World History I

Chapter 15: The Rise of Empires in the Americas
1500 to 1750

69: Wed, May 20, 2026

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

We've looked at a number of monumental structures around the world. These often served as religious centers to proclaim the community's foundation myth and link it to spiritual powers, as well as political and economic centers that could impress subjects, intimidate rivals, and support trade.

One of the common themes these structures demonstrate is each community's belief that their particular location, marked by some religious and geopolitical power, is the most important place in the world, the "navel of the world", or sometimes the axis mundi, the world axis or world tree, a place where the divine and temporal worlds touch. Sometimes the place is marked by a particular stone, such as the omphalos stone at Delphi, which made Delphi the center of the Greek world, or the Foundation Stone of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which is considered the center of the world in the Jewish and some Islamic traditions, and the Ka'aba in Mecca according to other Islamic traditions. Sometimes the place is marked by a man-made mountain to allow the closest ascent possible to the divine, such as the pyramids of Egypt and the ziggurats of Babylonia and Sumer. Sometimes the place is itself a mountain, such as Uluru (Ayers Rock) in Australia or Kunlun in China.

Consider the locations listed below in the Americas (I've given you some links for these). How are they similar in form or function or composition or artifacts to structures in the "Old World"?  How are they different?

• The Pyramid of the Moon (Teotihuacan culture, 1000-500 AD)
• El Castillo, Chichen Itza  (Mayan culture, 900 AD)
• The Great Pyramid of Cholula (Toltec/Olmec cutures 800-1000 AD)
• Monks Mound at Cahokia (Mississippian culture, 1100 AD)
• Shrine of the Moon (Moche civilization,  100-800 AD)
• Machu Picchu (Incan civilization, 1400-1500 AD)
  

For more examples, check out this list of Mesoamerican pyramids!

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