Ancient American Cities - E-book - ePub

Eighteen children from 18 American cultures prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus, explain why their city is the most beautiful in the world, and in doing so, make us a painting of their beliefs, food, costumes, celebrations, jobs, giving us a general and synthetic description. The cultures and cities are, from north to south:- The Inuit scattered-city of igloos on a non-existent land, - The Sioux transportable nomadic cities, - The Anasazi Dovecote excavated in the Mountain in Mesa Verde, - The Aztecs Tenochtitlán a city dedicated to the gods, - The Teotihuacán city where men became gods, - The Mayans Copán a city like a book, - The Zenúes Yapel and its web of canals, - The Shell Rings of extreme geometry and antiquity, - The Panches city on the peak of the mountain, - The Muiscas Bacatá, the resplendent city, the origin of Eldorado, - The Amazonians Maloca and the entire universe within it, - The Chimúes Chan Chan, the metropolis of sand, - The Incas Machu Picchu to tie the sun, - The Nazca city painted on the pampas, - The Uros floating city on Titicaca, - The Paleo-indians Rocky Shelters, - And the Europeans that imagine Eldorado.
After knowing the pre-Columbian cities, the European ones seem like a pile of buildings at a crossroads. The pre-Columbian cities allow knowing each culture that dreamed of them before building them. These 18 cities are not 18 conglomerates of buildings, they are conglomerates of second natures dreamed of and built by men, the city as a correction of Nature, as an additional furnishing to Eden.