The world's largest pyramid — buried under a hill with a Baroque church on top
Cholula contains the Great Pyramid of Cholula (Tlachihualtepetl) — the largest pyramid in the world by volume, four times the size of the Great Pyramid of Giza, completely buried under a natural-looking hill with a 16th-century Spanish colonial church (Nuestra Señora de los Remedios) perched on its summit. The Spanish built the church deliberately on top of the pyramid as an act of religious conquest; 8km of tunnels excavated by archaeologists run through the pyramid's interior and are open to the public. The town around it is known for its 365 Catholic churches (one for every day of the year…
Cholula was one of the most important cities in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, with an estimated population of 100,000 at its peak — rivalling Teotihuacan and larger than most contemporary European cities. The Great Pyramid was built in stages between 300 BCE and 900 CE by successive cultures including Preclassic builders, Teotihuacan influence, and Toltec-Chichimec peoples; each phase buried the previous structure entirely, giving the mountain-like appearance that concealed it from the Spanish. Hernán Cortés massacred between 3,000 and 6,000 Cholulans in 1519 in what became known as the Cholula…