El Tajín which means City of thunder, hurricane or lighting in Totanac language is located in what nowadays is the municipality of Poza Rica in Veracruz, Mexico. Despite of not being completely excavated, this amazing archaeological site has almost 150 buildings, and just 20 of them have being restored.
Consider also, one of many enigmatic places, El Tajín is still under scientific studies which keep revealing more unusual explanations for unusual buildings; discovering more and more mysteries of the Totanacs culture whose god was called Tajín.
This mysterious city had many uses, including a commercial interchange city, as same as both a political and spiritual center. According to the just excavated part, it has an extension of 1 kilometre square, and there is located many temple-pyramids, palaces and courts.
One of the most famous buildings in this site is the Pyramid of the Niches which 60 feet high and 6 terraces which are well forming 365 niches painted blue on the frames and red in the insides, so this suggest, like many other sites in Mexico, to the Scientifics that these structures resemble calendars and time, or some kind of measurement device.
Besides, the Minor Plaza or Plaza Menor in Spanish, there are around of 17 Ball Courts building where has been found human sacrifices and it is believed that in some how they are related to the ball games that Totonacs people used to play here, depicting ritualistic games.
For these reasons and many more, this place has become exciting due to the new mysteries revealed in here, discovering unique and unusual buildings.
El Tajín, once known also as Mictlan or Adobe of the dead, was originally around the Arroyo Group in the southern end of the archaeological site.
During the time about 300 to 600A.D. the construction grew over the north, into the valley extending its territory to the ridges to the west, and was during this time when the Pyramid of the Niches and El Tajín Chico were built under an excellent plan. However, when the Totonacs realized that the city became crowded, they had to build their structures in those places where there was room.
Even though there is no real evidence of an early occupation, according to the Scientifics, in about 100A.D. the Preclassic inhabitants, the Huastects from the northern Veracruz, came to El Tajín reaching a regional power. But, its apex of power was between 900 to 1100A.D. with the Totonacs who came during the Postclasicc era.
So that, was in the 10th Century when the ruler was known as 13 Rabbit, who is carved on the columns of the Building of the Columns structure, and during the early Postclassic era, this archaeological site extended its territory covering about 500hectares with about 30,000 of population.
But, about 1150A.D. the Huastec Culture collapse and the city was almost completely abandoned, and the scientific explanation it is due to the agricultural surrounding was not enough to support the large population.
Later then, about the 1200A.D., during the Late Postclassic Era new people came to these lands, they were the Totonac Culture, who continued the construction. But, the city was conquered and burned by the Chichimec invaders.
However, when the site was occupied by a smaller population, neither no new or more construction projects were initiated or concluded; and increasing the abandon, El Tajín was completely unoccupied when Spaniard arrived in the early 16th century.
An engineer called Diego Ruiz, in 1785 visited the site overgrown with vegetation, publishing the first description of El Tajín. But, was recently in the early 19th century when Guillermo Dupaix, Alexander von Humboldt, and Carlos Nebel, visited this place making publish additional accounts.
Jose Garcia Payon was the first archaeologist who made the excavation, from 1943 through 1963; and since 1980 until now, is the Mexican Institute of Anthropology & History the one that supports the additional restoration to the buildings.