Tonina Mayan Ruins Don and Lois Porter 2/24/2002 |
page 2 of 2 |
(still mostly quoting from Nick Rider:) On the sixth level is an enclosure, now protected by a tin roof, with some of the most remarkable stucco carvings at Toniná. On the one side is the Mural of the Four Suns, a panel with images of the four eras of creation. Next to it is a tremendous frieze showing a fearsome skeleton figure, representing the God of Death, dancing with the decapitated head of an unfortunate captured lord of another city. The strange X-shaped frame the God dances behind is believed to represent a type of scaffold and portal to the Otherworld on which sacrifices were sometimes put to death. Beneath it there is a standing rat in a loincloth, "Precious First Rat", thought to be the rat who first showed the Hero Twins their ballgame equipment, and so another creature of the Otherworld. Behind the Four Suns is a substantial temple, containing the Altar of the Earth Monster. The Seventh Platform, the last, has a small temple in the middle with fine carved figures. Behind it are two more pyramids, one of which really is the summit of Toniná. At the very top there's a small inner sanctum, the Temple of the Smoking Mirror. From there, as from most of the Sixth and Seventh Platforms, there is a wonderful view for miles across the vally of Ocosingo. |
Temple and Valley | View of valley from Seventh Platform | Pyramid and valley | Temple on Sixth Platform |
Carving in Museum | |||