El Tajín

El Tajín lies in green, rolling hills a few kilometers west of Papantla, and it is the reason many people come to this part of Veracruz. It was the most important city of the north-central Gulf coast between roughly 800 and 1150 AD, and its name is usually explained as Totonac for thunder, after the god of rain and lightning. UNESCO listed it as a World Heritage Site in 1992.

The building everyone comes to see is the Pyramid of the Niches, a stepped temple whose sides are lined with hundreds of square recesses that throw deep shadows in the afternoon sun; tradition counts 365 of them, one for each day of the year. Around it are plazas, palaces and an unusual number of ball courts, more than at any other known site in Mesoamerica. The walls of the South Ball Court are carved with scenes of the game and the sacrifice that could end it. Higher up, the area called Tajín Chico held the residences of the ruling class, including the Building of the Columns.

Outside the entrance, the Voladores de Papantla perform several times a day: four men hang by ropes from the top of a tall pole and spin slowly to the ground while a fifth plays flute and drum on the tiny platform above. Next to the site is the Takilhsukut park, where the Cumbre Tajín festival of music and Indigenous culture takes place each March around the spring equinox.