La Venta's layout is precisely planned, aligned 8° west of north across ~1.5 km with 30+ earthen mounds in complexes A-I 📐. The Great Pyramid measures 128x144m at base and over 30m tall, with ~100,000 cubic meters of volume. 1990s excavations confirmed it was a stepped pyramid, not a volcano model.
La Venta's planned urban center features Great Pyramid and nine numbered complexes
MexicoArchitecture
Key facts
- La Venta's layout is formally planned and aligned on an axis of 8° west of north
- The city center stretches nearly 1.5 km and contains over 30 earthen mounds and platforms divided into complexes A through I
- The Great Pyramid measures 128x144 meters at the base and over 30 meters high with a volume of almost 100,000 cubic meters, making it the largest pyramid in Mesoamerica when constructed
- Excavations in the 1990s confirmed the Great Pyramid was originally a stepped pyramid, not a volcano model
- Complex I includes three of La Venta's four colossal heads at the city's northern entrance
- Complex B south of the Great Pyramid has four mounds around a 42,000 square meter plaza
- The Sterling Acropolis, named after archaeologist Matthew Sterling, likely served as the royal palace compound
- Complex D contains an early E-Group architectural complex, though recent investigations by Takeshi Inomata suggest Nakbe (c. 950 BCE) predates La Venta's E-Group
- Two meters were bulldozed off the Great Pyramid's summit in the 1960s, destroying summit remains
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Sources
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