Pub Quiz Question - Where is the largest pyramid?

[Gaius.Cornelius]

At a pub quiz last night, one question was "Where is the largest pyramid?"

The official answer was "Mexico", is that right?

[shefDave]

Guiness World Records agrees

[picunurse]

Its also called "The Pyramid of the Sun."
The new world pyramids are different than the ones in Asia. Most are solid, being built over a mound of dirt. There is one at Chichen Itza, that does have some tunnels through it, but they are just that tunnels around the dirt mound.
Another difference is that they are built according to the position of the sun. The one at Chichen Itza casts a shadow at noon on the spring Equinox that looks like the feathered serpent, Quetzalcóatl.
Ok, you may carry on now...

[matt]

Well, that's a new little factoid for me! I did a quick search trying to find a picture of this edifice, and found that you could argue the point - the Cholula pyramid is mostly destroyed, and looks like a hill more than anything else.

This has some nice pics of pyramids in Mexico - the Cholula "pyramid" is the tree-covered hill with a church on top.

http://www.crystalinks.com/mexico.html


This has a decent photogallery of the site, with a pic of a model in the museum showing what the pyramid would originally have looked like:

http://www.delange.org/Cholula2/Cholula2.htm

[spingears]

Originally Posted by Gaius.Cornelius

At a pub quiz last night, one question was "Where is the largest pyramid?" The official answer was "Mexico", is that right?

BIG QUIBBLE: The official answer is right but wrong. IMHO
The 'Pyramids of Latin America are mounds of dirt and rock whether natural or man made with a facade of cut stone.
The Great Pyramid of Egypt is an out and out man made structure of cut and hewn stone siting on a leveled flat base/foundation of bed rock!

[sqweels]

The new world pyramids are different than the ones in Asia.

What are the ones in Asia?

[Eurograff]

Originally Posted by picunurse

The new world pyramids are different than the ones in Asia.

Originally Posted by sqweels

What are the ones in Asia?

Ziggurats. Though in Mesopotamia there were not as many as in Egypt, which is nowadays considered to be in Africa (but not necessarily in Ancient times, Greeks often referred to Nile river as continental border). Over 100 pyramids in Egypt. Anyway, more proper would be to talk about Old World pyramids.

[Gaius.Cornelius]

Thanks for all the replies, it seems the official answer, Mexico, was the right one even though the pyramid in question is mostly an mound of earth.

Gotta love the pub quiz: beer and education!

[Terminus Est]

Originally Posted by Eurograff

Ziggurats. Though in Mesopotamia there were not as many as in Egypt, which is nowadays considered to be in Africa (but not necessarily in Ancient times, Greeks often referred to Nile river as continental border). Over 100 pyramids in Egypt. Anyway, more proper would be to talk about Old World pyramids.

There are also pyramids in China.

[Crandolph]

Originally Posted by spingears

BIG QUIBBLE: The official answer is right but wrong. IMHO
The 'Pyramids of Latin America are mounds of dirt and rock whether natural or man made with a facade of cut stone.
The Great Pyramid of Egypt is an out and out man made structure of cut and hewn stone siting on a leveled flat base/foundation of bed rock!

I believe that's true of the larger Aztec pyramids (which I still think are pyramids regardless of construction method), but my understanding of most Mayan pyramids is that they were stone on stone foundations. The Copan complex , for example, is believed to be built upon the foundations of an earlier city. The Mayans appear to have been taking down parts of their cities and building them up according to cycles in their calendar.

The Moche and Olmec appear to have used adobe and mud bricks in constructing their pyramids. The huge pyramid Tlachihualtepetl at Cholula, which may have been the one referenced in the quiz Q, certainly has some stone construction at the base (not sure to what degree this is foundational) and was covered with dirt to "hide" it from the Spanish (who stuck a church atop it in any event.)