Message #116075

[Bianca]

                                             Gods and Giants in Ancient Mexico






    Trudging through fields of maguey and scrub vegetation toward the pyramid complex of Teotihuac n is the closest that the casual tourist can come to being on another planet. Even on a fine sunny day, there is a certain alienness to the landscape which makes the enormous pyramids of the Sun and Moon seem a trifle frightening. On a cloudy day, the entire region and its surrounding mountains appear to have been designed according to the descriptions of the terrifying otherworldly realms imagined by H.P. Lovecraft.

    Thousands of tourists visit Teotihuac n every year; tens of thousands of postcards and books depicting the complex are sold throughout the country and overseas, but we still do not know who built the stone metropolis. The Aztecs treated the site with awe and reverence, naming it "the city of the gods" when they could not imagine whoelse but gods could have built such a place. Superstition kept the Aztecs from ever occupying Teotihuac n, and when the conquering Spaniards first reached the location, it was covered by dense layers of alluvial mud. Historians tell us that the monumental complex was built around 200 A.D. and was sacked by the Toltecs in 856 A.D.There is evidence that the Mexican pyramids are far older than the ultraconservative figures given by scholars. According to British archaeologist H.S. Bellamy, the excavations at Teotihuac n required the removal of layers of earth measuring up to one meter in thickness. Bellamy himself reckoned the pyramid to have been built around 5000 B.C..

    The question of Teotihuac n's origin was solved in ancient tradition by the presence of deities (visitors from space?) and the ubiquitous giants which have appeared in every single cultural tradition in the world. Fernando de Alba Ixtilxochitl, a chronicler from colonial times, manifested in his writings that "there were giants in New Spain (Mexico). Furthermore, their bones may be found everywhere, and ancient Toltec historians have dubbed them Quinametzin, against whom they fought many wars and had much strife in this land called New Spain..."

    It may well be that the bones of these giants corresponded to those of mastodons and other early mammals, but the description of these clearly nonhuman creatures abound in the ancient records. Fray Andr&Mac226;s de Olmos, quoting from native sources, stresses the "divine" origin of these giants: "The four gods created the giants, who were very large men, endowed with enough strength to uproot trees with their hands...the Indians have outstanding
recollections of them and call them quinametzin huetlacame, which is to say, large and deformed men."

The colonial chronicler adds the curious detail that the giants were afraid of falling down, since they found it impossible to stand up again (due to Earth's gravity?). Tradition has it that it was these giants, the Quinametzin, who were put to work at building Teotihuac n for unknown purposes. Nahuatl codexes go as far as to mention a king among the giants, Tlatlotl, "who built great things and was taken for a god." Another chronicle describes how Xelhua, another giant, built an artificial column "in the shape of a pyramid". Curiously enough, the Codex Vaticanus 3738 depicts one of these giants.

    The presence of giants in contemporary ufology, particularly in Latin American cases, cannot be overlooked in this regard: creatures measuring up to twelve feet in height have been reported in Brazilian and Argentinean encounters. Could these be the otherworldly kinsmen of the giants who built the mighty Mexican monuments?

    French author Michel Cargese has explored this aspect of the giants as master builders in his own works. He provides the example of a prehistoric tool kit found in Agadir, Morocco: the 300,000 year old set of tools was designed to be used by someone with hands corresponding to those of a 16-foot tall giant. He adds that other cyclopean works found in other parts of the globe have also been the handiwork of these giants.

    Lest the reader dismiss all this talk of giants as the same old hearsay that permeates most cryptoarchaelogical articles, it is perhaps worth noting here that the remains of physical giants continue being found in contemporary times.

In 1975, Mexico's premier ufologist, Pedro Ferriz, visited the town of Calvillo, Aguascalientes (on the Pacific coast, famous for its intricate mazes of unexplored manmade caves) to inspect some ancient petroglyphs on the property of V¡ctor Mart¡nez, a local landowner. Mart¡nez told the ufologist that he was ambivalent about the petroglyphs, which he considered unlucky, particularly since "that affair with the giants".

When asked to elaborate on what he meant, Mart¡nez explained that he had stumbled upon the ancient skeletons of two extraordinarily large men while tilling the soil. Mart¡nez went into Calvillo to notify the authorities about his find, only to discover that the local police believed him to have killed both giants and wanted to incarcerate him! The farmer finessed his way out of the predicament, returned to his farm, and set fire to the bones.