Locations > Cuernavaca > The barranca
Cuernavaca is surrounded by barrancas, deep chasms formed by subterranean streams. In Aztec times these formed a natural barrier, but the conquest of the town by Cortés was a step towards the destruction of Tenochtitlán.
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| ...the barranca, the ravine which wound through the country, narrow here... Trees, their tops below them, grew down into the gulch, their foliage partly obscuring the terrific drop. From the bottom came a faint chuckling of water – UTV, 104.
Now partially filled in and choked with rubbish, the barranca remains a fearsome chasm, the perfect symbol of the demonic realm of Lowry's tripartite universe (heaven and hell, with the world precariously between), and of the abyss within the heart of man. Above photo courtesy of Bob Schalijkwijk. |
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| Above: A curious historical photograph, showing the dictator Porfirío Díaz standing in the barranca during a visit to Cuernavaca in the early 1900s. From Sergio Barrera, Crónicas de Cuernavaca, 155. | ||||||||||||||
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| Above: Lowry's sketch of the barranca, courtesy UBC archives. | ||||||||||||||
