Back to top: Preface to area JP The Plaza
Introduction
The Plaza is a void that is not empty!
It is in fact, in our understanding, loaded with meaning.
The reason is that it served as the hinge between the religious sphere of the Temple (rising high above it) and the secular sphere of the Palace (spread out below it).
The very fact that the openness of this wide space was respected until the site was abandoned is indicative of its great ideological valence. It would have been otherwise heavily quarried…
It is important to define the very concept of “Plaza.” It is an open space defined by perceptual boundaries – the buildings around it. In this sense it is not, let us say, an “esplanade,” an unbounded open space.
We offer here two parallel paths over which one can gain an overview of the Plaza as a whole – a general introduction for the first time visitor, and a detailed presentation for the scholar.
In addition, you will find a perspective on our plans for the coming season in the summer of 2006.
Back to top: Preface to area JP The Plaza
The Plaza façade
While zone J refers specifically to the central depression which corresponds to the Plaza, its major architectural elements belong to the Temple Terrace as well as to the Plaza, and thus they serve as a hinge which splits and links at the same time the two sides of the sacred space – the slope which rises to the Temple (the glacis) and the level surface in front of it (the Plaza).
Perceptually, however, these architectural elements may be viewed as belonging more properly to the Plaza. In fact, they serve specifically as its facade, which is to be viewed from the wide space in front.
Back to top: Preface to area JP The Plaza