In the rainy jungles of Tabasco, an ancient monument rises up above the tree-line. From afar it appears to be a hill, covered in grass and extremely out of place. Nature has clearly won out and done its best to conceal what remains of the site. Today, you would never know that some three-thousand years ago this ‘hill’ was the centerpiece of the Olmec world, a monument to the gods, and the oldest pyramid in the Americas. This ‘hill’ is The Great Pyramid of La Venta.
Pyramids. Ever since what seems like the beginning of time, humans have consistently tried to see who can stack rocks and/or dirt the highest. This strange fascination can be found in one way or another in every corner of the world, whether it be China, Mesoamerica, or of course everyone’s favorite: Egypt. Most of the time these pyramids were either the tombs of dead rulers or monuments to the gods. There’s also the completely plausible, totally realistic, and not outlandish theory that ancients from around the world were communicating with aliens… or you know something like that. Of course ancient aliens speculation aside, my theory is that they were built because people just enjoy building things. It’s kind of like how if you bring a teenage boy to the beach and give him a shovel, odds are he’s going to try and dig a big hole to show how far down he can get. Well if you give a bunch of stones and dirt to the rulers of an ancient civilization, they’re going to try to show how big of a monument they can build.
Alright, now on to the main subject of this article, the Great Pyramid of La Venta. As mentioned previously, if you looked at this thing by itself you really would think it’s a hill. It’s covered in green grass and surrounded by the rainforest. Of course, it didn’t always look like this. Upon a closer examination, archeologists have been able to determine it was originally a Step Pyramid made of approximately 100,000 meters of earth fill. At one point, there were stepped sides and inserted corners on the pyramid; but, due to some rain (rainforest so I guess a lot of rain), erosion has done away with the exterior of the pyramid. What remains is a grassy knoll that sits directly in the center of the ancient Olmec city of La Venta.
The pyramid itself is believed to have been built between 1000 BCE and 400 BCE, with many believing it is the oldest pyramid in the Americas. This is still way younger than the Egyptian pyramids which have them beat by at least fifteen hundred years, but you know what at least they tried. Surprisingly, the pyramid itself has never been excavated, leading to some debate about its intended purpose. There are currently no plans to excavate the site, and the city of La Venta as a whole is protected by the Mexican government. Though we may never know why it was built, we do know the Great Pyramid of La Venta deserves its name, and is considered to be one of the many jewels of the Olmec people.