Sights in Zacatecas

View the video that shows the extent of Zacatecas toward the west from the highest peak around. The city is not very wide but extends quite a way up and down the valley.

Here's a video of my friend Gail taking the zipline off this same peak toward the east.

This hotel was made out of an old bullring. It is rated one of the top 10 hotels in the world

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This is the cathedral in central Zacatecas:

The intricate Baroque-style carvings are made by immersing limestone in water for several weeks until it becomes soft and can be carved. Then, as it dries in the hot sun, it becomes a hard stone again.

This Catholic church building was destroyed by a Christian sect (can't remember if it was Methodists or Prysbeterians). They destroyed knocked the saints from the edifice and ruined the inside. Click the photo for a close up and you can see the niches where the saints once stood on either side above the door.

The front of the church is between these two flying buttresses:

Canterra (Spanish for any quarry stone) is the most

common building material in Mexico. It is limestone

and comes in varying colors. Here is an example of

purple or lavender canterra:

I would hope any business who charges for their services would be effective.

After lunch (see photo of the way they served beer--with a shrimp in the neck of the bottle) we set out for an archaeological site.

This is a scale replica of the site: The building on the left is the visitors center. Up the hill were the living and religious areas of the ancient inhabitants.

In the courtyard of the visitor's center was a replica of decorative rock artwork typically found at this site:

The walls of this site were built very tall and thick as a defense against attack:

This was the large religious center. The columns supported

the roof of the single largest room built in Mexico at that time.

Here is the courtyard adjacent to the religious center and

shows the valley below the city.

The nopal cactus with fruits, mostly yellow and a few ripe red

(called tuna in Spanish or prickly pear fruit in English) growing

along the eastern edge of the city. Remember to click on any

photo to see a close up.

As we left this site, we had to pass the tourist area where trinkets, etc. were sold. They had a number of live snakes from the area and my friend Gail was introduced to the resident rattlesnake. She is absolutely terrified of snakes but did a good job holding this one without screaming.