A Volcano Buried the World’s Largest Pyramid?!

In the first Volcano Minisode of our season break, Katy Reiss and Laura Fawks Lapole uncover one of the wildest stories you've probably never heard: how an active volcano in Mexico accidentally buried—and preserved—the world’s largest pyramid. Yes, really.

🌋 What is Popocatépetl, and why is it still puffing smoke? 

🏛 How did the Great Pyramid of Cholula disappear beneath volcanic ash? 

📜 What ancient secrets were hiding under a grassy hill with a church on top? 

🔥 And how can something as destructive as a volcano also protect history?

From drinking murals and five miles of hidden tunnels to short-stocky "unit pyramids" (you’ll get it), this minisode has all the chaos, science, and sarcasm you’ve come to expect.

👉 This is episode 1 of 6 in our Volcano Minisodes series—bite-sized, bizarre, and bursting with molten-hot science facts.

Transcript

Laura: [00:00:00] hello and welcome to Wildly Curious, a podcast that tells you everything you need to know about nature, and probably more than you wanted to know. I'm Laura.

Katy: And I'm Katy, and today it starts our first season break mini episode, and we're gonna be talking about volcanoes and the surprising things they've made, buried and accidentally made cooler.

Laura: A force destructive, but also really awesome.

Katy: Yeah,

Laura: if you guys, if you haven't, go back to the end of the last season and listen to all about volcanoes and like what they are and

Katy: yeah. We gave a brief overview of a third grade level of volcanoes 1 0 1 for you. All righty. Well, do you want me to go first?

Laura: sure.

Katy: Awesome. My, so Laura and I were gonna kick it back and forth. We are out six episodes total of these mini episodes every week. And then we'll kick off season 12 and we have so many new changes and surprises.

So the first volcano I'm [00:01:00] gonna talk about and, butcher every single time I say it is papa. Yes, it does just trail off at the end there. No, it's, in Mexico, so,

Laura: Oh, geez.

Katy: yep. So before, okay. And this one, this one is really neat. So like I said in the theme is that they've made buried and accidentally made cooler.

This is a buried one. So there's a volcano and it has buried the world's largest pyramid.

Laura: Woo.

Katy: So, yeah, so that's what I'm gonna be talking

Laura: Dude. I would be like, we need to excavate it right now.

Katy: so, well, well, so before we get to the pyramid though, let's talk about like obviously what this, the minisodes are all about, which is the volcano itself, because it's not just any volcano.

This one, this one is called the puck to hip, and it does trail off every time. Yeah, and I promise I'm going to say it [00:02:00] incorrectly. Like I said, every single

Laura: apologize to everyone from Mexico.

Katy: Everyone. It is. It is P-O-P-O-C-A-T-E. P-E-T-L-P-P.

Laura: it's, it's an As, it's a, like a Mayan

Katy: Yes. Yes. It's, it's, so, it's it. Yes. So it means Smoking Mountain in Natal,

Laura: That's right. Which is where

Katy: And, and it's called.

Laura: or Otto comes from.

Katy: Yes, yes. Yeah, no, exactly. Exactly. And it's called Smoking Mountain because it's literally been puffing away for centuries. Just like a a, a chimney standing over 17,700 feet tall. This volcano is the second highest peak in Mexico, and the fifth highest in North America. It's not one of those like sleepy postcard, like perfect volcanoes.

It's, it's very much so awake and very, very [00:03:00] active. It is erupted more than 15 times in recorded history. It's still rumbling. And when I say in like recent, you can go check out the webcam that they have of it recently. If you Google it, you can just watch it. Just constantly s smoking, so that's pretty cool.

It's part of the trans Mexican volcanic belt, which kind of sounds like a wrestling tournament. But anyway, it's part of the volcanoes that were created by the tectonic drama that we talked about in the volcano explainer episode specifically the Cocos plate that is sliding under the North American plate and the.

Laura: Oh

Katy: one of the spicy results. It's gonna be every time. The number of times that I have, like the phonetic spelling of this out too is in every section after I write it here, but it doesn't get any better. All right. So yes, this is definitely one of those situations where the earth's crust is like Laura's explained, like a game of bumper [00:04:00] cars, one going under the other, and instead of.

Like sparks hitting and stuff. It's just volcano, constantly erupting. Very, very active. Like I said, it's a strata volcano, which means it's made of layers, like where it goes lava ash rock, and it just keeps going, stacked up over thousands of years. Like a geology cake.

Laura: Yeah. Yeah. What was that like a, like a, uh, like a amisu kind of situation?

Katy: yeah. There you go. Geology, vol, volcanic geology, cake. It's not just like steaming sulking for no reason. It's been known to just blow up. The most recent one is 2023, so a couple years ago. Ash lava, everything that's can be crazy in dramatic about volcano. This one has it and it does it

Laura: I just love that in the past. I mean, I can see the appeal of wanting to live next to something so powerful. It seems cool and very godlike.

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: But having lived or constructed [00:05:00] anything next to a volcano, you'd have to be able to expect, like crap's gonna happen.

Katy: Right. Well, so here's the wild thing about all of this. As destructive as this volcano can be, it's also been a protective guardian because nestled Right in its shadow, there's this big grassy hill and if you look up pictures of it, you're like, oh yeah, that's, yeah, it's just a hill that you would go sled riding down, you would roll down as a kid.

Except it's not a hill, it's a pyramid, a massive pyramid, and the largest one in the world by volume. So, it's bigger than the great pyramid of Giza and it's called the Great Pyramid of Cholula, and it has a much longer But dude, it's, it is T-L-A-C-H-I-H-U-A-T-L. T-E-P-E-T-L.

Laura: It's the NWA language is really hard.

Katy: Yes. But that means manmade mountain, so it's like, okay. That should have been your first clue [00:06:00] if the,

Laura: Yes, yes. If that was the name the entire time,

Katy: Yes. Yeah. So it was kind of, but it was kind of, you know, lost over the years. 

Laura: I were like a native person, I might have, we might have all have known about it and just refused to tell anybody else

Katy: Tell anybody.

Laura: them

Katy: so the pyramid, which started around third century, B, c, e, and it wasn't just. Built, it was layered over time. So the pyramids in Egypt were pretty much they built 'em up and that was it.

Not,

Laura: of time,

Katy: yeah, not, not the case. So generations kept adding to this until it became a sprawling mega structure. Covering over 16 acres at the base

Laura: crow.

Katy: Yeah, which is about 1400 or 1,480 feet, like on each, each side

Laura: so that means if they kept adding to it, this is you know how like the pyramids are really essentially like tombs and they're most, they're like, hollowish, this must not be hollow at all. This is just people [00:07:00] kept adding to the sides and then going up, up, up, up. And then

Katy: Yeah. And like adding, yeah. Yeah. And, and it still is a pyramid, but it's not like a perfect cone like

Laura: yeah, yeah. I know the ones down there are usually the steps.

Katy: Yes, and so because of that, this one only stands because of how wide it is, and they didn't get like the, 'cause again, a pyramid, but not a pointed pyramid. It only stands about 180 feet tall, which I say that, but still.

So for comparison, Egypt's Great Pyramid of Giza is taller than 455 feet, but its base is only 13 acres, so it's significantly smaller. So this one that we're talking about, chola wins in volume. It clocks in at roughly 4.45 million cubic meters, which is nearly double giza. 2.6 million cubic meters.

Laura: low and squat

Katy: Yeah, right? Yeah, right. So while Giza is tall and like pointy show off [00:08:00] Cholula, it's a big, quiet, just absolute unit of a pyramid really.

Laura: you need of a pyramid.

Katy: I mean, but you know what I mean. It's like, like a Yeah, it's just like a

Laura: 'cause it's solid and the

Katy: Yes. It's like a short, stocky unit of pyramid. Yeah. So after centuries of abandonment, so they were building this and everything, but after, after, after it was abandoned, and help from the volcano constantly erupting, laying down ash and everything, it got buried.

And so then people started to just leave. 'cause they're like, well, can't stay here. This keeps happening.

Laura: Yeah.

Katy: And so slowly, naturally. Over time, it kept adding up layers and layers and layers. Everybody's gone. And then eventually it just looked like a hill because if you go back to that episode, we talked about volcanoes.

The volcanic ash, everything like that. What is it, natural fertilizer. It's really good for the soil. So it would layer, , soil would come in, it would, everything would start to grow and then boom, another ash. And so it just layer, layer, layer. So in the 15 hundreds when the Spanish rolled in, they didn't recognize it at all as anything [00:09:00] sacred or significant.

They just said it saw a nice grassy hill and was like, you know what looked great up there? A church? 'cause what else did they do? Which they built. And there's still a church there, by the way. Yeah. But the real twist is how they found this so the pyramid wasn't discovered. Okay. So remember happened, third, B, CE.

Build up, abandoned everything. 15 hundreds, Spanish roll in, they're like, oh my gosh, this is this nice hill. This would be perfect if we just put a church right up there. But then again, because of the area, the culture and everything, they're like, well, we can't destroy a church.

So it wasn't until 1910 when construction crews that were expanding on an insane asylum because apparently they needed more space or whatever, they accidentally hit a stone wall while digging and they were like, what's this? Yeah. And so that's whenever they found it.

And since then, archeologists have uncovered more than five miles of tunnels inside. [00:10:00] And what they found was a

Laura: hollow,

Katy: what?

Laura: isn't totally hollow,

Katy: It's not totally hollow. No, no, no. But, but

Laura: I mean, or totally full is what I was thinking

Katy: Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, it's not full at all. So it has five miles so far that they know of, of tunnels and everything, of

Laura: that is crazy.

Katy: ceremonial, alters, a elaborate staircases, pottery, and even murals.

One of the murals, which is the most famous one, is of a drinking party, and it's called the mural of drinkers. And you have to look it up because think of the. The ancient Aztec Inca, that artwork of boxy, but they're clearly all drinking and getting drunk. So it is kind of, it is kind of

Laura: Dude, so cool. But also if there's a real such thing as curses, like

Katy: dude. That's gotta be it. And you just build a church on top, you just you know what? Boom, our religion's better than yours. Especially someplace where they like sacrificed people in there. You know what I mean? Oh goodness. So the story though isn't just about the pyramids. Like we said, this is a mini series about [00:11:00] volcanoes and normally they are very violent and unpredictable forces, but in this one, it was actually turned out to be a plot twist of something that was good.

So take this area, while it's been huffing and puffing for centuries, it has helped to protect 'cause not only. If you think of Pompeii, all right? When all the ash and everything covered, it hid it, but it also preserved it, like it fossilized it, in a way that's basically yeah.

Yeah. And that's essentially kind of what happened here. It's just like layers, layers, layers, layers, layers. And so it accidentally. Buried. Not only buried it, but buried it. Preserved it. I didn't really find anything that they found any, people or anything like Yeah, any other than like physical things, because for the most part it's not like it exploded and people were living there.

It was clearly abandoned.

Laura: out.

Katy: They, they left. I guess they were just like, you know what? This, like I said, this keeps happening, so let's go ahead and haul out. But all their stuff is there and the [00:12:00] pottery. And these murals, way better than anything you ever see in Egypt.

You know what I mean? And those are for the most part sealed off, but no, these are like crisp, clean, like great, great murals. Yeah, so we talk a lot about, like I said, like volcanoes being super destructive and everything. But in this case it was actually a really, really cool preservation technique and kind of kept it and protected, hidden.

'cause you figure those Spanish conquistadors, , they rated everything like if there was gold or any valuables anywhere nearby, they're like, mm, ours. But it's been protected, like I said, for centuries, until they discovered it in the early 19 hundreds.

Laura: so cool.

Katy: Yeah.

Laura: Is it open to the public?

Katy: Yeah, there's a church on top of it. If you Google chola. You'll see the church, which to be fair, the church is pretty cool looking itself. But they've excavated enough of it that you can see bits and p like see like the staircases and, and things like that. Wait, let's see here. So yeah, you can, so once you've explored the upper area of the pyramid, you can take a [00:13:00] dive to the La labyrinth of tunnels underneath.

So partial. So it is partially, I'm assuming they ha don't have it, you know, all, yeah, yeah. So you can visit some of it, but not all of it. So yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah. All right guys, so next week we'll be coming at you with another mini episode on volcanoes. And like we said, it'll be this one plus five more and then we'll start season 12.

So make sure you guys go follow us on our pages. If you just search Wildly Curious podcast, we're, we're out there. So please like and subscribe and it would help us out a lot.

Laura: Talk to you next week.