TALLEST Maya Pyramid IN THE WORLD? Toniná Ruins, Chiapas Mexico

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Reminder: Maya = The people, Mayan = The language

TALLEST Maya Pyramid IN THE WORLD? Toniná Ruins, Chiapas Mexico

Located in the Southern most state of Mexico called Chiapas the Ruins of Toniná are near the heart of the once great Maya Empire. An empire so vast that it covered most of Southern Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Toniná was a city of war and great prosperity, with rulers that conquered many cities including the mighty Palenque. Tonina’s rulers built massive pyramids and temples aligned with the cosmos and the movements of the sun. It’s people flourished for over 700 years until the end of the Classic Maya Period. They left behind their stories in monuments of stone . And the once mighty Acropolis of Toniná, (perhaps the tallest Maya structure in the world) was all but forgotten.

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Thanks for watching TALLEST Maya Pyramid IN THE WORLD? Toniná Ruins, Chiapas Mexico

located in the southernmost state of mexico called chiapas the ruins of tonina are near the heart of the once great maya empire an empire so vast that it covered most of southern mexico belize and guatemala was a city of war and great prosperity with rulers that conquered many cities including the mighty palenque tonina’s rulers built massive pyramids and temples aligned with the cosmos and the movements of the sun its people flourished for over 700 years until the end of the classic maya period they left behind their stories in monuments of stone and the once mighty acropolis of toni na perhaps the tallest maya structure in the world was all but forgotten good morning so we are just outside of the city of ocosingo chiapas mexico and we got here last night and we’re staying in this awesome airbnb i have to show you this place it’s uh it’s just kind of out here in the out here in the middle of the jungle and it’s just an awesome little airbnb check that out beautiful little place we’ve got all this land surrounding us and we are here this weekend to explore the tony na ruins which you can actually see just right over here through the fog most amazing view ever right there through the fog maybe a little hard to see on the gopro but uh yeah we got here last night and had a little bit of excitement we found a tarantula inside of the house that was a little bit exciting brought the tarantula out oh there he is okay there he is he’s on the grass there you go [Music] but we’re excited today to go explore these ruins and learn more about them all right let’s go do it tony na is located high above the valley of okosingo in the mexican state of chiapas on the borders of the la candon jungle it’s far from any airport which makes it somewhat hard to get to and there are really only three main ways to reach it the first is by driving the windy mountain roads from san cristobal de las casas this is the route that most tourists visiting chiapas will probably take the drive is about three hours and sometimes prone to roadblocks the other option is to fly into palenque and drive over three hours through jungle covered mountains roadblocks on this route are actually a really big problem make sure to bring some cash for donations if you go this route if you’re coming from the city of komitan the highway that goes throughout the medano is peaceful but it has a lot of potholes however you decide to arrive tony na is more than worth the trip entrance cost is 65 pesos per person and guides run about 400 pesos this place is incredible i realized though that uh not supposed to fly drones here i’ve been flying my drone over the city last night and this morning i’ll put some of that footage in but know that if i had known it was prohibited i would not have done so but it’s too good not to put in check this out look at that amazing if you do a search online for tallest maya pyramid in the world tony nom may not come up right away in fact there are lots of other contenders throughout mesoamerica that tend to steal the limelight the problem is that when it comes to pyramids and ancient structures the lines get a bit blurry as to height and actual size some people like to use volume as a measure of the pyramid stature while others are simply counting the height from the base to the top things are further complicated when you consider that the maya built extremely elaborate structures consisting of many temples platforms and pyramids all on top of each other let’s take a quick look at some of the contenders to understand why tony na may just be the tallest though not necessarily the biggest maya structure in the world first on our list let’s start with some well-known pyramids the impressive pyramid the great jaguar in tikal guatemala comes in at a height of 47 meters that’s over 150 feet high taller than a 10 story building the great pyramid of kalakmul in campeche mexico is next on our list with an impressive 55 meters though i had trouble confirming this height many resources put it at 45 meters but we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt back in to call temple number four is 64 meters according to the national park that protects these ruins each of these structures so far is impressive both in height and size but we’re about to take it up a notch the pyramid of the sun in teotihuacan mexico was once thought to be the highest pyramid in all of mexico it comes in at 65 meters according to the national archaeological institute of mexico though it may have originally been higher this pyramid is massive and is certainly a top contender if we take sheer volume into account next on the list is the great pyramid of cholula in puebla mexico coming in at 66 meters though i had trouble confirming this number with a reputable source things start to get a bit fuzzy with cholula because it is a temple pyramid complex the great pyramid of cholula is likely to be one of the largest maya structures by volume but by height there are still a few others in front of it ladanta complex at miredor in guatemala is next in line like cholula this is not so much a freestanding pyramid as it is a complex of structures rising from the jungle floor ladanta is most likely the largest maya structure by volume in the world and its height comes to 72 meters according to the book the ancient maya you’ll see ladanta hailed as the tallest structure in the maya world on articles online but is it really so let me just say that it was nearly impossible to find accurate heights for some of these i used the most reputable heights i could find from the most reputable sources i scoured books articles archeological reports and it is absolutely ridiculous how much numbers differed and disagreed even in the same places it’s crazy i imagine that’s because there’s different people probably taking the measurements they may be taking them in different ways and let’s just face it it’s really hard to measure a massive structure in the middle of the jungle so i imagine in the future as there are new discoveries and technology improves it’ll help settle this debate further but let’s get back to tony na and why i believe it may even surpass ladanta as the tallest maya structure in the world for years it was believed that tony nag got its height from being built onto an existing hillside although it is definitely built into the hills the true structure of tony now was not discovered till as recently as 2010 discoveries on the northeast of the site revealed that tony naw was much more man-made than was previously believed using new discoveries director of archaeology at toni na juan yad angolo and a group of postgraduate students were able to create a three-dimensional map of the site the map revealed that contrary to popular belief tonina’s height is from actual human construction and not from its being built on a hill to quote the director it was believed that almost all of it was a natural hill or mound but recent evidence has revealed that almost all of it was built by the ancient settlers tonina he continued is bigger than we suspected tonina is a truly massive construction the whole structure boasts seven platforms with 13 temples currently excavated with the new discoveries that have been made angulo and his associates have measured tonina’s height to be 75 meters in front in the northeast corner it’s 62 meters high and it has a facade covering over 300 meters they declared it the tallest pyramid in mexico surpassing even the mighty pyramid of the sun in teotihuacan so if we put tonina up against all our previous contenders it is clearly the tallest as far as our current information and as long as we measure it from the front it’s hard though to really assert it as the biggest because like several of the other top contenders tony not is not a perfect freestanding pyramid this is evidenced by the difference in height in the northeast section versus the front elevation perhaps one of the most startling facts about tonina is that it’s only about 30 percent uncovered according to our guide who is an archaeologist for the site no real active work has been going on at tony now for some time because of lack of funds who knows what future excavations will unearth this represents what the pyramids look like all uncovered he said right now only 30 percent is uncovered yeah 30 percent so tony na is a lesser known um ruin site everyone goes to palenque and takal and other places like that but toni na was actually one of the largest temples in all of mesoamerica it was a very war based city they actually conquered palenque and many other places but yeah it was one of the biggest temples in all of mesoamerica they lived here from 200 years bc to 909 years after and then they disappeared and no one really knows why [Music] this is one of the awesome things about tony you can actually go inside the ruins still [Applause] wow wow wow that was pretty cool amazing that these are so well preserved like that after so many millions of years thousands not millions but thousands of years they could be still in such good shape so amazing all right we’re going up the going up the pyramid careful brooke come on brookie [Music] up we go that’s the mayan toilet right there that’s the sink okay let’s go [Music] this place is awesome it’s so cool you get to actually like walk around the ruins most other ruins you don’t get to walk inside them and stuff but uh this is pretty awesome in its time tony na was known for being a fierce warring city whose principal method of trade and power was to capture the nobles of other cities according to its stone-inscribed history tony na was almost always at war it conquered cities both near and far and even rose to dominance over the mighty city of palenque for a time the most famous ruler of toni na ki inichi began his rule in 687 and captured more than 20 capitals in the region palenque was the city that tonino fought with the most and could be seen as its arch rival there are depictions all over tony naw bound captives from palenque some of whom are thought to be the sons of the great lord pakal the fifth longest reigning monarch in all of history [Music] steep steep steep stairs oh my gosh i’ll carry brook just a minute these stairs are heck of steep all right i gotta carry a child no more filming for a moment [Music] super steep hair super super steep but here we are on top of the pyramid oh my goodness so amazing holy cow so this other hill over here they’ve actually discovered the base of another pyramid so it’s like a hill but it’s totally a pyramid underneath there just is crazy [Music] [Music] whether or not tony naw is the tallest maya structure in the world it sure is impressive from its temples and pyramids to its sculptures and stone-inscribed history there’s no arguing that this place is special so those are some pretty incredible ruins we actually opted to pay a guide to come take us around to show us the ruins and tell us all the history and actually totally worth it i think um it was like cuatro cientos pesos 400 pesos not that much um but all the history he told us and all of the things he showed us that we otherwise would have had no idea about i think was totally worth it all right if you like this video give us a thumbs up and if you haven’t already subscribe we’d love to have you along on our million adventures we’ll see you on the next one bye everybody [Music] you