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| Pictures of Tingambato, Mexico |
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On the road to Uruapan you go right through the town of Tingambato. So I stopped there on my way and visited the archeological zone of the same name. Tingambato is a real nice clean town. You have to walk right through it for about 1 km on your way to the zone. Unfortunately there is no bank or hotel, so it remains just a stop on your way to Uruapan or a day trip from Patzcuaro.
At each archaeological zone they present you with a book to sign. I noticed that no one had signed the book for 3 days prior to my arrival, and I was the only tourist while I was here. The zone is surprisingly a rather intimate group of structures, plazas, and palace ruins. Delightfully surrounding and enhancing the whole complex is a mature orchard of avacados. |
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| The main temple of the complex is a relatively small pyramid (less than 40 steps to the top) but very impressive nonetheless. The surrounding courtyard walls show excellent architectural detail. | This sunken ballcourt rare for this part of Mexico provides evidence that this culture was influenced by builders of Teotihuacan near Mexico City. | Looking back southeast across the ballcourt from the trees at the edge of the complex you see the pyramid in the background. |
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| The gatekeeper unlocked the tomb very near the pyramid for me to crawl in, and I was able to get this picture of the domed ceiling (5 feet high max) - notable for its lack of keystone. One full skeleton and 30 some skulls were removed by the archaeologists when this was excavated. | The plaza, church, and bandstand in the town of Tingambato. It is interesting to see what the street merchants are trying to sell here because there are no tourists to influence them. |