Mitla - (or rather Mictlan = city of the dead) is a village famous for its ancient ruins in Mexico, in the state of Oaxaca, the site of the ancient Aztec city of Yoo-paa, from which the remains of 4 large palaces and two temple pyramids have survived.
Overlap blocks are striking not so much by their size, but by very smooth edges in those places where damage and erosion were not too strong. Obtaining this quality without sawing is simply impossible.
Option 1. The complex was built entirely by Indians. Then we must admit that the Indians of Mesoamerica were familiar with such a technological technique as sawing. Moreover, they had to have sufficiently strong saws to work, albeit with a rather soft, but still a stone (and this is precisely a natural stone). But then two facts must be explained at once. Why, by the time the Spaniards arrived, the Indians somehow turned out to be completely unfamiliar with saws?!.. And why has not a single (!) Saw been found among the colossal number of archaeological finds dating back to the pre-Columbian era, just as not a single image has been found with sawing ?!
Option 2. The Indians built their structures on the foundations of more ancient structures of a completely different civilization, which possessed the technology of sawing. They also used blocks from the ancient ruins as floor slabs. But there was clearly not enough material from the ancient structures. This explains the fact that the intermediate tier between the foundation and the ceilings is built of raw stone, laid on a mortar and plastered on the outside. At the same time, even blocks of floors were plastered (which was not required at all, from the standpoint of construction technologies) …
The top is decorated with exquisite ornaments. In those places where archaeologists were forced to restore damage, one can see that the ornament was not carved on a monolithic stone, but composed (!!!) of small pieces of material like a mosaic.
The central object of the second group of structures is the so-called Temple with columns. The same building techniques can be traced here. Moreover, in places where the foundations of ancient structures were damaged, the Indians patched the holes with primitive masonry of torn stone.
The current view of the plastered and red painted walls and the staircase from the facade is the result of the work of the restorers (painting continued with us).
In the courtyard, you can get a closer look at the painted wall ornament, which is located here at a low height. A very non-trivial detail emerges: the ornament is made of small flat tiles (!!!). There is no need to talk about the production of such a number of practically standardized and very even tiles without the use of saws by simply tapping and grinding - this is a colossal work!..
There is also an ornament simply carved in stone. But it is found only on monolithic floor blocks - where you simply do not use tiles.
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And again the alternative: either the Indians had the saws necessary for the production of stone tiles on an almost industrial scale; or this tile also belongs to an older civilization, like even blocks.
On both sides of the main staircase of the temple, there are direct evidences of sawing technology - two slots in the stone slabs. From below and from the side it seems that these are two separate blocks. however, it can be seen from above that this is only a small cut (most likely decorative, although the option of some incomprehensible utilitarian purpose is not excluded). And these are precisely the cuts that cannot be created by any chiselling or drilling!..
There is a large block next to the palace. here is just a classic example of manual processing by simple trimming: no normal sampling of inner corners, no smooth edges …
Immediately there is a remnant of the wall, where it can be seen that small even blocks were used (most likely by the Indians -?) As cladding for ordinary rubble masonry.
In the third group of structures - the same principle of buta cladding, but not with simple masonry, but directly with tiled ornament.
But underground rooms are much more interesting here, in the first of which the fairly well-preserved even walls are clearly discordant with the uneven surface of the ceiling slabs. The nature of the irregularities allows us to put forward the next version.
The ancient structure was badly damaged. The Indians decided to restore it, but for this they had to drag the overlapping blocks from somewhere. In the course of dragging the blocks not on logs, but along small stones such as gravel, and now visible longitudinal stripes were formed on the lower surface of the floors.
But the second underground room simply amazes with its quality of performance!..
Of course, archaeologists consider it a burial structure, which by the time of the arrival of the Spaniards was devastated (and again: of course!) By grave robbers …
And in our opinion: an excellent bunker !!! Built by an ancient, highly technologically advanced civilization, and not by the Indians, who simply did not have the opportunity to create something like that.