ARQUEOLOGÍA E HISTORIA DE LOS VOLCANES POPOCATÉPETL E IZTACCÍHUATL, MÉXICO

Abstract

Archaeology and History dos vulcões Popocatépetl e Iztaccíhuatl, México The most emblematic mountains of Mexico are the highest volcanoes Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl. Today, the collective imagination recreates the personification of Popocatepetl as a victorious Aztec warrior on his return found his fiancée Iztaccihuatl inert; faithful to his oath of love remains kneeling at his feet, but the design of the gods transfigures in mountains, Popocatepetl with fire (it is an active volcano) keeps the eternal dream of his beloved Iztaccihuatl (the orographic profile of the mountain resembles that of a woman recumbent), in perpetuity of an unrealizable passion. But beyond this romantic legend, both mountains have been revered for over two thousand years ago, deposited on their summits, hillsides and caves offerings are now of interest to archeology. For the sixteenth century Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes and his army pass between the two mountains to approach Tenochtitlan, the capital of the then Aztec empire, now the capital of the Mexican Republic.