| The ruins at Tula are about a kilometre from the
entrance and the museum. It has been planted with local plants like this
prickly pear. |  |
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This family of agave plants are known as the century plants. This is because
they only flower once and then die but they foten take over 50 years to do it. The
flower spikes can be as much as 35ft high. |
| Most of the plants are not in flower at this time of
year. But this one was with some very attractive flowers and some vicious
spikes. I think this is a cholla. |  |
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Eventually we reach the warriors who are 4.5m high and standing on a
pyramid. The person gives some scale. |
| In the picture above you can just see some tin roofs
which protect the carvings on the walls underneath. |  |
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These are a mix of geometric patterns and animals, most commonly jaguars. |
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Although this looks more like a fox to me. |  |
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This shows a little more of the extent of the carvings which extend along at
least two walls of the pyramid. |
| This is a second pyramid without any soldiers. The
path up is on the left since the stairs at the front are incomplete. |  |
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One of the soldiers who stands guard. Here we have both the front and the
rear views of one of these 4.5m high monoliths. |  |
| The rest of the attached complex is a temple and
meeting place with dozens of round and square columns. It is thought this
was originally a parliament type building. |  |
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Although it is not on the scale of Teotihuacán, it is still very impressive. |
| I didn't count the soldiers but they were all facing
the same way. The sun went behind a cloud briefly. |  |
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This is the view from the second pyramid. The first is obviously the one of
major importance. |
| This was not as well visited as Teotihuacán either.
Being another 50 miles north of Mexico City has some impact on that. |  |
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As we left we paused at a courtyard where they used to play pelota. This is
an ancient ball game. The court is like a giant capital I. The group of
people on the right are a guided tour - alas only in Spanish at this time of
year and we couldn't really afford the time. |
| So we walked back along the plant lined walkway and
bought a few trinkets at the stalls to remember the visit by. Then onward
to Querétaro. |  |
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