The Mesoamerican platform pyramid
A stepped platform carrying a temple: the talud-tablero terraces of Teotihuacan, the Pyramid of the Sun, and the steep temple-pyramid of the Maya with its roof comb.
The rules it illustrates
Talud and tablero. Build each stage of a platform as a sloping talud surmounted by a vertical tablero: a rectangular panel framed by a projecting border and cantilevered slightly over the slope below; repeat the pair at every stage.
The pyramid is a platform for a temple. Treat the stepped pyramid as a platform whose purpose is to lift a small temple towards the sky, reached by a single steep stair on its principal face; enlarge it by building a new shell over the old.
Raise a roof comb over the temple. To make a small temple dominate the skyline, build a tall crest of masonry on its roof, set over the heavy rear wall and pierced with openings to lighten it; model it in painted stucco with the figure of the ruler or god.
Lay out the city on a skewed sacred grid. Align the principal avenue and every building of the city to a single bearing (at Teotihuacan about 15½° east of north) so that the whole city shares one orientation with its great pyramids.
Where it appears in the book
In the styles Mesoamerican.
In the chapters The Americas.