We were actually very close to scrapping the plan and heading over to the nearby Convention Center where many goth-like kids with kitty ears gathered for what appear to be a manga convention.
But no, we dutifully headed onward to our destination.
Plaza de Tres Culturas holds so much history for Mexico City and we had to see this place. That's why we were there.
(Still, I here the Soup Nazi saying "No Manga for you!" in my head.)
Plaza de Tres Culturas received it named from the three different cultures that are represented there. The Aztec ruins of Tlateloco, the Spanish colonial catholic church, and the modern buildings that surround the area. But the value of this place lies within it's sad history.
This tramatic history begins here on August 13th, 1521.
Hernan Cortez and the Spaniards conquer Mexico slaying 40,000 indigenous Indians in the marketplace of Tlatelolco. "...That day was so bloody that it was impossible to walk around because the number of corpses stacked."
In 1968, another horrible tragedy hit this plaza when students protested the Olympics being held in Mexico City. The protesters felt that the government should use money for the Mexican people and not to host the Olympics. Hundreds were shot down and killed by the Mexican government. Not wanting bad publicity during the Olympics, this massacre was covered up and nothing was ever reported about it in the news papers afterward. And because it was covered up by the government for so long, there is no accurate death count, but probably several hundred died that day.
OH, but wait... There is more!
The Mexican government then tried to modernize this area by building a fancy new high rise that was suppose to make this a hip new neighborhood. A large pyramid shaped building was constructed, and many new apartment buildings were built around the plaza. But in the 1985 earthquake, the fancy building collapse and about 8,000 people died. The deteriorating apartment buildings left around the plaza are now low income housing.
Guess plan B was a fail?
So that I have thoroughly depressed you, here are our happy little pictures from The Plaza.
And look! Yes, those ARE yet more pyramids?!
Inside the city limits, this is our third set of pyramids. I hear that there are at least two more too, but I think I'm good on pyramids for the moment.
You can kinda see the four different layers to this pyramid as it was built up more through many years. Those walls are the layers. I believe there are four layers or phases to this one pyramid?
Plum tuckered with pyramids.
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