Mesoamerican Pyramid Temples

Timeline

1. c. 500–900Teotihuacan and the Maya lowlands · TeotihuacanTeotihuacan's Pyramid of the Sun and the temple complexes of Maya city-states such as Tikal and Palenque established the standard stepped-pyramid–temple complex form, with reliefs and inscriptions embedding rulers, deities, and calendrical events into the architecture.
2. c. 900–1200Yucatán Peninsula · Yucatán PeninsulaToltec and Maya traditions fused at places like Chichén Itzá, where buildings such as the Temple of the Feathered Serpent introduced colonnades, warrior reliefs, and ball courts, making pyramid temples a core symbol of city-state political competition and interregional imitation.
3. c. 1200–1500Valley of Mexico and the Maya highlands · Valley of MexicoThe Aztecs built great twin-temple pyramids at Tenochtitlan, and around the 1370s Maya city-states still maintained existing temples; after the Spanish conquest in the early 16th century, many pyramid temples were demolished or converted into church foundations.