which were made before 250 CE. Some were used to hold temples.
El Mirador Guatemala	La Danta	Maya		72		300 BCE to 100 CE		La Danta pyramid temple has an estimated volume of 2,800,000 cubic meters, making it one of the largest pyramids in the world.
El Mirador Guatemala	El Tigre	Maya		55		300 BCE to 100 CE
El Puente Honduras	Structure 1	Maya		12		600 BCE- 900 CE		Religious temple
Mixco Viejo Guatemala		Maya				1100 to 1500 CE
Tikal Guatemala		Maya		47
Copán Honduras		Maya						Copán has several overlapping step-pyramids.
Becán Mexico	Structure IX	Maya		42
Bonampak Mexico	The Temple of the Murals	Maya				580 to 800 CE
Calakmul Mexico	Structure I	Maya		40
Calakmul Mexico	The Great Pyramid - Structure II	Maya		55		593 CE
Chacchoben Mexico	Temple 1	Maya		20
Chichen Itza Mexico	El Castillo (Temple of Kukulcan)	Maya	55.3	30
Cholula Mexico	The Great Pyramid of Cholula		450 sq.	66		300 BCE - 800 CE		The largest pyramid and the largest manmade monument anywhere in the Americas.
Coba Mexico	The Nohoch Mul Pyramid	Maya		42		500 to 900 CE
Coba Mexico	La Iglesia	Maya		20		500 to 900 CE
Coba Mexico	Crossroads Temple	Maya				500 to 900 CE
Comalcalco Mexico	Temple 1	Maya		20		600 CE to 900 CE		The city's buildings were made from fired-clay bricks with mortar made from oyster shells, unique among Maya sites. Many are decorated with iconography and/or hieroglyphs.
Dzibanche Mexico	Temple of the Owl	Maya
El Cerrito Mexico	Pyramid of El Cerrito	Chichimec		30
El Tajín Mexico	Pyramid of the Niches	Classic Veracruz		18
Guachimontones Mexico	Circle 2 (La Iguana)	Teuchitlán		10				Characterized by the unusual circular pyramid structure, a unique architectural form in Mesoamerica.
Ichkabal Mexico	Structure E4	Maya		46
Izamal Mexico	Kinich Kakmó Pyramid	Maya		34		400 to 600 CE
La Venta Mexico	The Great Pyramid	Olmec		33		394 ± 30 BCE		This is one of the earliest pyramids known in Mesoamerica. It was made out of an estimated 100,000 cubic meters of earth fill.
Mayapan Mexico		Maya		15
Moral-Reforma Mexico	Conjunto 14	Maya		37
Palenque Mexico	Temple of the Cross	Maya
Palenque Mexico	Temple of the Inscriptions	Maya		22.8		>675		Bore the Classic Maya name B'olon Yej Te' Naah "House of the Nine Sharpened Spears".
Palenque Mexico	Temple of the Sun	Maya		19
Santa Cecilia Acatitlan Mexico		Aztec	17 by 27	8				In 1962, the architect and archaeologist Eduardo Pareyon Moreno reconstructed the pyramid's basement and the temple that crowns it.
Tenayuca Mexico		Aztec	62 by 50					This is the earliest example yet found of the typical Aztec double pyramid, which consists of joined pyramidal bases supporting two temples.
Tenochtitlan Mexico	Templo Mayor	Aztec	100 by 80			1390 to 1500 CE		Tenochtitlan was destroyed by the Spanish. Recreations of this and other pyramids are based on historical text and archaeological ruins.
Tenochtitlan Mexico		Aztec				1325 to 1521 CE		Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital city, was completely razed by the Spanish conquistadors led by Hernán Cortés. Recreations the city are based on historical text and archaeological ruins. This site once included at least half a dozen pyramids.
Teotihuacan Mexico	Pyramid of the Sun	Teotihuacano	223.5	71.2	32.5	100 BCE		There are also dozens of platforms 4 stories high lining the Avenue of the Dead at Teotihuacan. Each step in each story creates a stairway to the top in front of the platforms.
Teotihuacan Mexico	Pyramid of the Moon	Teotihuacano		43		100 BCE
Teotihuacan Mexico	Temple of the Feathered Serpent	Teotihuacano
El Tepozteco Mexico		Aztec				1502 CE
Tula Mexico		Toltec
Uxmal Mexico	Pyramid of the Magician	Maya		40
Uxmal Mexico	La Gran Piramide	Maya		30
Xochicalco Mexico	Temple of the Feather Serpent					200 BCE to 900 CE
Xochicalco Mexico						200 BCE to 900 CE		This is one of several other step-pyramid temples in addition to the Temple of the Feather Serpent
Xochitecatl Mexico	The Pyramid of Flowers		100 by 140			the Preclassic Period
Xochitecatl Mexico	The Spiral Building					700 BCE		This is a circular stepped pyramid. The interior consists of volcanic ash. The building has no stairway to the top, it was climbed by following the spiral form of the building itself.
Yaxchilan Mexico		Maya				600 to 900 CE		This is one of the pyramids on the upper terrace of Yaxchilan
Yarumela Honduras	Estructure 101	Lenca		20		1000 BCE to 250 CE		Religious temple used for different ceremonies
Tikal Guatemala	Tikal Temple IV	Maya	88 by 65	64.6		741 AD	The pyramid was built to mark the reign of the 27th king of the Tikal dynasty	Temple IV at the Classic Period Maya ruins of Tikal, 8th century AD, Peten Department, Guatemala.
Toniná Mexico	Great Pyramid of Toniná	Maya		75		200 to 900 CE		The Great Pyramid of Toniná is the tallest Maya and Mesoamerican pyramid and also the tallest Pre Columbian building in the Americas.
Tzintzuntzan Mexico	5 yácata pyramids	Purépecha				Late post-classic period		The pyramids are rounded and have a distinguishable T-like shape.

v t e Pre-Columbian North America
Periods Lithic Archaic Formative Classic Post-Classic
Archaeological cultures	Adena Alachua Ancient Beringian Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi) Anishinaabe Avonlea Baytown Belle Glade Buttermilk Creek complex Caborn-Welborn Cades Pond Calf Creek Caloosahatchee Clovis Coles Creek Comondú Deptford Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Walton Fremont Glacial Kame Glades Hohokam Hopewell List of Hopewell sites La Jolla Las Palmas Maritime Archaic Mississippian List of Mississippian sites Mogollon Monongahela Old Cordilleran Oneota Paleo-Arctic Paleo-Indians Patayan Plano Plaquemine Poverty Point Red Ocher Safety Harbor Santa Rosa-Swift Creek St. Johns Steed-Kisker Suwannee Valley Tchefuncte Troyville Weeden Island
Archaeological sites	Angel Mounds Anzick site Bandelier National Monument Bastian Benson Blue Spring Shelter Bluefish Caves The Bluff Point Stoneworks Brewster Cahokia Candelaria Cave Casa Grande Chaco Canyon Coso Rock Art District Crystal River Cuarenta Casas Cueva de la Olla Cutler Eaker El Fin del Mundo El Vallecito Effigy Mounds Etowah Indian Mounds Eva Folsom Fort Ancient Fort Center Fort Juelson Four Mounds Gila Cliff Dwellings Glenwood Grimes Point Helen Blazes Holly Bluff Hopewell Culture National Historical Park Horr's Island Huápoca Key Marco Kimball Village Kincaid Mounds Kolomoki Mounds Lake Jackson Mounds Lehner Mammoth-Kill Site L'Anse aux Meadows Lynch Quarry Site Marksville Marmes Rockshelter Meadowcroft Rockshelter Mesa Verde Moaning Cavern Moorehead Circle Morrison Mounds Moundville Mummy Cave Nodena site Ocmulgee Mounds Old Stone Fort Orwell site Paquime Painted Bluff Parkin Park Pinson Mounds Plum Bayou Mounds Portsmouth Earthworks Poverty Point Pueblo Bonito Rassawek Recapture Canyon River Styx Roberts Island Rock Eagle Rock Hawk Rosenstock Village Russell Cave Salmon Ruins Serpent Mound Sierra de San Francisco Shell ring sites Spiro Mounds Stallings Island SunWatch Taos Pueblo Town Creek Indian Mound Turkey River Mounds Upward Sun River Velda Mound West Oak Forest Earthlodge Wickiup Hill Windover Winterville Wupatki
Human remains	Anzick-1 Arlington Springs Man Buhl Woman Kennewick Man La Brea Woman Leanderthal Lady Melbourne Man Minnesota Woman Peñon woman Spirit Cave mummy Vero man
Miscellaneous	Aridoamerica Ballgame Black drink Ceremonial pipe Chanunpa Chunkey Clovis point Container Revolution Eastern Agricultural Complex Eden point Effigy mound Falcon dancer Folsom point Green Corn Ceremony Horned Serpent Kiva Medicine wheel Metallurgy Mi'kmaq hieroglyphic writing Mound Builders N.A.G.P.R.A. Norse colonization of North America Oasisamerica Piasa Projectile point Southeastern Ceremonial Complex Stickball Three Sisters agriculture Thunderbird Transoceanic contact Underwater panther Water glyphs
Related Genetic history Pre-Columbian era

v t e History of architecture
Architectural timeline History of construction
BCE	Neolithic Mesopotamian Ancient Egyptian Aegean Minoan Mycenaean Etruscan Classical Ancient Greek Ancient Roman Herodian Pre-Islamic Persian Achaemenid
1st millennium	Sasanian Byzantine East Slavic Kievan Rus' Muscovite Islamic Umayyad Moorish Abbasid Fatimid Islamic Persian Medieval Scandinavian Pre-Romanesque Carolingian
1000–1500	Romanesque Galician Ottonian Norman Indian Hoysala Vijayanagara Western Chalukya Islamic Great Seljuk Anatolian Seljuk architecture Mamluk Timurid Ottoman Indo-Islamic Romano-Gothic Gothic Sondergotik Incan Aztec Renaissance Plateresque
1500–1750	Manueline Palladian Spanish Colonial Portuguese Colonial Mughal Sikh
1750–1900	Baroque Andean Czech Dutch English French Italian Maltese Petrine Elizabethan Naryshkin Portuguese Siberian Ukrainian Industrial British Revivalism Byzantine Russo-Byzantine Serbo-Byzantine Colonial Egyptian Gothic Mayan Mediterranean Mission Monumentalism Baroque Rococo Neoclassical Moorish Neo-Manueline Pueblo Queen Anne Britain America and Australia Renaissance Romanian Russian Spanish Colonial Territorial Tudor Art Nouveau Jugendstil Liberty style Modern Style Modernisme
1900–1950	Rationalism Mycenaean Modern Prairie School Expressionism Cubism De Stijl Bauhaus Constructivism New Objectivity Streamline Moderne Totalitarianism Rationalist-Fascist Nazi Stalinist International style Functionalism Futurism Organicism Art Deco Stripped Classicism Postconstructivism PWA Moderne Googie
1950–2000	Brutalism Structuralism Postmodern Blobitecture High-tech Arcology Critical regionalism Neo-futurism
2000–present	Deconstructivism Neomodern New Classical Contemporary
Regional	Chinese Colonial Indian Dravidian Hindu Japanese Korean Mesoamerican Maya Newari Portuguese Russian Spanish Somali

v t e History of the Americas
History	North America Mesoamerica Central America Caribbean Latin America South America Andean South America Genetics
Settlement	Indigenous peoples Indigenous population Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories Christopher Columbus Exploration European colonization Spanish colonization French colonization Portuguese colonization British colonization Columbian Exchange Decolonization
Societies	Paleo-Indians Pre-Columbian era Aztec Maya Muisca Inca
Related	Maps Culture Geography Indigenous languages Epidemics Slavery
Lists	Pre-Columbian cultures Indigenous peoples Population Conflicts North America South America
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Era: By period By region Three-age system Ancient history Pre-Columbian era Classical Antiquity Middle Ages Modern history Future

List of Mesoamerican pyramids

References

External links