Temple of the Chimneys

19.4522°N, 96.4044°W.

The Temple of the Chimneys at Cempoala in the coastal lowlands of central Veracruz, Mexico, is a Late Postclassic Totonac structure built between approximately 1200 and 1500 CE, of river stones set in lime mortar and finished in white stucco. The temple takes its name from a row of hollow cylindrical merlons crowning the upper façade, which from a distance resemble industrial chimneys. The function of these merlons is debated but most likely architectural — visual rhythm and ritual emphasis on the upper register, paralleling the stepped battlements of contemporary central-Mexican temples. Cempoala was the seat of a Totonac chiefdom subjugated by the Aztec Triple Alliance in the late fifteenth century and switched allegiance to Cortés in 1519. The site was systematically investigated by José García Payón and INAH from the 1940s onward.

The Temple of the Chimneys is a building whose roofline was decorated with hollow stone columns the conquistadors had no name for.