400-year-old church re-emerges from beneath Mexican reservoir
400-year-old church re-emerges from beneath Mexican reservoir
Fishermen are making use of the re-appearance of the ruins to ferry curious passengers around its walls
Jess staufenberg |
4 minutes ago
The relics of a 16th-century church built by Spanish colonisers has emerged from a reservoir in the south of Mexico.
It is the second time the church, usually submerged on the reservoir bed, has been revealed in the state of Chiapas as a result of drought.
A water-level drop of at least 24 metres in the Grijalba river which feeds the reservoir exposed the 400-year-old roofless religious building, with its 10-metre high walls, 61-metre length and 14-metre wide hall.
The river was last this low in 2002, when visitors were able to walk about inside the church.
More:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/four-hundred-year-old-church-re-emerges-from-beneath-mexican-reservoir-a6698536.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
450-Year-Old Church Emerges From Reservoir As Water Levels Drop
The church was built in 1564 and abandoned two centuries later.
Ed Mazza
Overnight Editor, The Huffington Post
Posted: 10/19/2015 12:30 AM EDT | Edited: 10/19/2015 07:54 PM EDT
The Latin Times reports that local fishermen are taking people on tours of the church via boat.
Some of the more adventurous visitors have even climbed the ruins:
- - - - some excellent photos which won't copy and paste, must go to link to view - - - -
The church was built in 1564 with the expectation that the surrounding area would see a surge in population, the news agency reported.
"It was a church built thinking that this could be a great population center, but it never achieved that," architect Carlos Navarretes told AP. "It probably never even had a dedicated priest, only receiving visits from those from Tecpatan."
After a plague devastated the area from 1773 to 1776, the church was abandoned.
In 2002, water levels fell so much that locals could walk through the ruins, AP reported.
"The people celebrated. They came to eat, to hang out, to do business. I sold them fried fish. They did processions around the church," fisherman Leonel Mendoza told AP.
More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/temple-of-santiago-mexico_56244bcae4b02f6a900cc670
