Some 17 ball courts have been found at El Tajín. The Juego de Pelota Sur (Southern Ball Court) dates from about 1150 and is the most famous of the courts, owing to the six relief carvings on its walls which depict various aspects of the ball game ritual.
The panel on the northeast corner is the easiest to make out: in the center, three ball-players perform a ritual post-game sacrifice with one player ready to plunge a knife into the chest of another, whose arms are held by the third player. Death gods and a presiding figure look on. The other panels depict various scenes of ceremonial drinking of pulque (a milky, low-alcohol brew made from the maguey plant).
The Juego de Pelota de las Pinturas (Ball Court of the Paintings), to one side of the Pirámide de los Nichos, is so called as it has two very impressively preserved red and blue geometric friezes on its north-facing side.
