Did Giants Build the Pyramids of México?
Missionaries in New Spain and New Hispanic historians chronicle stories saying that in ancient times there were giants in the land now known as México. They called them Quinametzin, a term used in Mesoamerican mythology for people of great height.
Stories of giants appear in the writings of several Spanish missionaries. The friars were looking for explanations for the large buildings dedicated to the indigenous gods. According to the journal of Mexican Archaeology, the evangelists attributed the construction of the largest pyramids, such as that of Cholula, to the giants.
The Bible gave the missionaries the idea that the creators of these great buildings could be beings like those described in biblical passages: the Goliath against which David fights or other stories where the triumph of a person is enhanced by overcoming individuals superior in size and strength.
The Bible gave the missionaries the idea that the creators of these great buildings could be beings like those described in biblical passages: the Goliath against which David fights or other stories where the triumph of a person is enhanced by overcoming individuals superior in size and strength.
A story by friar Andrés de Olmos, famous for his work as a philologist of the indigenous groups Nahuatl, Huastec, and Totonac, tells that in the palace of the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza, bones of a human foot were found where each toe measured almost the palm of a hand.
Like the biblical story of Noah and the flood, according to natives, the giants were created by the gods and perished in the catastrophe of Atonatiuh, a great flood in the mountainous area of Tlaxcala.
Myth or Real?
According to later research, there are no known cases of entire groups that had that pattern in their height. The bones found by conquistadors in Tlaxcala and by De Olmos in the palace of Viceroy Mendoza were of animals and the paleontology of the sixteenth century was not advanced enough to realize that they were not human fossils.
Listen to the story of the Giants of Mexico
Reference:
INFOBAE, Los quinametzin, la raza de gigantes que habitó México, 4 de Julio de 2019
